Okay, so who is James Gunn, the man behind this garbagepiece? He is a writer/director who's biggest claim to fame to date was a little comedy/horror film called Slither. It starred Nathan Fillion, Elizabeth Banks, and Michael Rooker. It cost $15 million dollars to make (minus the marketing budget) and it made about $12 million dollars worldwide. In other words, NO ONE SAW IT! Tucking his tail between his legs, Gunn then turned back to TV where he began and directed some TV pilots and a short TV series called PG Porn where the tag line read,"For People who love everything about porn...except the sex". Then he wrote and directed an independent film called Super which cost $2.5 million dollars (again minus the marketing budget)and it made in total $327,716. Then he did a segment in a movie many believe is the worst film in the history of film, Movie 43. This is a man who has never had a profitable film in his career and for some strange reason the brain-trust at Marvel decides to put him at the helm of of this franchise (Guardians 2 has already been announced) and give him a budget of $170 million dollars (that's again minus the massive marketing budget). I say all that not to disparage Mr. Gunn, on the contrary. I said that so if you see Guardians and you walk out of it feeling unsure if it was good or not, take heart and know that the reason you feel that uncertainty is because he's a relative newcomer to directing these types of movies. By types I mean scope and potentially profitable.
Guardians stars Chris Pratt as Peter Quill aka Starlord. He's a thief that appears to be a bumbling fool and yet has the skills to locate and steal a force so destructive that people barely notice. Michael Rooker (once again working with Mr. Gunn) plays Yondu, the being that kidnaps Peter from earth when he was a young boy. Zoe Saldana, the one time professional wrestler Dave Bautista, Glenn Close, Djimon Hounsou, John C. Reilly, and Lee Pace round out the human portion of the cast. Vin Diesel and Bradly Cooper voice Groot and Rocket Racoon respectively. It's a decent cast but to say I was less than enthused to see this movie would just about hit the nail on the head. However, thanks to some unforeseen drama in my life, I needed an escape to take my mind off my issues for an hour or two. While Guardians gave me some of what I needed this movie is nothing special. Now as I have already stated, I have never read the comics this movie is based on so I went in with extremely low expectations. They were barely met. Guardians is a movie that seems like it wants you to take it seriously one minute only to go out of its way to let you know it's all tongue in cheek the next. It's that inconsistency that harms the product.
Now I wasn't going to bring up the racial component to this movie but fuck it, here it is. The bad guy in the film, Ronan is a blue shaded evil villian bent on destroying the galaxy. His "henchwomen" are the green Gamora and the multishaded blue Nebula, the adopted daughters of Thanos, who is purple. Ronan particularly wants to destroy the planet Xandar for whatever reason. Glenn Close aka Nova Prime resides on the lovely earth looking Xandar which is populated by white and pink people, with a very light smattering of Black people (I saw three in total). In order to save the white people of Xandar, the beings of color follow the white man as they attempt to destroy Ronan, the villainous being of color. When I left the theater something gnawed at me and it wasn't until I was on my way home did this realization come to me. I know some will roll their eyes at this and others will say, "hey, that's how the comic was." Exactly, that's the point. Further enforcing the stereotype that people of color cannot survive unless they follow the white guy who will save the day from the big bad villain of color. Maybe this was done on an unconscious level, maybe not, who's to say? All I know is that the underlying racial theme of this movie is subversive, subliminal, and destructive. After all, little Black and brown kids read comics and go to the movies too.
There wasn't much I liked about this movie and I highly recommend you skip this film. Unless of course you like spending money on mindless entertainment with corrosive subliminal racial undertones and significant plot holes. In that case, enjoy, and I'll see you at the theater.
An interesting take, though I think you are projecting a bit, particularly with the racial stuff.
ReplyDeleteI can see why someone would think I was projecting a bit but to me the "racial stuff" is overwhelming. All the beings of color or somewhat mindless killers, one dimensional in their thinking and it's thanks to the enlightened white people that the world gets saved. I don't know if that mirrors the comic in any way but if it does then that message is insidious and corrosive.
DeleteWow, you're really caught up in the color thing. That you even care what color this or that hero or villain was speaks volumes to your built-in bias. You admit that you were not really interested in seeing it, so you basically projected your own prejudice into the movie and decided you were not going to like it. What better way to justify your low opinion than to pull the race card. Please.
ReplyDeleteFirst off I went in with a completely open mind, hoping upon hope that this movie would impress. It didn't, in fact it insulted the intelligence of the audience though most were too blind to get that. There was no preconceived bias and the fact that you think I pulled the race card speaks to your low IQ. It's hard to not be caught up on the "color thing" when there's a scant amount of people of color in the movie to begin with, but that's Hollywood right? Let's all just accept it and not ever speak on it, right? Thanks for your bravery in sharing how you felt, Anonymous!
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