The Obsessive Viewer

Release Date: August 1, 2014

Director: James Gunn

Written By: James Gunn (screenplay), Nicole Perlman, James Gunn, (story), Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning (comic book)

I love the new trailer for Guardians of the Galaxy, and according to Yahoo’s The Wrap, so does the rest of the internet:

“After debuting Tuesday on “Jimmy Kimmel Live!,” the footage for the upcoming outer space adventure attracted 88,000 mentions across Twitter, Facebook and various blogs in a 12-hour period between 11 p.m. EST until 11 a.m. EST.  By way of contrast, in the first 24 hours following their trailer debuts, “Man of Steel” attracted 75,000 social mentions, and “The Amazing Spider-Man 2″ inspired 96,000 mentions — and those were released at a reasonable hour.”

That’s impressive, considering the Guardians are c-level superheroes at best. They’re minor-leaguers in a game dominated by Batmen, Spider-Men and X-Men. A similar conversation was had back in ’08 at the announcement of the Iron Man movie, but we all know how that one turned out. Today, Iron Man is a box office lock in his own movies and the centerpiece of the Avengers’ franchise.

But Iron Man was at least b-level.

Guardians of the Galaxy has a lot to prove. The team first appeared in comics in 1969, but its members have almost nothing to do with the current generation. The current team first appeared in 2008, and found relative success; the first and second issues sold out, but the series was cancelled after issue 25.

So why make a movie?

I think that question is what drives the trailer released last week. The Avengers was already so successful, it made sense to try to strike gold with another team, but what approach do you take with a team of unknowns?

Clearly Guardians of the Galaxy isn’t going to take itself too seriously. I love the brilliant self-reference in the opening of the trailer when Star-Lord’s attacker asks who he is, and is unimpressed with the answer. “Who?” he asks, and so do we. However, we know Chris Pratt, and he takes funny very seriously. I think this is a good sign.

The trailer continues with more of the same.

We meet strange and interesting characters including a talking Raccoon (voiced by Bradley Cooper), two large green people who aren’t Hulks, and a humanoid tree named Groot. They make up the titular Guardians.

The movie also casts John C. Reilly who, in recent years, has become quite the comedy icon.

All this said, the movie still needs to impress visually. It’s a superhero movie made by Marvel and Disney. We need some eye candy. The final 15 seconds of the trailer doesn’t disappoint. It’s reminiscent of Star Wars Episode III, which despite its story faults, was a visual spectacle to behold.

The trailer ends with Pratt’s Star-Lord standing in a line-up-type setting with the rest of his teammates. He yawns, mockingly, hilariously, before the title of the movie appears. Twitter and I agree; we’re not yawning.

[Obsessive Note: 

You can follow Mike on Twitter @IAmMikeWhite and check him out on The Obsessive Viewer Podcast with new episodes releasing every week. You can also read more of his contributions here.

– Matt (The Obsessive Viewer)]