I will not succumb to your pelvic sorcery!

[anagramofbrat]

Yeah yeah I should probably post about the Vineyard Week, but eh. It was a week on an island in a big house with both my families - by that I mean the Brownes and Team Tatro. I'll probably do a picture post a bit later.

BUT! We got back yesterday and we went out to see Guardians of the Galaxy with verbena76 and aersi, which, for a movie that seemed incredibly stupid when announced, turned out to be really really fun and squeeworthy and quite worth the ticket price. I'll cut some of the spoilery things.

• One of the things about the MCU is that most of it is completely new to me, since I don't read superhero comics. (I've kinda always disdained them - I think it's the art style that tends to turn me off, even if the overarching stories are fascinating). So this was my introduction to these characters, and I think the movie did an excellent job introducing both them and the expanded galaxy the MCU is set in. It was kinda neat seeing the final showdown take place on a planet other than Earth, and while the movie may have fallen short on making us care about the fate of Xandar as much as maybe we'd care about the fate of earth, it was still really well done.
  
  
• This ensemble cast man. I could take or leave Zoe Saldana in anything, but I liked her here. I already had raging fangirl crusts on Chris Pratt and Batista from Parks & Recreation and the WWE respectively, and was actually pretty impressed with Batista's Drax. (According to IMDb, he was so thrilled he got the part he immediately threw himself into acting lessons. I admire that kind of dedication.) As for everyone else, I was really impressed with how completely unrecognizable Lee Pace was as Ronan, and remain gobsmacked as to how Karen Gillan somehow manages to be even more appealing completely bald and blue than when she's rocking her usual titian-haired manic pixie-dom. I could see how most would maybe find her performance as Nebula flat, but I found it oddly compelling watching her project this alien sadistic evil through her face and mannerisms. There were a few minutes where she'd be staring at an opponent, unblinking, and do this slow little head tilt and the effect was chilling as fuuuuuuuuuuck. So good on her for making that happen.
  
  Also out of makeup?
  
  
  
  Damn, girl. Dat facial structure.
  
  
• Ahaha the ancient Earth legend of Footloose. Snrrrk.
  
  
• I was not expecting to like Rocket at all, and Groot was such a one-note non-entity to me going in the movie, so you can imagine my utter surprise when I found myself in tears when Groot is about to sacrifice himself to protect the other four and Rocket is demanding why he is doing this. Well done on the effects departments for selling both of these characters so hard and so well that not only were they believable, but worth emotionally investing in... if that makes sense.
  
  Also MY GOD baby Groot dancing to Jackson 5?
  
  
  
  HOW IS THAT NOT THE MOST ADORABLE THING EVER MAKE THIS A THING I CAN BUY MARVEL.
  
  
• Like most of the rest of the nerds this weekend, completely floored by the guest appearance in the second stinger. Still a little "wait, what?" almost 24 hours later. Wellp. Guess we'll be seeing him again. Not like Marvel Studios could do any worse with the character than that late 80s Lucasfilm abomination, right? Still.
  
  
• BUT BACK TO DANCING BABY GROOT.
  
  
  
  EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE.

I kinda want to see it again, because even though we saw it at the comparatively quieter Garden Cinema instead of Cinemark, it was still a packed house and I missed a lot of the jokes due to ongoing audience reaction and the sound balance. And lets be real, even though I prefer Chris Pratt a little schlubbier, I wouldn't mind another opportunity to gawk at him all ripped to shreds cause damn.

Comments

[kshandra]

I'm waiting for the deleted scene where Corpsman Dey sees Rocket with the twig and says "Come with me." Because right now, that shot of him taking care of his plants when Quill calls is totally Chekhov's Gun.

[retsuko.livejournal.com]

OK, this idea is my new official headcanon now. It makes so much sense!

[retsuko.livejournal.com]

I'm with you on the surprise of liking Rocket and Groot so much. When I saw the trailers earlier, I really wondered what would make me care about a CGI raccoon and giant, talking-ish tree. And then, dang, they were so good, and so funny, and great, and the movie was for treating them like real characters and not just merchandiseable cuties.

[audiobiblio.livejournal.com]

Heh, my initial reaction to Guardians of the Galaxy sounds about the same as yours. So imagine my surprise at the positive reviews, both from critics and people I know who went to see it. I will have to see it.

[http://users.livejournal.com/daddys_kitten_/]

I feel like the second stinger was them going, "Oh, did you think the raccoon and the tree were weird? Ba-BOOM!"