Who’s ready for a freaking raccoon! Unveiled during Tuesday night’s episode of The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon, the trailer for Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy previews the space adventure for the first time (because I don’t count a 19-second teaser the day before). Time to crank up the volume in the (Movie) Trailer Park.
Mostly Average Take:
What ISN’T there to talk about with this movie? (Mild spoilers may be below. And I do mean mild.)
-Chris Pratt de-fatted (a reported 60 pounds) and bulked up for this role, a departure from his doofy Parks and Rec character. He gets plenty of screen time in the trailer and will clearly be the sarcastic and quippy loser that eventually forms into a semi-competent outlaw. So far? Hilarious.
-I’m curious as to how dark they’ll let Drax the Destroyer be in this, given that it’s more of a fun PG-13 flick. They certainly addressed his turmoil (wife and daughter killed), but I do want to see some legitimate “acting” from Mr. Bautista. Or as close to it as he gets.
-I was disappointed that we didn’t get to hear anything from Rocket Raccoon, but that shouldn’t be surprising, given that Bradley Cooper hasn’t done the voice-over recording yet. Just imagine!
-Zoe Saldana is green! With red hair! And doesn’t look like I need to feed her crackers constantly. That’s a plus. And as Gamora she’ll be (or have been) the adopted daughter of Thanos, who will likely be the end-all villain for Marvel’s Phase 3 movies. (Avengers 3???)
-GROOT! Vin Diesel is the voice of a living tree. He only says the phrase “I am Groot.” This is probably a perfect fit for Diesel’s acting range. (Again, his voiceover work probably isn’t ready.)
-Glenn Close didn’t make her appearance as commander of the Nova Corps (Nova Prime baby), but that’s okay. We got our John C. Reilly fix as an officer in the Corps instead.
-The trailer is light on villains aside from Djimon Hounsou’s Korath. There’s no sign of Lee Pace’s Ronan the Accuser and only a brief glimpse of Karen Gillan’s Nebula. We get a flash of Benicio Del Toro’s The Collector as well, which makes sense as we’ve already seen him in the Thor 2 closing credit sequence. But there will assuredly be bad-guys and fisticuffs and pew-pew-ing, don’t you worry your pretty face about it.
-What would a space movie be without dog-fighting spaceships??? NOTHING I SAY.
-Using Blue Swede’s “Hooked on a Feeling” is just gold. Pratt’s character is supposedly picked up from Earth in the 80’s, hence still having a walkman.
Honestly, this is the best Marvel trailer to date. It’s near perfect and gets me oh-so excited for its release. It looks like the Bad News Bears of superhero movies. Which means it’ll be entertaining as hell. I’m glad Marvel is embracing the property’s odd and off-kilter nature as this should be the studio’s “comedic” franchise while Iron Man takes a break.
Are you ready to save the Galaxy? Leave your thoughts on the trailer in the comments below!
Guardians of the Galaxy is slated for an August 1st, 2014 release.
