Author Topic: But what makes Guardians of the Galaxy so good? SPOILERS  (Read 1769 times)

O4rfish

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But what makes Guardians of the Galaxy so good? SPOILERS
« on: August 06, 2014, 04:10:19 PM »
Guardians of the Galaxy is a fantastic movie. Critics, audiences, Marvel fans, everybody seems to like this movie. What I want to discuss is, why?
I don't know much about actual movie theory, but whatever. Let's have at it!

Since we're discussing the workings of a movie, this discussion will probably involve spoilers.



Things that movies should do, and GotG actually does:
It respects the storyline from the comics while also making a good standalone movie AND tying in nicely to Marvel cinematic continuity.

They didn't put any useless filler scenes in. Each scene either ties in directly to the plot or provides a necessary amount of character background, and in addition many scenes have some combination of foreshadowing or payoff.
The title sequence showed us Starlord's character, linked the child actor to the adult actor, and showed us his toys.
The scene introducing Ronan gives us his motivation, his weapon, and his goal.
The scene with Thanos gives us Nebula's motivation, and gives a face to the name.

Most plot holes were spotted and addressed in a way that makes sense.
Why didn't Starlord just take the money and run? He tried to two or three times, but plot events prevented it.
Why didn't the Guardians kill each other? They started to several times, and decided the money or other payoff was better.
Why didn't Rocket abandon Starlord? He thought about it, and decided not to.
Why didn't Nebula betray Ronan? She wanted to use him to betray Thanos.
Why didn't Starlord open the package earlier? He opened the letter earlier, but until the climax he hadn't attained closure with his mother.
Why didn't Yondu ... actually Yondu's motivations and actions are some of the best parts of this movie.
Why do the ravagers protect the civilians? There are some motivating factors, albeit sort of weak. They're following Rocket's example, and he's being heroic because he's overwhelmed with peer pressure from the other Guardians. They need to keep the mothership from hitting the ground in order to get the stone to get paid, and the only action they can take in support of that goal is to prevent the police morale from degrading.

There are only a couple plot holes that aren't resolved.
When Starlord mentions four billion credits in front of the crowd, nobody tries to horn in on their payday.
Why the heck does Gamora try to recruit Nebula?
[9:49:09] <Purvis> Generally not, but your mother may be an exception.

O4rfish

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Re: But what makes Guardians of the Galaxy so good? SPOILERS
« Reply #1 on: August 06, 2014, 04:23:47 PM »
Certain scenes exemplify the good writing. For instance, the scene where Yondu is taken hostage. He's spent the movie being tricked and manipulated, and he has shown off his magic arrow several times without actually attacking anyone. Why doesn't he just leave the fight? Why doesn't he call one of his ships to pick him up? Now he finally has an opportunity to show off, and he's so happy about it that he hangs back until after the climax.

During the end montage, we see why Yondu has favored Starlord so much: he's the only person who's shown to give him something that he actually wants, which implies he's the only person who sees him as a person instead of a boss or antagonist. This item, along with every other item in the movie, is introduced in a scene about something else. That's efficiency.

Here's another thing I was going to mention. Everyone has clear motivations, and nuanced morality, so nobody is 100% a hero or a dick. This is just amazing. I think this (writing) and the scene efficiency (direction and production) are the two biggest reasons for the movie being critically popular. The acting and shoutouts and special effects and music are good too. Basically the movie succeeded at some very difficult things, did well at normal things, and didn't obviously fail anywhere.
« Last Edit: August 06, 2014, 04:51:40 PM by O4rfish »
[9:49:09] <Purvis> Generally not, but your mother may be an exception.

commandercool

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Re: But what makes Guardians of the Galaxy so good? SPOILERS
« Reply #2 on: August 06, 2014, 05:14:16 PM »
I liked, but did not love, Guardians. For the first third or half I actively disliked it. The opening scenes are basically just a string of near-contextless names of characters that I'm not sure I would have been able to keep straight if I didn't already sort of know them, and the action overall (not just in the first stretch, but it mattered less the further it went on) was pretty weak.

The parts of it that work well work well enough that I think it's a successful movie, but I wish it had embraced the pulp tone faster and harder. I don't disagree with any of your points here, although I do still think it was a fairly deeply flawed movie for other reasons. I hope the sequel will abandon the cookie-cutter obligatory "epic" sci-fi battle scenes in exchange for the characters solving all of their problems with adventuring,  but even if further movies fall into the same traps this one did I'll probably still see and enjoy them.
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DNAbc

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Re: But what makes Guardians of the Galaxy so good? SPOILERS
« Reply #3 on: August 07, 2014, 12:16:43 PM »
Sorry to be a downer but GotG is a stereotypical power rangers show shoved into a sci-fi setting that happens to have decent pacing, a slightly more in-depth story than the new transformers movie and cool ships & explosions. Its really what the average Joe asks for anyway. I would say its good for what it is, but to overexaggerate its 'upsides' of the movie like the Aesops which is basically in every uplifting movie anyway is a bit of a hyperbole. I appreciate some visually pleasing stuff every now and then, but GotG isn't THAT legendary in terms of storytelling.
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