Space Opera

Watch as Marvel Takes Over the Galaxy

milhayser — Fri, 01 Aug 2014 11:23:44 +0000

Watch as Marvel Takes Over the Galaxy

Like Rocket—a genetically engineered, cybernetically enhanced raccoon—Guardians of the Galaxy is a strange beast. Wanting to make a little cash, Rocket and his talking tree-buddy Groot try to collect a bounty on that guy from Parks and Recreation (and Zero Dark Thirty [Chris Pratt]). But the human, who wishes he were known as Star-Lord, not only has a 40,000 unit bounty on his head, but a softball-sized orb of power that every bigwig in the galaxy wants to steal or buy. Gamora, a femme fatale working for her supervillain step-daddy, crashes the party as Rocket and Groot try to bag Star-Lord, and all four go to jail, where they meet a musclebound literalist named Drax (whose stilted take on English sounds like those foreign dudes from Family Guy). Following in the wake of critically acclaimed comic book adaptations like Iron Man and The Avengers, Guardians represents an emphatic stake by Marvel Studios on the genre of comedy. It's still a sprawling action movie, complete with boilerplate plot, senseless acts of violence, and large-scale digital destruction. But make no mistake: Guardians of the Galaxy is a riot, and Marvel's master plan to take over Hollywood is well under way.

Much of the levity of the movie comes from the unremitting irony of its soundtrack. Taken alone this collection of songs might be the most pandering soundtrack in the history of cinema. But the songs are tearily justified by the script, and it's hard not to be amused by scenes of alien worlds and sleek technology overlaid with some of the catchiest songs of the seventies and eighties. Most are played for maximum dissonance, such as "The Piña Colada Song" during the team's desperate escape from prison. One track sets the mood for a romantic moment—until Star-Lord starts talking about Kevin Bacon and Gamora kicks him in the balls. The montage preceding the conventionally epic final battle is set to "Cherry Bomb" by The Runaways, which serves as a reminder that just because it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck doesn't mean it's punk rock (although Joan Jett is still in there somewhere). Like the Runaways, this film shows betrays a crass yet calculated commercialism, the raison d'etre of some some white male hegemonies in L.A. It fails the Bechdel test, it features little racial diversity, it suffers from obvious white savior syndrome as Star-Lord 'dudes' and 'bros' his way through the quadrant and finally wins the heart of the lady. Brutal violence against blue-collar humanoids is perpetrated with nary a moral qualm, despite young Star-Lord, in a 1988 prologue, standing up to frog-smushers at school and getting a black eye for his trouble.

Meanwhile, the strength of the film emerges from the interactions of the characters. Just like in The Avengers, banter between well-drawn team members saves the film from the meaninglessness of its blockbuster body plan. Rocket Raccoon becomes the surprising anchor of the story; he is an ingenious and violent freak, a perpetual outsider, a victim of ridicule and prejudice, an angry, embittered anthropomorph who ultimately doesn't mind being pet a little. Voiced to great effect by Bradley Cooper, Rocket is not only visually believable, but emotionally credible as well. Rocket's connection with his magical tree friend is the deepest in the story. Yet Vin Diesel, though well-billed as Groot, could probably have left his voice work on an answering machine.

As for the science, its totally non-existent. The universe is said to have formed from six singularities each leaving behind a differently-colored 'infinity stone'—which might satisfy a cabalist, but not an astronomer. The purple stone, contained within Star-Lord's orb, propels the plot: it destroys all organic matter on contact, oh and also it can only be wielded by beings of supreme power. Luckily Star-Lord's mom had sex with an angel and he's only half human, allowing him, with some extra help from his team, to save a world that looks suspiciously like Elysium (or, for that matter, SHIELD HQ)—which is to say, so rich and polished that it could only have been built on the back of extreme poverty and ghettoization. Star-Lord's angel DNA may also explain why he can space-walk without a suit. Of course, the term 'science fiction' is hardly applicable to a film like this. Its closest cinematic relative is The Fifth Element (1997). We're talking the iconography of SF taken to extremes of fantasy and humor.

Crucially, despite the trappings of space opera, this film is set in 2014, and Earth is somewhere in the distance. This places the Guardians into the same diegetic space and time as the Avengers, Iron Man, the Hulk, Captain America, and Thor. The prospects for character and genre recombination in the Marvel Cinematic Universe are dizzying. With principal actors like Mark Ruffalo, Samuel L. Jackson, Robert Downey Jr., and Scarlett Johansson, rising superstars like Chris Pratt, venerable old pros like Glenn Close and Robert Redford (in the surprisingly astute security-state criticism Captain America: The Winter Soldier) plus talented and familiar actors everywhere you look, Marvel has the star power to back its pantheon of freaks and heroes. Next to join the milieu is comedian Paul Rudd in Ant-Man, which truly boggles the mind. We can only be thankful that the X-Men and Spiderman have their own 'cinematic universes' to inhabit (Marvel having sold the rights to other studios).

