Trailer Trashin’: The Extraterrestrial Misfits Go to War in Guardians of the Galaxy

Hello again, dear readers. After a longer-than-anticipated absence, I’m back, and I hope all of you have seen Godzilla by now. We’re truly in the summer movie season as this point, with big movies like X-Men: Days of Future Past and Maleficent coming out week after week, and last Friday saw the release of the Tom Cruise-starring sci-fi actioner Edge of Tomorrow. In the meantime, this overdue installment of Trailer Trashin’ takes another look at one of the more promising late summer films – Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy.

Premise: In the far reaches of space, an American pilot named Peter Quill (Chris Pratt) finds himself the object of a manhunt after stealing an orb coveted by the villainous Ronan (Lee Pace). In order to evade Ronan, Quill is forced into an uneasy truce with a group of misfits including Gamora (Zoe Saldana), Rocket (Bradley Cooper), Drax (Dave Bautista), and Groot (Vin Diesel). But when Quill discovers the true power of the orb and the menace it poses to the cosmos, he must rally his ragtag group together for a last, desperate stand – with the fate of the galaxy hanging in the balance.

My take: With the huge success of Captain America: The Winter Soldier earlier this year, and the sure-to-be-a-hit Avengers: Age of Ultron currently filming, there’s no doubt that Marvel Studios and their bosses at Disney are on top of the movie superhero game. But, fans of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), as am I, got some bad news recently with the announcement that Edgar Wright had left the directing gig for Marvel’s Ant-Man, due out next July, because of creative differences. I just hope that situation works out for the best. On a much happier note, we also recently heard that horror director Scott Derrickson, of The Exorcism of Emily Rose (2005), Sinister (2012), and the upcoming July release Deliver Us from Evil, will helm the Doctor Strange movie for Marvel, which I fully support. But before all that, we’ve still got Marvel’s riskiest film to date, Guardians of the Galaxy, due out this August. About two weeks ago, we got a new trailer for Guardians of the Galaxy, and it’s got me absolutely stoked.

I think the marketing is doing a great job selling these very obscure characters to a broad audience. Peter Quill’s line about “A thief, two thugs, and assassin, and a maniac” quickly identifies the five heroes and explains what their deal is. Unlike the first trailer, we actually get to hear Vin Diesel as Groot and Bradley Cooper as Rocket, and they both sound good. They’ve still only shown bits and pieces of Lee Pace as Ronan, our main villain, but he certainly looks cool. And we also finally get to see Glenn Close as Nova Prime Irani Rael, the leader of the Nova Corps. Close is always great to watch, and I really like the detail that her hairstyle resembles the three circles of the Nova Corps emblem.

I love how the film completely embraces its source material, and this looks like it’s easily the most “comic booky” of the Marvel Cinematic Universe films so far. We get to see more of Peter Quill wearing his Star-Lord mask, and it looks really cool, as do those little rocket engines on his legs, and that big blaster he has strapped to his chest at one point. We’ve also got some action involving spaceships fighting, including the awesome image of Rocket piloting a little pod-ship-thing. And the thing that looks like a giant skull floating in the middle of a nebula is apparently Knowhere, a space station built inside the severed head of a Celestial alien. In the comics, Knowhere is a port of call and observatory at the end of the universe, while in this film it apparently serves as the headquarters of the Collector.

I also really like the tone they’re going for here. While all the MCU films have had plenty of humor, this looks like the closest to an out-and-out action-comedy they’ve done so far. While I’m sure the fate of the universe hanging in the balance will be treated seriously, it’s clear the film was to embrace the fun adventures to be had. And I have to admit I did grin at the moment where Rocket “adjusts” himself as he walks. In my column about the first trailer for the film, I said that I hoped we’d hear more 1970s/1980s music in future trailers, and that’s what we got. The song used here is Norman Greenbaum’s 1969 psychedelic rock single “Spirit in the Sky,” which really fits with the imagery. But I don’t think they needed to reuse “Hooked on a Feeling.” And I’m still hoping that “Princes of the Universe” by Queen might be used for one of these trailers.

Yeah, I’m really jazzed for this. I’ve seen every film in the MCU, and have greatly enjoyed all of them. When it was first announced that Marvel planned to make Guardians of the Galaxy into a movie, many people wondered how they could pull it off. But it looks like Marvel and Disney have done just that. You can bet that when the beginning of August rolls around I’ll definitely be checking out Guardians of the Galaxy at my local theater.

ANTICIPATION: I’m ready to blast off for adventure!