I saw it with a large group of friends, and while most of them enjoyed the film very much, I, like Julian, came away with a very empty feeling (although I can't detail the reasons why as thoroughly or eloquently as he).
You'd think this would be because I'm the president of the He-Man Marvel-Haters Club. It's not. No, I'm not a fan of Marvel, but they do have their role and it's not a small one. And (unlike many actual Marvel fans!) I actually enjoy most of Marvel's movies. I want them to succeed and I want to enjoy them.
But I didn't enjoy Guardians of the Galaxy hardly at all.
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Nor am I amused by raccoons who think that tricking people in taking the prosthetic limbs of others is funny. |
It was, perhaps, the single MOST predictable film I have ever seen, and tritely so. Every plot turn, every action, every line, every 'joke'. Oh, there was an occasion event that made me laugh; "Nothing goes over my head" did amuse me, even though, like everything else, it was terribly obvious. I think the only thing that surprised me in the least was the post-credits cameo. And that... wasn't exactly a pleasant surprise.
I'm not a natural enemy of predictability, either. After all, I'm a horror movie fan, where the genre depends at least a certain degree of predictability. I'm a classicist; we don't ready ANYTHING where we don't already know the end of the story and most of the major plot points along the way. But GotG ain't no Greek play.
I don't think I have as high a set of expectations for comic book movies as Julian does -- I don't NEED comic book movies to be Greek plays -- but I don't need them to combine all the worst flaws of various genres (the treacly family-of-friends film, the cutesy rom-com, the explodey action flick, the universe-saving scifi movie, the plucky underdogs triumph plot, the rogues with hearts of gold travelog, etc.) and then polish them with millions of dollars and (admittedly) charming actors.
Perhaps I don't know WHAT I need in comic books movies. But I know GotG had almost none of it.