Honestly, I can't think of anything worthy of a full post on its own. I've explained this problem before, and referenced it often. And it's probably been compounded recently. See, at the best of times my thought are a little...scattered (they don't call me 'Kinda Hazy' for nothing, AMIRITE! sorry), but something I also occasionally experience is an inability to sleep. I wouldn't quite call it insomnia, if only because I know people who definitely suffer from insomnia and my experience pales in comparison. Regardless, the fact is recently I'm not too far off nocturnal. Case and point, just yesterday/today/that vague early morning no-mans-land, I was still awake at half past 5 watching movies. Why watch movies instead of actually trying to sleep? Imagine those moments before you go sleep when you're just thinking things over, but that thinking goes on for 4 hours. It was either watch movies or get lost inside my own head and go properly insane. There's a picture I saw on Twitter of a woman sitting facing her pillow, and the back of her head is a plug, and the pillow is the socket which perfectly illustrates how that works.
Anyway, back to the point, I try to get up at a good time, so I end up running on maybe 3-4 hours sleep. Which is fine, honestly; not ideal I know, but I also know there are folks high up in the world who sleep that and less every day of their lives. But it does leave me a little off-kilter for the first third of the day. So today, I started slow and never really got up to speed. But here we are and here we are and here we go, as Status Quo said. Here's a link to that, in case somehow you haven't heard it and also because this is going to be insanely wordy otherwise.
Enjoy that, why don't you.
One of the movies I did finally watch last night/morning was Guardians of the Galaxy (2014), the most recent summer blockbuster in Marvel's quest to be the only thing anyone ever see's in the cinema. Ironically, I hadn't seen in the cinema when it came out. I know. I'm sorry. Calm down. That's a little strong, don't you think? Okay, fair enough.
In all honesty, I rarely see the big movies when they come out. I'm not sure why, and it's one of my many flaws and I'm probably not going to confront it any time soon. But I finally saw GotG (for the cool kids) and I thought it was fantastic. I'll preface this by saying I was a little drunk at the time, a factor which has been scientifically proven to increase enjoyment, no matter what you're doing. But still, this movie was great. I don't have any comic book knowledge generally; of course every nerdy kid is somewhat aware of characters like Batman, Superman, Iron Man etc, but Guardians of the Galaxy didn't even pop up on my radar until the internet exploded with Chris Pratt going super-hunk. Of course, having not seen it when it first came out, I was then smothered with information about the film, so I didn't come in completely clueless. Plus, I've never really been bothered about spoilers. I'm aware it still changes how I watch something, but for me, the construction that leads to the 'spoiler' is as enjoyable as the 'spoiler' itself.
So I went in knowing where I was, but not where I was going. For those who haven't seen it, I'm going to mention some possible spoilery stuff, because frankly I don't care, so *SPOILER* it's been out for months now *SPOILER*.
The movie starts with a very Up (2009) style 'break-your-heart-then-build-it-back-up' opening. Unfortunately, it's a little too short to properly grab your heart then smash it against a wall, but seeing a mother die of cancer as her son struggles with how to deal with it is tough no matter what. Then suddenly the kid runs outside and is beamed up in a spaceship, and we leap into the films present day, which is the future. This is somewhat explained right at the end, and I'm assuming the sequel(s) will expand on it, but in the moment it's so sudden and out of context as to be slightly more jarring than intriguing. The rest of the movie is a tremendous thrill ride of all the things you want from this kind of movie. I'm going to say "think Avengers (2012) but in space". Wait! Don't hunt me down just yet! Let me clarify. Avengers came out while we were still in the era of going deeper into the person behind the comic book character, most prevalent in the Dark Knight Trilogy (2005-2012) but also in Iron Man (2008-2013), which I think they tried to carry on in Avengers. They also understood that you can't go that deep when you've got six or so main characters, so the focus is on them bouncing off each other and comedy, which creates a weird hybrid of not quite one, not quite the other, not quite either. Don't get me wrong, Avengers was awesome, but there it is.
What 'Guardians' does is that, but better. It's definitely an action comedy, not an action thriller with comedy segments, and for a comic book movie, that seems to work much better. Pratt knows comedy (if you haven't seen Parks and Recreation, he is glorious) but can also be the serious (super) hero who gets you behind him. Saldana knows her space movies (Star Trek) and it's nice that while she and Pratt show some affection, she doesn't automatically slot into the 'love interest' role. Dave Bautista, who I know from my days as a WWE wrestling fan (yeah, I was that cool), is a revelation, at many points becoming your favourite character. If I hadn't known that Bradley Cooper *SPOILERY SPOILERS* was the voice of Rocket Raccoon, I might needed a trip to IMDb. Even just through his voice, he still gives you all the feels, and if Pixar/Disney/Dreamworks aren't already signing him up for their next project, they're naught but prize fools. And of course, who doesn't wholeheartedly love Groot (Vin Diesel)?
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| "I am Groot" Damn right you are. |
I'm not sure whether this is my favourite comic book movie yet; I still have soft spots for Downey's Iron Man and Batman, but it's all the way up there.
By the way, I've heard people argue that Iron Man and especially Batman aren't really super heroes because they don't actually have any powers. Bugger off, you people, that's stupid. Look at it this way. For many, super heroes represent how anyone can be a hero if they work hard and believe in themselves, and where is this idea more obvious than in two guys who could just sit back on their piles of money, but choose to use the talents they have (super-genius for Iron Man/Tony Stark, super-fitness and bravery for Batman/Bruce Wayne) to help people. That's more inspirational that being accidentally bitten by a spider and then going "Well, shit, I may as well use this for good." Sorry, Spiderman fans, that was a little flippant, but whatever.
So, there's that. Looking back at this post, I'm aware just how scattershot it is, but it's a good workout for my brain, so damn your eyes, gosh darn it! If you have an opinion of Guradians of the Galaxy, or anything at all, leave it in the comments, why dontcha? I'm off now to probably not sleep again. As always, a very good day to you, Sirs and Madams, until we meet again.
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