by Nathan Sacks Reviewing a Marvel movie these days seems impossible without discussing the fan industry complex that surrounds, subsumes, and otherwise create endless speculative articles about what character will show up, will he/she be played by what actor, will it be faithful to “continuity,” etc. The original Marvel Comics group—generators of colorful, ink-stained rites of youth for so many— rebranded itself several years ago as Marvel Entertainment, with all the cross-platform synergy that implies. Simultaneously, there has been a rise of comic book and film blogs that report and opine breathlessly about the latest Marvel rumors, no matter how minor or refutable. The critic is in a quandary, wondering where to begin when every single possible plot point about Guardians, whether or not it actually shows up in the movie, is already revealed, synopsized, and judged, right up to the after-credits sequence. This problem is compounded when, say, the critic is a big Marvel fan from childhood, and generally wonders why fans seem so much more invested in the MCU (Marvel Cinematic Universe if you aren’t hip on the lingo) than the original Stan Lee/Jack Kirby 60s comics that have generated several billion dollars’ worth of revenue. | Area Theaters Director: James Gunn Producers: Kevin Fiege, David J. Grant, Jonathan Schwartz Writers: James Gunn, Nicole Perlman, Dan Abnett (comic), Andy Lanning (comic) Cinematographer: Ben Davis Music: Tyler Bates Editors: Fred Raskin, Hughes Winborne, Craig Wood Cast: Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana, Dave Bautista, Vin Diesel, Bradley Cooper, Lee Pace, Michael Rooker, Karen Gillan,, Djumon Hounsou, John C. Riley, Glenn Close, Benicio Del Toro Runtime: 121m. Genre: Action/Adventure/Sci-fi Country: USA US Theatrical Release: August 1, 2014 US Distributor: Walt Disney Studios |
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