Episode 1496 Talkback - Comic Talk: Guardians of the Galaxy Edition

Adam_Murdough · August 2014

We take some time to react to a few SDCC news items, including this year's Eisner winners and the upcoming Star Wars series (plural!) from Marvel. Then, we shoot for the stars, devoting the entire second half of this episode to our rapturous review of the magical, musical, mirthful space-odyssey that is the 'Guardians of the Galaxy' movie! (1:24:49)

Listen here.

bamfbamf · August 2014

for Shane to catch up on!

comixology had a lot of these on sale for 99 cents leading up to GOTG

Chuck_Melville · August 2014

I'm looking forward to this! I'll add it to my queue asap!

rebis · August 2014

FYI to everyone. GotG talk doesn't start until 37 min. in.

Mr_Cosmic · August 2014

Star Wars comics:

I'm pretty sure I read somewhere that the Princess Leia mini will be about her dealing with the destruction of Alderaan and the death of her family. The Darth Vader series will focus on Vader and how he handles his defeat at the end of the first movie.

newway12 · August 2014

Vin Diesel was also the voice of the Iron Giant, which makes the Groot's death a reference.

Greg · August 2014

bamfbamf said:
for Shane to catch up on!

comixology had a lot of these on sale for 99 cents leading up to GOTG

Thank you!!!!! Need one for older stuff now.

JaxUr · August 2014

Sean Gunn was the actor playing Rocket on set with the other actors. Here's an article and photo that may be of interest:
http://www.buzzfeed.com/adambvary/bradley-cooper-wasnt-the-only-actor-playing-the-breakout-cha

rebis · August 2014

I too would pay money to hear Murd and The Rios talk about Grant Morrison's Multiversity Map.

brainwise · August 2014

There's a short behind-the-scenes video of Chris Pratt talking about the Milano on The Disney Blog:

http://thedisneyblog.com/2014/08/06/guardians-of-the-galaxy-behind-the-scenes-inside-star-lords-spaceship-the-milano/

rebis · August 2014

WOE, Woe, WOE!

Starfox as Star Lords father?

bamfbamf · August 2014

someone else agrees with Murd...

http://badassdigest.com/2014/08/03/who-is-star-lords-father/

"Of the Eternals the character most likely to be Quill's dad is Eros, aka Starfox. His powers give him control over the emotions of others, and he usually uses these powers to seduce women. If this sounds like date rape, it sort of is, and he was eventually brought up on charges of sexual assault on Earth. His pelvic sorcery could certainly have been passed on to Quill. And it's worth noting: I've heard Starfox, after being on the run for his crimes, is coming back to the Marvel Comics Universe."

Elsiebub · August 2014

Knew you guys would love the GotG movie. I saw it on Saturday, and of my 4-person group I was the only one who knew much of anything about the comics. It's so strange that, until recently, amongst fandom the idea of a GotG movie was always like "Really? Marvel's going to make a movie out of THAT?", but now it's just so obvious that the property had mainstream appeal. Nearly $100-million-opening-weekend mainstream appeal.

Going into the movie, I knew next to nothing about what was going to be on the screen. Like Pants, I try to avoid spoilers and I never seek out online preview clips or whatever. This made for a wonderful experience. I had been thinking "Karen Gillan as Nebula? What?? You're going to chop off that gorgeous hair and make her BALD??" But she looked really great (not in a hot way but in an interesting way that was totally worth it).

Really the only spoilerish thing I heard about the movie last week was that it included a lot of '70s songs. At the time I thought "Hmmm... could be great, or could be hokey." Well, it wasn't hokey; it was wonderful. Best use of old pop songs in a movie since... Jackie Brown, probably? I loved it. And I agree with Murd that "Moonage Daydream" was the most pleasing inclusion.

I also agree with Murd when he lists the imperfections of the movie. Yeah, they could have done more with the Nova Corps. Yeah, I wish Ronan the Accuser had a little more to work with, because as it was he seemed overshadowed a bit too much by Thanos (whose three awesome scenes went a looong way) and even Nebula (who just looked cooler). And as great a job as Zoe Saldana did (and I really liked her), I wish she had another handful of badass moments so she could really live up to the "Most Dangerous Woman in the Universe" title. But all in all, those things don't really matter to me, because the general spirit of the movie was just so infectious and upbeat, and unique. It's amazing to me that Marvel could make a movie like this work so damn well.

