2)Â Guardians Of The Galaxy Doesn’t Take Itself Too Seriously
The original Star Wars movies were not comedies and were never designed to be humorous, so it would be unfair to compare them unfavorably with Guardians of the Galaxy in this regard. One thing that both the original trilogy and Marvel’s latest movie do share though is a sense of fun and adventure reminiscent of the pulp adventure serials that George Lucas enjoyed as a child.
Perhaps the key issue fans held against the Star Wars prequels is that Lucas appeared to have lost some of that undefinable magic that made the original trilogy so popular. Rather than write a family adventure which all could enjoy, Lucas specifically wrote the prequels with children in mind, resulting in hollow versions of the Star Wars formula that talked down to audiences with two dimensional characters and lengthy exposition scenes cynically marketed at younger fans.
High expectations also played a part in this, putting pressure on the actors who knew that every moment they appeared on screen would be poured over by fans for generations to come. The fun and carefree performances of actors like Harrison Ford were replaced by the stoic likes of Ewan McGregor and Hayden Christensen, whose few attempts at being light-hearted felt far from genuine, for the most part.
As part of the Marvel Studios canon, Guardians of the Galaxy also faced a lot of fanboy pressure, but Gunn and Perlman’s witty script brought out the best in its offbeat ensemble, resulting in one of the funniest action movies to hit multiplexes in years. The irreverent tone is established immediately after the opening, where a grown up Peter Quill dances through the ruins of an abandoned planet, singing along to Redbone’s one hit wonder Come And Get Your Love. Forget hairbrushes. Star-Lord nails the makeshift microphone, using a squealing alien rat to live out his pop star dreams.
The humor isn’t limited to just Star-Lord, though. Gunn and Perlman’s script gives each of the Guardians a moment to shine with small yet hilarious moments which round their characters and make them all instantly more likable. Whether it’s Groot’s limited dialogue, Rocket’s sarcastic outlook or Drax’s literal interpretation of everything that’s said, the humor comes thick and fast without detracting from the pace of the overall plot.
Gunn himself was surprised that a dirty joke comparing Quill’s spaceship to a Jackson Pollock painting made it into the final cut, but luckily for fans, Marvel and Disney appeared to overlook the inclusion of these more adult moments, allowing the filmmakers to push the envelope for what is acceptable in a superhero movie. Guardians of the Galaxy successfully balances its epic scale with idiosyncratic moments of humor, but whether the new Stars Wars sequels take inspiration from this and manage to recapture the fun of the original trilogy remains to be seen…