It doesn't matter if you've never read the comics: if you like movies, you might love what Marvel is doing. At a time when visual effects artists can accomplish anything, cinema is the next level of comic books as a medium for making fantastical stories and images. Some of Marvel's films have been amazing, and I can't wait to see what's next. The audience agrees: applauding the end of the film, then sitting through the credits to catch a glimpse of the future—which also walks like a duck, but quacks like something entirely different.

MCU Must See:
Iron Man (2008)
The Avengers (2012)
Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2013)
Guardians of the Galaxy (2014)

milhayser Fri, 08/01/2014 - 07:23

Spoiler Alert: Riddick

milhayser — Wed, 18 Sep 2013 09:08:57 +0000

Spoiler Alert: Riddick

After thirteen years and three films, it's still hard to know what to think about Richard B. Riddick. No one calls him Dick. His luminescent mother-of-pearl cat's eyes allow him to see in the dark, when they're not protected by an iconic pair of black welding goggles. He is very talented at killing people and animals, especially with melee weapons or hand-to-hand. He's not based on any literary or comic-book character. Judging by his conversational abilities, he may be brain damaged or developmentally disabled. He is extremely strong. He is played by Vin Diesel.

In Pitch Black (2000), Riddick, a convict, crash-lands on a planet with his guardian bounty hunter and a dozen civilians who had been in cryo-sleep on an interstellar voyage. The planet is infested with flying, hammerheaded flesh eaters who only live underground unless you're unlucky enough that it's every twenty-two years and all three of the planet's suns are about to be totally eclipsed. The film's tagline is "fight evil with evil," so the "good" guys uncuff Riddick to defend them from the ravenous monsters. He takes advantage of his infrared vision, and pronounces the occasional badass monosyllable or epigram. Hack, slash, blast, get chewed on. Riddick and two others escape the planet alive.

Then there's The Chronicles of Riddick (2004), which stepped away from the small-galaxy, human-centric, Alien-esque aesthetic of the first film for full-blown space opera. Riddick, the Furyan hero of prophecy, is destined to overthrow the mighty Necromonger king. Grunt, shoot, stab, take goggles on and off lavishly. Judi Dench plays an "Air Elemental" who can turn invisible and swish around through space. With the Grand Necromonger Army overrunning the galaxy planet by planet, "evil" must again fight "evil," even though Riddick is really a giant teddy bear and the Necromongers are pompous pretenders to villainy. The Necromongers have a code which says "You keep what you kill," so when the Necromonger king, who can also worm his way through space, chooses (in a pinch) to be impaled by Riddick rather than cleaved in two by his ambitious lieutenant Vaako, Riddick becomes lord of the Necromongers, and they all bow before him. The film ends with a rather interesting question: what would an outlaw do with a dark army?

But in Riddick (2013), we don't get an answer. Instead we get an essential remake of Pitch Black, complete with the lone planet, the stranded crew, the flesh-eating monsters that don't like sunny weather. All the grandiose elements of space opera are gone as unexpectedly as they were introduced. And while it's not uncommon for different films in a franchise to take different directions, it's worth noting that all three films were at least co-written and directed by David Twohy. Also, if you recognize Karl Urban reprising his role as Vaako, it's because he's also starring in Star Trek sequels as Dr. McCoy.

Riddick wakes up in a pile of rubble, nearly dead. He claws his way to water, fending off wild dogs, then kidnaps one of their puppies to raise as his own. For a while it's all dog-training and domestic bliss: bounty hunters and superpredators seem worlds away. In flashback we see that Vaako left Riddick on this planet for dead, keeping what he (quite reasonably) thought he had killed. Now Riddick's only way off-world is to activate an emergency beacon at an unmanned mercenary co-operative convenience store and motel. The beacon scans and identifies Riddick, and soon a crew of bounty hunters swoops in for his head, followed by another ship with more mysterious interests. As the two crews try to outposture each other, Riddick steals the fuel cells from their ships. He's willing to let them all squeeze in to one as long as he gets to leave in the other. Then it starts to rain and the monsters come out. Flex, pivot, stab, degoggle, you know the drill.

Still, Riddick is the best Riddick movie yet. It's popularity has improved production values tremendously. It is starting to discover the pleasures and possibilities of a blockbuster franchise. If it could follow in the footsteps of that other Vin Diesel picture frame, the Fast and Furious, so much the better.

But you have to wonder...who is Riddick? Will we ever know anything about him?

milhayser Wed, 09/18/2013 - 05:08