The fact that we're reduced to "wanting more" from certain characters, rather than complaining about what we actually got, only goes to show that the movie left us wanting more. The sequel can't get here fast enough.

bamfbamf · August 2014

i have not found the Bradley Cooper recording sessions... but here's Vin Diesel's...

neither Bradley or Vin were on set for any of the shooting...

Guardians of the Galaxy: Behind the Scenes of Vin Diesel Recording in Different Langauges

http://youtu.be/G55prAFpo_Q

bamfbamf · August 2014

Here's Bradley Cooper's recording session footage:

http://youtu.be/hjWF6khqLww?t=1m28s

sandman · August 2014

I have a question about the Guardians of the Galaxy in the comic books. Is there supposed to be any lineage with the name? Such as, did the team in the present find out about the team that will be in the future and decide to adopt their name, or vise versa with a retcon of the original team in the future adopting their name from this team in our present? Or is it just supposed to be a coincidence that the two teams eras apart would select the same name?

Just curious.

sandman · August 2014

Elsiebub said:
Knew you guys would love the GotG movie. I saw it on Saturday, and of my 4-person group I was the only one who knew much of anything about the comics. It's so strange that, until recently, amongst fandom the idea of a GotG movie was always like "Really? Marvel's going to make a movie out of THAT?", but now it's just so obvious that the property had mainstream appeal. Nearly $100-million-opening-weekend mainstream appeal.

This kind of thinking baffles me. Why do people think that its such a far out idea to make a comic book movie with lesser known characters? Sure, there are movies based on comics, novels, etc. But those are a small percentage of the movies that are made. Most movies have characters that no one knows.

No one knew who the characters in The Hangover were, or in Paranormal Activity, or in Fast and the Furious, or in many other movie. You don't say that you can't make Bridesmaids because no one knows the characters, so why do people put that on comic book movies?

Comic book movies really are a sub genre of the broader classes like action movie, or sci-fi movie. People don't need to know the comics. They don't even have to know that the movie is based on a comic book. If you show people a cool action movie they're going to be interested in seeing it.

Mr_Cosmic · August 2014

sandman said:
I have a question about the Guardians of the Galaxy in the comic books. Is there supposed to be any lineage with the name? Such as, did the team in the present find out about the team that will be in the future and decide to adopt their name, or vise versa with a retcon of the original team in the future adopting their name from this team in our present? Or is it just supposed to be a coincidence that the two teams eras apart would select the same name?

Just curious.

@sandman

Star-Lord forms the team but they don't name themselves in story. After they meet Vance Astro, from the original GotG, they are inspired to adopt the name.

David_D · August 2014

sandman said:

Elsiebub said:
Knew you guys would love the GotG movie. I saw it on Saturday, and of my 4-person group I was the only one who knew much of anything about the comics. It's so strange that, until recently, amongst fandom the idea of a GotG movie was always like "Really? Marvel's going to make a movie out of THAT?", but now it's just so obvious that the property had mainstream appeal. Nearly $100-million-opening-weekend mainstream appeal.
This kind of thinking baffles me. Why do people think that its such a far out idea to make a comic book movie with lesser known characters? Sure, there are movies based on comics, novels, etc. But those are a small percentage of the movies that are made. Most movies have characters that no one knows.

No one knew who the characters in The Hangover were, or in Paranormal Activity, or in Fast and the Furious, or in many other movie. You don't say that you can't make Bridesmaids because no one knows the characters, so why do people put that on comic book movies?

Comic book movies really are a sub genre of the broader classes like action movie, or sci-fi movie. People don't need to know the comics. They don't even have to know that the movie is based on a comic book. If you show people a cool action movie they're going to be interested in seeing it.

Tell that to Pacific Rim.

playdohsrepublic · August 2014

sandman said:

Elsiebub said:
Knew you guys would love the GotG movie. I saw it on Saturday, and of my 4-person group I was the only one who knew much of anything about the comics. It's so strange that, until recently, amongst fandom the idea of a GotG movie was always like "Really? Marvel's going to make a movie out of THAT?", but now it's just so obvious that the property had mainstream appeal. Nearly $100-million-opening-weekend mainstream appeal.
This kind of thinking baffles me. Why do people think that its such a far out idea to make a comic book movie with lesser known characters? Sure, there are movies based on comics, novels, etc. But those are a small percentage of the movies that are made. Most movies have characters that no one knows.

No one knew who the characters in The Hangover were, or in Paranormal Activity, or in Fast and the Furious, or in many other movie. You don't say that you can't make Bridesmaids because no one knows the characters, so why do people put that on comic book movies?

