Hot Take: The first Guardians was only good because…

Hot Take: The first Guardians was only good because… Aug 12, 2021 23:43:12 GMT Skaathar and Spooky Ghost Ackbar like this

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Post by ReyKahuka on Aug 12, 2021 23:43:12 GMT

Aug 12, 2021 22:33:03 GMT Spooky Ghost Ackbar said:

Aug 12, 2021 21:36:10 GMT thisguy4000 said:

Well, the movie is a lot more cartoony and over the top than Saving Private Ryan. It leans pretty heavily into comic book absurdity. It just has a crude sense of humor to it, which is to be expected from James Gunn. I’m actually not the biggest fan of Gunn’s brand of humor either, but I knew what to expect from his take of the Suicide Squad.

Fair enough. I suppose I should just accept that this movie wasn’t for me and move on. But… I do think Gunn has some real strengths that can shine if he’s got others there to help him write and reign in some of his darkness and immaturity.
And this may be an unpopular opinion but I actually think The Suicide Squad would’ve been a much better movie if it were limited by a PG 13 rating. Certainly would’ve been more financially successful too.

The pandemic and HBOMAX kind of ruined any hopes of a decent box office. But you're spot on. The R rating had Gunn thinking of all the things he could do from a crassness standpoint instead of from a storytelling standpoint. "How man dick jokes and exploding faces can I put into this movie," shouldn't be the focal point of the creative process.

Another thing that can't be stressed enough is how much emphasis they put on the ridiculousness. You look at GOTG and it has a talking raccoon and a talking tree- and the tree only repeats one line; yet through the course of that movie, the tree displays more personality and certainly more heart than anything we get in Suicide Squad. "We are Groot," or Peter remembering his mother's final words in his moment of need; those scenes pack so much emotion into them because the characters have earned it despite being goofy. The story captured their humanity in a way SS never did with anyone at all. They're just a bunch of idiots. Oh, I guess I'm supposed to feel an emotional attachment to Bloodsport because he exchanged f bombs with his daughter for a minute and a half.

Even GOTG 2 had great stuff like Yondu's death or dingbat Mantis touching a smiling Drax and crying after feeling his inner pain. It's just amazing to me that the same guy directed those two movies and then directed SS. A bunch of soulless shitheads running around a vapid script until the credits roll. There is one solitary great line in SS: the Starro army as it collapses, revealing his inner thoughts, "I was happy floating in space," or something to that effect. But the moment doesn't work because he's just been a mindless creature up until that point, and the rest of the cast are maniacs without any real motivation or depth.

It's as if Gunn didn't know or didn't care what he was going to do with this project. It really does feel like a spoof of itself.