PANELS TO FRAMES: OKAY, I'M SOLD ON GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY
Okay, so my initial excitement following the 15 second teaser for the GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY trailer may have seemed excessive to some, but hey, I'm a 35 year old bald guy who still proudly reads comics in public, so what do I really care about what people think of me? Some people get excited about reality shows, or football, or upgrading their bloody smartphone. Myself? I get excited about comic book movies and the comics which spawned them.
GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY, that big fat gamble Marvel is taking by thrusting a big-budget, high-profile movie out of its awesome studios without the safety net of big name leads (aside from the fantastic Zoe Saldana) or indeed characters which are familiar to people outside of comics fandom.
I guess that lack of familiarity has allowed Marvel to have a bit more fun with what they bring to the screen this time out, and it certainly shows in the wonderfully unpredictable trailer. Of course, the big action scenes aren't glimpsed as effects work is still going on, but we get a sense of the fun atmosphere of the film as well a the look of it, which seems to be nestling somewhere between Farscape and Firefly. That's no bad thing.
Chris Pratt's Star Lord character seems like he's going to be something of a hit with those who check out the movie, coming across with a little bit of Han Solo and a little bit of everyone's favourite Browncoat, Mal. The other Guardians (Gamora, Drax, Groot and Rocket Raccoon) are going to get their fair share of attention too, but I'd say alongside Star Lord, it's going to be Rocket who steals the show. The glimpses of the film's design work feel like classic Star Wars – futuristic but battered, used and worn. That adds a little realism to the fantasy.
Naturally, GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY will feature a ton of comic book style acton set pieces (hopefully plenty involving Karen Gillan's awesome-looking Nebula – aka the bald blue badass who claimed to be the granddaughter of Thanos himself), but as with the Avengers before them, it looks like the film will be mainly carried by the dynamic in the team of misfits that are given the task of guarding, erm, the galaxy.
Add some disco music and obscene hand gestures and you have a trailer which has piqued the interest of a lot of people. And hot on the heels of that trailer and five short character spots comes the beautifully simple first poster for the movie, as you can see with this post.
It's a pretty standard (but very cool) poster until you see the nice and cocky “You're Welcome” at the bottom of it, alluding to the anarchic ride to come and the ongoing indoctrination of the Marvel methodology and ideas into cinemas. GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY looks set to surprise a lot of filmgoers with a comic book movie where the audience really doesn't know what to expect, and that sounds like a hell of a lot of fun to me.
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