Comic book movies really are a sub genre of the broader classes like action movie, or sci-fi movie. People don't need to know the comics. They don't even have to know that the movie is based on a comic book. If you show people a cool action movie they're going to be interested in seeing it.

Franchises and sequels are low hanging fruit. You just don't know what the reaction is going to be with a new or lesser known IP. And, like the thread about cinematic superheroines, failure is the norm under these circumstances, mostly because of quality. But execs seem to have a hard time admitting they greenlit bad movies, so they blame it on other things like, "No one knew who these characters were" and "people don't want female superheroes"

sandman · August 2014

David_D said:

sandman said:

Elsiebub said:
Knew you guys would love the GotG movie. I saw it on Saturday, and of my 4-person group I was the only one who knew much of anything about the comics. It's so strange that, until recently, amongst fandom the idea of a GotG movie was always like "Really? Marvel's going to make a movie out of THAT?", but now it's just so obvious that the property had mainstream appeal. Nearly $100-million-opening-weekend mainstream appeal.
This kind of thinking baffles me. Why do people think that its such a far out idea to make a comic book movie with lesser known characters? Sure, there are movies based on comics, novels, etc. But those are a small percentage of the movies that are made. Most movies have characters that no one knows.

No one knew who the characters in The Hangover were, or in Paranormal Activity, or in Fast and the Furious, or in many other movie. You don't say that you can't make Bridesmaids because no one knows the characters, so why do people put that on comic book movies?

Comic book movies really are a sub genre of the broader classes like action movie, or sci-fi movie. People don't need to know the comics. They don't even have to know that the movie is based on a comic book. If you show people a cool action movie they're going to be interested in seeing it.

Tell that to Pacific Rim.

Pacific Rim had a world wide gross of over $400 million. It was a successful movie. And I don't think it was based on anything, but I'm not sure about that.

sandman · August 2014

Mr_Cosmic said:

sandman said:
I have a question about the Guardians of the Galaxy in the comic books. Is there supposed to be any lineage with the name? Such as, did the team in the present find out about the team that will be in the future and decide to adopt their name, or vise versa with a retcon of the original team in the future adopting their name from this team in our present? Or is it just supposed to be a coincidence that the two teams eras apart would select the same name?

Just curious.
@sandman

Star-Lord forms the team but they don't name themselves in story. After they meet Vance Astro, from the original GotG, they are inspired to adopt the name.

Thank you I was wondering about that.

David_D · August 2014

sandman said:

David_D said:

sandman said:

Elsiebub said:
Knew you guys would love the GotG movie. I saw it on Saturday, and of my 4-person group I was the only one who knew much of anything about the comics. It's so strange that, until recently, amongst fandom the idea of a GotG movie was always like "Really? Marvel's going to make a movie out of THAT?", but now it's just so obvious that the property had mainstream appeal. Nearly $100-million-opening-weekend mainstream appeal.
This kind of thinking baffles me. Why do people think that its such a far out idea to make a comic book movie with lesser known characters? Sure, there are movies based on comics, novels, etc. But those are a small percentage of the movies that are made. Most movies have characters that no one knows.

No one knew who the characters in The Hangover were, or in Paranormal Activity, or in Fast and the Furious, or in many other movie. You don't say that you can't make Bridesmaids because no one knows the characters, so why do people put that on comic book movies?

Comic book movies really are a sub genre of the broader classes like action movie, or sci-fi movie. People don't need to know the comics. They don't even have to know that the movie is based on a comic book. If you show people a cool action movie they're going to be interested in seeing it.

Tell that to Pacific Rim.
Pacific Rim had a world wide gross of over $400 million. It was a successful movie. And I don't think it was based on anything, but I'm not sure about that.

Yes, $400M, with $300M of that overseas, where it seems the whole issue of 'proven content' and name recognition is less of an issue. In the US it underperformed against expectations, especially given that it was a $190M movie about giant robots fighting giant monsters.. Looks like $101M domestic. That movie deserved to do much better than that, but unfortunately it is a world where the dreadful Transformers movies and, hell, even Green Lantern can make more domestically. Some blamed the fact that it was not based on 'proven content', and had it, say, been loosely based on something we grew up with, it may have had a better opening weekend.

