Guardians of the Galaxy: a bit of good; a bit of bad; a bit of both.

[lil_shepherd]

Perhaps I went in with too high expectations - I am a great fan of the current comics interpretation of the Guardians - but after the over the top critical reaction to Iron Man 3 (which I really, really disliked, primarily because of a dreadful script devoid (we are told) of any ad libs by RDJ that took superb material and debased it) I do not

Comments

[fatpie42]

I'm not sure that RDJ ad-libbing would be as funny as Shane Black's writing, so I'm surprised at the sceptical tone on that point.

I'm trying to avoid spoilers so I'll see what you wrote after I've seen the movie. We rarely seem to see eye-to-eye on these superhero movies.

I wouldn't say I'm going in with high expectations. Marvel movies have always been a bit of a mixed bag. I generally hope for some fun spectacle and some good gags. Worryingly I have read one review which claims that the gags are all derivative and obvious, which is a little worrying. And in the last trailer I watched, Rocket's voice didn't seem to match his body all that well (which I suppose isn't entirely surprising and presumably in the main movie it'll be easier to suspend my disbelief than it was in a small snippet from a trailer).

Heck, I've seen all the recent Marvel movies in the cinema. It's unlikely that I'll miss out this one.

[lil_shepherd]

To put it bluntly, I thought there was too damn much respect for Shane Black's script. I don't think he understands the characters and I loathe his cute kids and Christmas kink. He made a mess of some of the strongest themes in the first two movies, ignored most of the character development in 'The Avengers', made Pepper seem totally inadequate as SI's CEO, and presided over some of the most idiotic plotting in the MCU,

[fatpie42]

Did you see the Marvel One-Off "All Hail The King"? I'd be interested to know what you think of that.

[lil_shepherd]

It's a desperate attempt to correct a stupid idea.

[fatpie42]

I thought it was brilliant because I got to see more Trevor Slattery. I'd actually like him to show up in more Marvel films.

I'm presuming you'd see that as some kind of horrible nightmare...?

[lil_shepherd]

I have a theory that the whole of IM3 was made up by Tony to see if he could pass it off as truth to Bruce, and that is not ruled out by the ending.

Who is Trevor Slattery? Hasn't made enough of an impact for me to even recognise his name.

Oh, he's the so called 'British' actor playing the Mandarin. He was one of the biggest mistakes in the whole film - though what they did with Maya was far, far worse.

[fatpie42]

What do you mean so-called British actor? Ben Kingsley is English.

Who is Maya?
*googles*
Ah. Kinda guessed you probably meant her, but I'm bad with names. Does she have an important role in Iron Man comic continuity then?

[lil_shepherd]

In Iron Man continuity she is the sole inventor of Extremis - Killan commits suicide in an early panel, before Tony comes on the scene. She was an old friend of Tony's, and they were students together. She deliberately released extremis and then called him in in an attempt to get government funding for a project that would provide a cure for cancer - the project that she wanted to be working on instead of extremis. She is a complex character who is neither hero nor villain, and recently died in an attempt to alert Tony that a group of villains had got their hands on extremis. She also saved Tony's life by helping him to reprogram Extremis when he was dying, and he ended up made whole and able to speak to electronic equipment with his mind.

The 'Extremis' arc is highly political and deeply critical of arms research and the arms trade. It is designed to make Tony examine his motives and contains an interview between him and a character plainly meant to be John Pilger which I wish could have been filmed intact.

[lil_shepherd]

And when a great, complex and iconic female character is replaced by a by-the-numbers male villain with bog standard motivation and no personality, I feel I have a right to yell 'sexism' and, even worse, 'bad writing'!

[lil_shepherd]

And if you are going to refuse to do the Mandarin properly because he is a problematically racist character, then DO NOT USE THE CHARACTER. More importantly, do not replace him with an equally problematically racist comic character who performs no useful purpose in your plot.

And, afterwards, do not have second thoughts.

[lil_shepherd]

And yes, this movie made me bloody furious for all sorts of reasons. Don't get me started on the plot holes and the sentimentality and the silliness of some of the set-pieces and the rushed and ridiculous ending...