Films I Love To Hate - Guardians of the Galaxy
Directed by: James Gunn
Starring: Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana, Batista, Vin Diesel, Bradley Cooper
It's odd to say, because I L-OVED Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 and can talk about it at length. But I really didn't like the first one. It had great CGI, it had great humor, it had decent action, it had awesome sets, it had great music. But the characters felt awful and half-baked, and I really didn't give a fig about any of them except for the raccoon. The action felt underdeveloped. The girl characters felt underwritten. The main lead's emotional plot felt tenuous and shoddy.
To expand on the last bit, Star-Lord's character feels like a fundamental misunderstanding of the "seemingly lazy rogue" character à la Han Solo.
Here's the thing - Han Solo seems cocky and rogueish, but when he's in a fix, he's legitimately awesome. He charges six stormtroopers without hesitation; he fights his way through the Death Star; he fires on Darth Vader without a second thought. Han Solo is cocky, but he can always back it up.
In contrast, Star-Lord is the swagger but not enough of the skill. He doesn't really do anything that couldn't be done by a chauffeur. His BIG action moment is retrieving his Walkman by ... shooting a bunch of unarmed guys while some music plays? That's not a fight; that's camping the respawn point. He flies the crew around, but he doesn't really do anything super-difficult with it. His improvising in the Knowhere chase is good, but it's way too brief to really sell us on him. He fights Gamora and co. at the beginning, but he's so clearly outclassed by everyone else it's clear fighting's not meant to be his main talent! But in absence of any deliberate, compassionate leadership, he looks like a cocky slacker with connections instead of the awesome leader he's meant to be.
(The sequel immediately solved all of these problems, by the way, so it's not like it's an ongoing problem. It's just in this movie)
You could also claim that the group as a whole has terrible dynamics. Group teams work because they follow formulas - the leader, the girl/emotional core, the smart guy, the fighter guy, the funny guy. Maybe a best friend. Probably a mentor. Every action ensemble you can name has at least four of those*.
In contrast, Guardians does have a leader and a girl, but then splits the roles so unevenly between the other three that it's impossible to keep track of who is who. All three are like the Big Guy. All three are occasionally the Funny Guy. Groot is kind of like the Heart. But no one is consistent.
(Once again, the sequel decidedly fixed this by making Drax the funny guy, Rocket the fighter guy, and Groot the Team Pet. But until we got that, we had this)
These are minor complaints, overall. But of course, what makes it frustrating is that a film that fails at a few things is worse than a film that fails at a lot of things. You were so close! So close to acing it! And that sort of shortfall drives you nuts.
When I finally saw the sequel, it was like a godsend, 'cause they fixed everything I hated about the first one, and then Infinity War and Endgame followed up with more of the same, so it could've just been a one-off thing. But man, it was annoying to see every outlet praising how great the film was when it was lacking the key character dynamics that really make films so great. I'd still basically recommend it, but I'd recommend its sequel WAY more than the first.
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* Here's a list of franchises that use those types recalled just by thinking of popular franchises.
- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
- Power Rangers (all of them)
- Star Trek
- Animorphs
- Transformers
- The Avengers (comics)
- The X-Men (comics)
- Lord of the Rings
- Avatar: The Last Airbender
- Fast and Furious
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