Don't get me wrong-- I wish we lived in a culture where people were actually MORE excited to go see a new thing. Unfortunately, that tends to not be the case. And I think that is why people have expressed (happy) surprise that a Marvel movie based on relatively unknown characters could perform so well. I wish we didn't have to be surprised by that, but I understand why we still are.

sandman · August 2014

David_D said:

sandman said:

David_D said:

sandman said:

Elsiebub said:
Knew you guys would love the GotG movie. I saw it on Saturday, and of my 4-person group I was the only one who knew much of anything about the comics. It's so strange that, until recently, amongst fandom the idea of a GotG movie was always like "Really? Marvel's going to make a movie out of THAT?", but now it's just so obvious that the property had mainstream appeal. Nearly $100-million-opening-weekend mainstream appeal.
This kind of thinking baffles me. Why do people think that its such a far out idea to make a comic book movie with lesser known characters? Sure, there are movies based on comics, novels, etc. But those are a small percentage of the movies that are made. Most movies have characters that no one knows.

No one knew who the characters in The Hangover were, or in Paranormal Activity, or in Fast and the Furious, or in many other movie. You don't say that you can't make Bridesmaids because no one knows the characters, so why do people put that on comic book movies?

Comic book movies really are a sub genre of the broader classes like action movie, or sci-fi movie. People don't need to know the comics. They don't even have to know that the movie is based on a comic book. If you show people a cool action movie they're going to be interested in seeing it.

Tell that to Pacific Rim.
Pacific Rim had a world wide gross of over $400 million. It was a successful movie. And I don't think it was based on anything, but I'm not sure about that.
Yes, $400M, with $300M of that overseas, where it seems the whole issue of 'proven content' and name recognition is less of an issue. In the US it underperformed against expectations, especially given that it was a $190M movie about giant robots fighting giant monsters.. Looks like $101M domestic. That movie deserved to do much better than that, but unfortunately it is a world where the dreadful Transformers movies and, hell, even Green Lantern can make more domestically. Some blamed the fact that it was not based on 'proven content', and had it, say, been loosely based on something we grew up with, it may have had a better opening weekend.

Don't get me wrong-- I wish we lived in a culture where people were actually MORE excited to go see a new thing. Unfortunately, that tends to not be the case. And I think that is why people have expressed (happy) surprise that a Marvel movie based on relatively unknown characters could perform so well. I wish we didn't have to be surprised by that, but I understand why we still are.

That is true. It wasn't the mega hit here that they would have liked. But I don't think that its fair to measure a movie by what it does on one continent. You can't throw out a large part of it's market and say that it struggled if you eliminate a big part of it's sales. Studios are definitely looking to bring in overseas sales, especially when they spend around $200 million on a movie.

You do make a good point though. Something that is seen as being familiar gets more attention over something new. I guess I just think (hope) that more often than not a quality production will rise to the top and be successful regardless of it's origin. Of course there will be movies that are exceptions in both directions.

RepoMan · August 2014

Transformers 4 is probably showing studios that you don't need to rely on the US to recoup. With the way information spreads these days, as well as entertainment, I would hope Hollywood is thinking more about the entire world, not just our ways of movie watching. It might even inject new life into movie making in general. Not right now, but maybe in the future. I would welcome that.

David_D · August 2014

sandman said:

David_D said:

sandman said:

David_D said:

sandman said:

Elsiebub said:
Knew you guys would love the GotG movie. I saw it on Saturday, and of my 4-person group I was the only one who knew much of anything about the comics. It's so strange that, until recently, amongst fandom the idea of a GotG movie was always like "Really? Marvel's going to make a movie out of THAT?", but now it's just so obvious that the property had mainstream appeal. Nearly $100-million-opening-weekend mainstream appeal.
This kind of thinking baffles me. Why do people think that its such a far out idea to make a comic book movie with lesser known characters? Sure, there are movies based on comics, novels, etc. But those are a small percentage of the movies that are made. Most movies have characters that no one knows.

No one knew who the characters in The Hangover were, or in Paranormal Activity, or in Fast and the Furious, or in many other movie. You don't say that you can't make Bridesmaids because no one knows the characters, so why do people put that on comic book movies?

Comic book movies really are a sub genre of the broader classes like action movie, or sci-fi movie. People don't need to know the comics. They don't even have to know that the movie is based on a comic book. If you show people a cool action movie they're going to be interested in seeing it.

