GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY

Marvel Studios

Rated PG-13

Running Time: 121 Minutes

Click below to watch a movie trailer of Guardians of the Galaxy.
 

In Marvel Studios Guardians of the Galaxy, kidnapped Earth man Peter Quill/Star Lord/Chris Pratt, winds up in an uneasy partnership with a group of extraterrestrial misfits Zoe Saldana, Dave Bautista, Vin Diesel, and Rocket/Bradley Cooper who are on the run through space from Lee Pace, Djimon Hounsou and Karen Gillan after scavenging a mysterious orb for a buyer.

Based on the 2008 version of the 45 year old comic book series Guardians of the Galaxy, this is the first non-Avengers Marvel property developed by Walt Disney Pictures as well as being a Marvel Phase 2 movie. Guardians of the Galaxy is more of a bad-assed action film than a comedy that the movie trailers had made the movie appear to be, with the opening scenes before the credits of the movie being a tearjerker. Despite being an ensemble piece, Quill/Star Lord/Pratt is the leader of these criminals, who pulls these losers into a group in order to do something good to save the galaxy. Tree creature Diesel puts a lot of emotion into his one line of dialog that he repeats throughout the movie. Diesel also recorded all the languages of his line for the international releases of the movie. Racoon Rocket/Cooper and tree person Groot/Diesel will be the toys for this movie.

For Executive Producer Stan Lee fans, his cameo appears relatively early in the movie and the audience reacted positively to his appearance.

Being the first movie of the Marvel Cinematic Universe set in space, a lot of the cosmic space elements from the Marvel comics universe are mentioned in the movie - with cameos of major comic characters, including Benicio Del Toro and an uncredited Josh Brolin. The movie also includes an Infinity Stone appearing in the movie. The cameos and the Infinity Stone hint at future movie roles in the Marvel Cosmic Universe.

While part of the promotional marketing of the movie has Glenn Close in the trailers - she has basically a walk-on part with hardly any lines, despite the nature of her character. I loved the mixed cassette music of 70's and 80's songs that was put together for Quinn's/Pratt's Walkman. I would not be surprised if the soundtrack for this movie becomes a hit. Of course what is funny is that Quinn's/Pratt's Walkman and cassette tape has lasted for over 20 years.

I saw the movie in 3D. While the 3D seemed good in the beginning - after awhile I stopped noticing it except for certain action scenes and one awe scene, some of which the action scenes made me blink.

While there might be a couple of points where scenes would seem scientifically inaccurate - given what was established, I could accept those scenes. The end of the movie was also a bit deus ex machina to me, but the end of the movie also might be acceptable given to what was established.

After the end credit music, the very last end credit scene of the movie might be controversial with the fanboys, so I would not be surprised if nothing ever became of it and just appeared in the movie as just a last joke. But then again, the fanboys would go nuts if this was real and Marvel did it right. I believe it was for legal reasons with Marvel that the creator's names that were involved with this scene had appeared after the end of this scene. If Marvel actually does make a movie and puts this on the production schedule in a slot that has not been confirmed yet, I hope that they make that movie as originally intended by the creators as a satirical existential experience, instead of just something from space.

The very last visual on the screen is that GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY WILL RETURN.

As of 2014, Guardians of the Galaxy broke the record for an August debut.

Rated PG-13 for violence, obscenity. Running time: 121 minutes.  

Click below to watch another movie trailer of Guardians of the Galaxy.



Click below to watch a final movie trailer of Guardians of the Galaxy.



Pancho
All people smile in the same language.

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MEN IN BLACK 3

Columbia Pictures

Rated PG- 13

Running time: 106 Minutes



Click below to watch the MEN IN BLACK 3 trailer.



In Columbia Pictures Men in Black 3, directed by Barry Sonnenfeld, Earth is about to be invaded from space. Man in Black Will Smith must go back in time in order to save his partner Tommy Lee Jones life - who was killed 40 years earlier, thus wiping out Jones present-day existence - as well as restoring Earth's defense system which Jones had set up to prevent extraterrestrial invasion.

In a sequel to the Men in Black movies - based on the comic books created and written by Lowell Cunningham, which was based on the UFO phenomenon of the Men in Black - alien criminal Jemaine Clement escapes from prison and seeks revenge on the MIB agent who took his arm - Jones. Clement's alien appendages were pretty graphic, thus emphasizing his alienness and his evilness as the bad guy. Having Clement going back in time and meeting himself was a pretty fun meeting, as they are both pissed off at each other's actions. Sonnenfeld had studied the Back to the Future movies because those movies got time travel right, and watching the scenes where Michael Chernus or Michael Stuhlbarg talked about time travel and alternate timelines did have a Back to the Future type of feeling to me. The time travel sequence was similar to the time travel sequence to the movie The Time Machine, so the sequence was more visual than the Back to the Future time travel scenes.

Josh Brolin was great as the young Tommy Lee Jones. I could believe Brolin was a younger Jones, although Brolin as a character was happier in the past than the mature Jones was in the present. As Smith keeps asking Brolin, "What happened to you?" "I don't know. It hasn't happened yet."

There was a plot point towards the end of the movie that was totally predictable to me as a writer, once the plot point started to be set up and play out. Even then, knowing what was going to happen, I still teared up at the scenes. Despite the scene being totally predictable to me - the scene was a total surprise to the guy behind me, so the scene worked for the movie. When I saw the movie at an early matinee, there was a small crowd. Usually, a small crowd means that it would be fairly silent in the theater - but the audience was laughing and reacting to the movie. So I can imagine how the audience would have reacted if it was a crowded evening theater.

Since Rip Torn was not in this movie, the movie played up Torn being missing. There were also pictures of the alien talking dog, Frank the Pug, as a reference to the earlier movies as Frank was also not in the movie. Smith makes references that Smith has been an agent for 14 years. It is hard for me to think that the MIB films have been around for that long, but in reality the original Men in Black was released in 1997. You can see in Men in Black 3 that Smith is quite a veteran now as a Man in Black. While Emma Thompson replaced Torn in the movie, she does not have the film presence that Torn had as the head of the MIB. But it was nice to see that Thompson does have a relationship with Jones whose relationship originated in the past with Brolin and the young Thompson - Alice Eve. When Smith went back in time, David Rasche was the head of the MIB in the past. As a fan of David Rasche since the TV series Sledge Hammer!, when I saw that he was the head of the MIB, I thought Rasche would be great in that role. It is a shame that Rasche did not have much to do.  Rasche had basically a walk on part.

When the holder of the time machines Michael Chernus warns Smith that Smith will be traveling to 1969, Chernus warns Smith that 1969 was not a good time for Smith's people. While this idea is not politically correct, I wanted to see more confrontations for Smith about his being black back in 1969 as Smith searches for Jones and Clement. At least more than what was shown, and with Smith being a black comedian, his showing up the prejudice of the time and it's comeuppance amongst the bigots that were back then would have been great to see. That would have added more realism and relevance to the movie to see that. It was also nice having Asian aliens in the movie, like restaurant owner Keone Young. It is rare that I  get to see asians in a science fiction movie. Being set in 1969, there were also major references to the events of the year - including references to the Amazing Mets, Andy Warhol - Bill Hader - and the launch of the first lunar Moon landing in the movie. Having visited Cape Canaveral, otherwise known as Cape Kennedy back then, the recreation of the Cape Canaveral spectator area looked pretty realistic to me.

Click below to watch another trailer of Men in Black 3.



Rated PG-13 for violence. Running time: 106 Minutes.

Pancho
All people smile in the same language.

 Pancho's Movie Reviews