Sunday, August 10, 2014

Guardians of the Galaxy at Gold Class

I used my last free Gold Class ticket and it will be my last time watching at Gold Class, except if I were to win some more free tickets in the future. On Friday, the original price of Gold Class ticket is $39 which is $10 more than other weekdays o_0 I seriously think the price difference is not justifiable. I was very disappointed with the food as well. Before 2pm, the menu is still breakfast menu which is not really worth the prices charged. I chose Fish & Chips with the expectation of a typical meal at a western restaurant. Unexpectedly, it was more like 3 pieces of fish nuggets instead. Bleah... For drink, I asked for plain water and I was charged $5 for bottled water. When I watched Spider-Man, I was served with plain water! I felt cheated and scammed.

Let's move on to the movie itself. I think the movie is awesome. I came to the movie unprepared (my only knowledge about the movie is the 5 members of the team) and I came up satisfied. The story-telling is great as I understood the plot. 

The story is quite simple: Peter Quill (Star Lord) steals an orb without knowing what it is and intends on selling it at Xandar. The merchant knows that the orb contains something that can destroy the whole country and refuses buying it. Gamora attempts to steal the orb from Quill and at the same time Rocket Raccoon and Groot attempt to capture Quill who is wanted by his "adoptive father" and has a bounty on him. After wreaking havoc in the city, all 4 of them are captured and imprisoned. In the prison, they meet Drax the Destroyer who wants a revenge on Ronan the Accuser who sends Gamora to steal the orb. Gamora is betraying Ronan and she knows someone who is willing to buy the orb. So the 5 of them team up to escape from the prison, sell the orb, and live rich ever after.

Plans change after they meet the Collector who reveals that the orb contains Infinity Stone which has the power to decimate an entire planet and Ronan wants this to destroy Xandar. Before able to send the stone to Xandar, Ronan intercepts and takes control of the stone and from then on, the story becomes an all out war between Ronan's army vs Xandarian's Nova Corps.

Press pays a lot of attention to the comedy of the film but it is not only the comedy which is able to propel the movie to the top of box office. The cinematography for all the fights is a given wow factor so let's just skip over that. I think the human-side and the character development and interaction are the other things which make this movie believable to watch. The movie plays with emotions on how these 5 criminals open up to form a team to realise a mission more important than money. The setup of Xandar's invasion also successfully brings up the desperation and near-apocalyptic feel and it brings a significance to the final battle. This is one point where Guardians is better than the Avengers.

I can't help but to compare this with the Avengers. The Avengers loses out in terms of the emotion. The final battle in the Avengers is just superheroes vs alien with normal people as mere collateral damage. The battle does not invoke any emotion that make me wanna root for the superheroes. Battle-wise, I have to give my nod to the Avengers. In the Guardians, most of the the battle are ships vs ships. I prefer human vs human headbutting one another in front of a green screen as opposed to people sitting on a platform and acting out the battle in a ship. Lol.. 

Characterisation-wise, the comedy in Guardians is too strong that all the characters feel bland and devoid of characteristics. They are mostly there for the comic relief. Power-wise, they are also too similar as they all fight with bare hands or guns. So Avengers is still better. And the last reason for Avengers being better is Scarlet Jo. Lol.. I don't know why they want to make a big deal of Vin Diesel who voices Groot when his lines are only "I am Groot"s and another variant "We are Groot" at the end. Rocket Raccoon who I thought would be damn funny also pales in comparison with equally funny Quill and Drax if you ask me.

So yeah, I enjoyed the movie but it does not have enough "oomph" to make me excited for the sequel or to make me want to re-watch the movie.

Among tonnes of the funny things in the movie, I can't help but highlight my favourite which is Quill's dick message to warn Nova Corps about the upcoming attack from Ronan. Not the message itself but how the Nova Corps leader informed Nova Prime about it. He uncomfortably quoted the message: "I'm an asshole but what I am not is 100% dick. We need your help". Nova Prime asked if he believed the message to which he replied "Well, I don't think anyone is 100% dick". That was hilarious. ROFL. Obviously the question is about the attack part instead of the dick. Hahaha.. Anyway I am curious on how this dick and asshole thingy will be translated in my native language sia...

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