Tell that to Pacific Rim.
Pacific Rim had a world wide gross of over $400 million. It was a successful movie. And I don't think it was based on anything, but I'm not sure about that.
Yes, $400M, with $300M of that overseas, where it seems the whole issue of 'proven content' and name recognition is less of an issue. In the US it underperformed against expectations, especially given that it was a $190M movie about giant robots fighting giant monsters.. Looks like $101M domestic. That movie deserved to do much better than that, but unfortunately it is a world where the dreadful Transformers movies and, hell, even Green Lantern can make more domestically. Some blamed the fact that it was not based on 'proven content', and had it, say, been loosely based on something we grew up with, it may have had a better opening weekend.

Don't get me wrong-- I wish we lived in a culture where people were actually MORE excited to go see a new thing. Unfortunately, that tends to not be the case. And I think that is why people have expressed (happy) surprise that a Marvel movie based on relatively unknown characters could perform so well. I wish we didn't have to be surprised by that, but I understand why we still are.
That is true. It wasn't the mega hit here that they would have liked. But I don't think that its fair to measure a movie by what it does on one continent. You can't throw out a large part of it's market and say that it struggled if you eliminate a big part of it's sales. Studios are definitely looking to bring in overseas sales, especially when they spend around $200 million on a movie.

You do make a good point though. Something that is seen as being familiar gets more attention over something new. I guess I just think (hope) that more often than not a quality production will rise to the top and be successful regardless of it's origin. Of course there will be movies that are exceptions in both directions.

Of course, in measuring whether something is a success or not overall, you should keep the whole picture in mind. I don't mean to take away from what Pacific Rim did. I loved it, and I am glad the support for it in other parts of the world is what is getting all of us a sequel. And I agree that I would like to see more new things rise to the top on quality.

I just see Pacific Rim as a good example of how, at least in the current, North American box office climate, a new thing not based on a known brand-- even a great looking new thing-- can have an uphill climb. I would say that is *particularly* the case in genre movies, where the market is so crowded by known long-lived brands and existing franchises. Because there are only so many weekends to open on in a season.

KentShakespeare · August 2014

Wow, @Adam_Murdough‌... your theory as to Quill's parentage is inspired. If I were a betting man, I would put serious money on that being the case.

TheOriginalGMan · August 2014

I agree. Fascinating theory by Murd. And there I was thinking Aaskvarian girls must be a little "loose" when in reality it was Quill's "pelvic sorcery"!

Elsiebub · August 2014

sandman said:

Elsiebub said:
Knew you guys would love the GotG movie. I saw it on Saturday, and of my 4-person group I was the only one who knew much of anything about the comics. It's so strange that, until recently, amongst fandom the idea of a GotG movie was always like "Really? Marvel's going to make a movie out of THAT?", but now it's just so obvious that the property had mainstream appeal. Nearly $100-million-opening-weekend mainstream appeal.
This kind of thinking baffles me. Why do people think that its such a far out idea to make a comic book movie with lesser known characters? Sure, there are movies based on comics, novels, etc. But those are a small percentage of the movies that are made. Most movies have characters that no one knows.

No one knew who the characters in The Hangover were, or in Paranormal Activity, or in Fast and the Furious, or in many other movie. You don't say that you can't make Bridesmaids because no one knows the characters, so why do people put that on comic book movies?

Comic book movies really are a sub genre of the broader classes like action movie, or sci-fi movie. People don't need to know the comics. They don't even have to know that the movie is based on a comic book. If you show people a cool action movie they're going to be interested in seeing it.

I see your point. The difference is that, unlike The Hangover or your other examples, the GotG characters had already been tested out in one medium (comics) and had not really been more than a C-level success.

For what it's worth, until around this time last year I didn't have ANY experience with GotG comics, so I didn't really have an opinion one way or the other as to how well it would translate into a major film.

I think most people just saw that the property had always been C-level or whatever in the comics, so it was natural to assume that it would probably end up being a C-level film. I could at least see where that idea was coming from...

...but I'm really glad that it turned out to be incorrect. I wouldn't have thought the film would turn out to be THIS successful. But I doubt anyone thought it'd nearly touch $100 million domestically in its first three days of release.

abuddah · August 2014

and what did Matt think of the wikipedia article?

PS I can't imagine a movie that would be worse served by reading a plot synopsis. The whole thing is visuals and character

luckymustard · August 2014

rebis said:
I too would pay money to hear Murd and The Rios talk about Grant Morrison's Multiversity Map.

I emailed this jpg file (1400x1074), which I downloaded from Entertainment Weekly, to Murd yesterday. Haven't heard back from him that it is better than any version he had found.

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Episode 1496 Talkback - Comic Talk: Guardians of the Galaxy Edition

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