Dir- James Gunn
Year – 2014
Running Time – 116 Minutes
Screen Writing Genre – Golden Fleece (Epic)
The Film
Picking one of Marvel’s more obscure franchises may have
seemed strange but it allowed the studio to venture into a relatively empty
area of the market at the time. Guardians of the Galaxy remains one of the most
critically acclaimed marvel movies and uses some clever music and a great
script to keep things fun and fast moving.
What’s in a name?
It’s not rocket science here. It’s a film about the Guardians
of the Galaxy. It does imply the ideas of sci-fi, space and super heroes so job
done.
What makes it
great?
The core of why the film works so well is a light hearted
and consistent script backed up by some excellent performances from the cast.
Any time things begin to get too serious there is always a moment of humour
around the next corner. It helps the audience to think they are having a great
space adventure and it works incredibly well.
Guardians of the
Galaxy as an (Epic) Golden Fleece Movie
Though it might seem strange, Guardians of the Galaxy doesn’t
really fit into the ‘Super Hero’ movie genre as you need ingredients such as
the power being a ‘curse’.
The film is about a rag tag band of rejects crossing the
galaxy in search of treasure (either the stone, or the money from selling it).
Of course, along the way they discover there are more
important things and after some bumps in the road that stop them from
progressing they learn some life lessons. If that’s not an epic Golden Fleece
story then I don’t know what is.
Time Line
Opening Image – Earth
1988, a young boy is in a hospital corridor. He looks isolated and alone.
Theme Stated – Our
theme is that of finding companionship and not being afraid to believe in
people (the right people), and commit. We soon see that Star Lord has been
looking for ‘companionship’ with many different alien females throughout the
galaxy.
Set-Up – The set
up mainly gives us the back story for Star Lord. We also see the infinity
stone, Ronan and Thanos. All the future guardians are introduced except for
Drax.
Catalyst – Star
Lord tries to sell the infinity stone but is rejected when the buyer finds out
Ronan is involved and is soon arrested after a scuffle with the other guardians.
Now he is locked into the fate of the stone.
Break into Two – The
guardians are taken to the Kiln. Once the doors shut there is now no way back.
Debate – It hits outside
of traditional structure but once in the Kiln there are So many questions for
the group to consider. What is the stone? How can they sell it and to whom? How
do they break out of the prison? Should they trust Gamora?
B Story – The B
story concerns the characters beginning to trust one another. We see Drax
gradually accept Gamora and Star Lord and Gamora’s friendship develop here.
Fun and Games – What’s
more fun that a prison break? We get to see all the guardians doing their thing
as they break out of the Kiln.
Midpoint – The guardians
arrive at Knowhere. The stone explodes and now the team realise just exactly
what they are dealing with. The fun and game are over.
Bad Guys Close In – Ronan
arrives, shortly followed by the Ravagers. Nebula gets hold of the stone, Drax
is left for dead and Gamora drifts into space. It is a crushing defeat for the
team.
All is Lost – Star
Lord goes through just how much the team has lost.
Dark Night of the
Soul – After realising the need for the suicide mission the team recover
and decide to fight together to try and save the galaxy.
Break into Three
– Now recovered and with a plan, the guardians unite with the Ravagers and Nova
Core to try and take down Ronan.
Finale – The
battle for Nova begins. The bad guys begin to get knocked off and Nebula is
despatched. The guardians unite to channel the power of the stone and Ronan is
defeated. Star Lord is finally ready to open the last gift from his mother.
Final image – The
guardians are united in friendship. There is a bond of trust between them and
Star Lord has now grown up and accepted his role in the universe. The group who
were once outcasts and loners are now surrounded by friends. Mirrored with the
opening image we’ve gone from Star Lord as an isolated child in a dark corridor
to a man surrounded by friends with whole galaxy available to explore.
