3) Gunn ‘Out-Directs’ Lucas In Guardians Of The Galaxy
As an unproven filmmaker stepping up to the big leagues, George Lucas did an admirable job directing the first Star Wars movie, steering the franchise into the pop culture juggernaut it has become today. While Lucas took a back seat for the sequels, only producing and writing the overall stories, the shared input of him and his collaborators combined to create two more iconic films that became some of the most successful movie sequels of all time.
Lucas returned to the directing chair twenty years later to helm Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace and its two sequels, each of which was met with a barrage of criticism. Wooden dialogue, lengthy exposition and too much reliance on CGI are just some of the faults that fans leveled at Lucas, and although it would have been difficult for him to meet everyone’s impossibly high standards, most would argue that the prequels fell extremely short of their potential.
This year, another small-time filmmaker stepped up to the big leagues, helming an unproven science fiction franchise which many predicted would be Marvel Studio’s first big flop. Guardians of the Galaxy is the strangest superhero movie released yet by the studio, but director James Gunn successfully managed to juggle the offbeat tone and eccentric characters, creating the biggest movie of 2014.
Gunn was far from a safe choice for Marvel, as the filmmaker had only directed two relatively small features to date, but his directorial choices for Guardians of the Galaxy are some of the most impressive seen yet in a superhero movie. Without slowing down the pace, Gunn effortlessly cuts between strange yet believable new worlds without resorting to an endless barrage of exposition. Key to this is the way in which Gunn unifies the aesthetic of the film with a distinct and identifiable color scheme, uniquely combining the gritty feel of classic sci-fi like Alien and Blade Runner with the bright tones of pulp science fiction from the 1950’s and 1960’s.
Every epic space opera needs a few moments of grandeur to sell the scope of the film and Guardians of the Galaxy is no exception. For his first blockbuster, Gunn creates a number of memorable images which remain burned onto audiences retinas long after they have left the cinema. Whether it’s the moment when Quill and Gamora float alone in the cosmos, seconds from death or, when Groot reveals a hidden talent towards the end of the film, every fan has a favorite.
Luckily for Star Wars fans, Lucas is taking a back seat for the upcoming sequels, and with both J.J. Abrams and Rian Johnson now signed on to direct two of the films, fans of a galaxy far, far away have a lot to be excited for.
