On Anticipating “Guardians Of The Galaxy”
I have been drinking the Marvel Studios Kool-Aid. Let’s not even beat around the bush. Ever since the first Iron Man, I have anticipated each new movie in the Marvel Cinematic Universe with bated breath, wondering what it will hold, how many comic book references I will get, and how much more I can fall in love with Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark.
But Guardians of the Galaxy is different.
The anticipation for the other movies usually has a reason behind it: Iron Man (how much better can RDJ get?), Captain America (Robert Redford! Big band and swing! Can I somehow hope for a hologram Paul Newman?), Thor (Tom Hiddleston’s Loki!). I almost know what to expect from these more mainstream titles.
With Guardians of the Galaxy, I know nothing. And I don’t know where they plan on going with it either.
I grew up on X-Men and Spider-Man, the two comic book franchises that Marvel does not own cinematic rights to. When this Marvel ride began, I knew very little about any of the franchises they started–nothing but the basics, you could say. Now, I am hooked. My fiancee and I have discussions/arguments about the cinematic possibility of the Civil Wars (he thinks it’s what they are building up to; I keep telling him they can’t do it without X-Men and Spider-Man and the Fantastic Four. It funnels down into how we could convince the studios to collaborate on something and make the nerd population spontaneously combust).
There’s a sense of mystery around Guardians for me. My fiancee bought me the fancy Cosmic Avengers volume you can buy at Barnes & Noble. But even reading it (and loving it) did not give me that in-depth insight into the series, but more of a background of each character. I also desperately want to read Steve’s article about the first seventeen minutes shown in IMAX, but I also want to go in knowing nothing. What little background I have is good enough.
I would say going in with low expectations is best, but my expectations are almost sky-high. Why? Because it’s Marvel, and they rarely disappoint.
My oldest brother and I had a conversation (which you can read over there) about Guardians. The point of showing it to you is not to start an argument about “B” superheroes since we would be here for days, but rather his point about Marvel’s quality… and the running joke of him missing the birth of his first child to see the movie (his wife is due August 2nd).
Both of us have been anticipating this movie for so long that all our hope lies in being able to see it together, one of our last gasps of normalcy before there’s a baby in the mix.
It’s about brand awareness. You see “Marvel” on something having seen all the other movies and think, “Oh yeah, I should probably go see that because everything else has been good*.”
*Iron Man 2 notwithstanding, though I just re-watched it and it’s not as awful as I remember.
Plus, the way the marketing team is working for Guardians, they don’t seem to be worrying about scaring anyone away. There’s a lot of focus on Rocket Raccoon, who has been described as the heart of the movie. Chris Pratt continues to play humorous, likeable characters. Comments have been thrown around about this being Marvel’s Star Wars, though that may be too much hype.
I remember trying to explain Guardians to my best friend after watching the credits scene in Thor: The Dark World. “Bradley Cooper is the voice of a talking raccoon!” I exclaimed as I laughed like a crazy person, earning a stare from her. How do you explain something like that to someone who isn’t as dedicated to the Marvel movies as you?
No longer am I hiding my anticipation (not that I really was before). One of my co-workers hand-delivered last week’s Entertainment Weekly magazine to my desk because I told her on Friday I wanted to read it. The first official picture they released of it is currently my desktop background. Heck, I even got one of my co-workers who had only seen the three Iron Mans to watch the rest of the MCU movies over the past few months and now wants me to send her every single trailer/promo for Guardians.
The anticipation is killing me. But knowing Marvel’s track record, it will be worth the wait.