Tobar

Thanks to all of you who saw (and are seeing) Guardians of the Galaxy this weekend, from the bottom of my heart. The Guardians are a group of oddballs, outcasts, and geeks. The movie is for anyone who ever felt cast aside, left out, or different. It’s for all of us who don’t belong. This movie belongs to you. And, today, I think we’re doing okay.

I am of course happy with all the film has accomplished box-office-wise. But what touches me the most is that the film I told the folks at Marvel I wanted to make two years ago is the film that you’re seeing in theaters today – it’s that so many of you seem to be directly EXPERIENCING the film I INTENDED. The cast, the producers, the crew, and I felt like we were making something special while we were making it. But it is very rare that a director’s INTENTIONS in creating a film, or a scene, or a character, or a line of dialogue are, seemingly, specifically what is experienced by an audience (not to mention critics!), and that seems to be what has happened here. You have allowed a talking raccoon – for a moment, a minute, or a day – to make you a little more human. And for that, I am profoundly grateful.

If I relied on myself to implement these intentions, the film would be a shambling mess. But instead, I had a wonderful cast, genius producers, an incredibly brave studio, sublimely talented visual effects artists, great editors, and the best damn crew of mostly-British bastards to actually implement these intentions for me. Where I had a good idea they would, through alchemy, transform it into a great one. Many of you involved are friends of mine on Facebook. Many of you will read this somewhere else. I love you all.

You may remember me posting here a couple weeks ago how sad I was to be finishing up the film, that I was having trouble letting go of Rocket, and that I was going to miss him. But seeing him (and Groot, and the rest of the team) embraced by the world like they have been, to be UNDERSTOOD, makes it a wonderful letting go. It’s like giving a foster pet up for adoption to the most wonderful parents in the world.

And, of course, I’m not really saying goodbye as, while many of you have been enjoying the film, I’ve spent this weekend hard at work on the sequel. I couldn’t help myself! The results are nice but it’s really the creative process I love and that keeps me going. I’m on fire with this thing! The Guardians have so many hardships and heartaches and triumphs ahead of them, and I can’t wait to share them with all of you.

Onto week two…

Love, James

Remember it was Old Ben that regarded Anakin as the best star-pilot in the galaxy. Red 5 only knew about Anakin because he met him and thought he was a great pilot.

Well, the show had to start off with some kind of gaff. I think a light sling is better than "Skyguy" and "Artooie." I just hope they ditch it quickly like they did those others. =P

Tobar said:

I did notice something odd though. In the first shot after Luke has arrived on Cloud City and he's walking down that hallway toward the camera, the sky suddenly dims about a second after the wipe. I checked and it's there both on my blu-ray player and PC.

 So...anyone else notice this?

The problem was that while the official company line was "It's all canon folks!"

George never believed that. So throughout the Clone Wars whenever he'd come up with something that didn't fit with the EU they'd have to scramble to quickly come up with a retcon to try and make it work.

And now when he finally sat down and wrote the outlines for VII-IX, he completely ignored the EU. So characters like the Solo twins and Luke's kid are gone. There might be one or more offspring in them but they're not the same characters from the EU and more than likely won't have the same names.

And something of that magnitude simply can't be retconned away.

TMBTM said:

Disney did not de-canonize the Expanded Universe. Because it NEVER was officialy canon. 

From the first Zahn trilogy they said (Lucasfilm) that if Lucas ever wanted to make movies set after ROTJ the stories could be totaly different. 

 Don't tell these guys that. They'll have your head.

Just got done watching it. Fantastic work Harmy! I can't express how wonderful it is to have the Empire Strikes Back...back! The despecialized shots are terrific and the color timing was superb.

I did notice something odd though. In the first shot after Luke has arrived on Cloud City and he's walking down that hallway toward the camera, the sky suddenly dims about a second after the wipe. I checked and it's there both on my blu-ray player and PC.

I'm digging it. Seems like they haven't finished scoring it though.

That would be telling...

The CG Clone Wars stayed clear of the stuff that happened in the Tartakovsky series.

I doubt it'd happen anytime in the near future but never say never. =P

You can't say something like that and not provide a link!

Howard was always a Marvel character. I'm sure the film rights reverted back to them decades ago but if it hadn't the the acquisition of Lucasfilm pretty much assures they have them now.

The Buddy Holly Story (1978)

Been in a music biopic mood lately. While the film never seemed to picked up its own kind of rhythm or momentum, Gary Busey did a great job in the title role.

Casting By (2013)

It's a travesty that Marion Dougherty never received an Oscar in her lifetime. The DGA is just ridiculous.

Marvel's Phase 1 & 2 - A Look Back

oh_riginal said:

I seem to be in the minority here, but I'd change the Ben's hut scene back to the theatrical version.

 Nope, that's the one change that has always bothered me. The flow of the conversation just feels wrong now.

There are two real options and neither involve remaking either of the trilogies. From here on out Lucasfilm will either continue with the episodes or after IX they will shift to standalones only. They will NEVER remake ANY of the previous films. It will NEVER happen. The culture there of canon and continuity would never allow it.

Following down that rabbit hole to the original source of the rumor, it sounds very dubious. They say they "intercepted" an internal email but don't actually share it or provide any kind of details.

And then the second half of the article dives straight into fantasy with the notion that the prequels could be deemed Legends and scrapped. As much as I personally would love that, there's not a snowballs chance in hades of it ever happening.

DominicCobb said:

I get leaving out stuff like the identity of his father for a sequel, but simple stuff like his feelings about leaving Earth behind I think is rather essential to completely understanding the character.

 Throughout the film they give lots of hints about the resentment he fills about being torn away from his family.

Again, we're just meeting the character in this film. If they were to give everything away in their first go there wouldn't be anything to explore about the character later on.

My biggest issue with that scene is actually his slave girl and what she does which I found totally random (though again I understand that they wanted to show the power of the orb, but still this was not the best way to do that I think).

Earlier in the film they show how cruelly he treats his slaves. In the scene in question, he just got done explaining how the infinity stones bestow awesome power to those with the ability to wield them. Overhearing that and no longer wanting to be enslaved and at the mercy of this psycho she makes a play to escape. I don't get what's hard to understand about that.

DominicCobb said:

If I have one complaint about his Peter Quill, it's that we don't get enough of him. There's definitely a lot about him that hasn't been said (how does he feel about being abducted? does he want to go back to Earth? etc.), and presumably will be in a sequel. But it really should have been said here. 

The main purpose of this film was to establish the characters, organizations and settings of this world.

If they had explored those things about Quill in this film it would have been rushed. Leaving it to a sequel gives them an opportunity to explore it in depth in a story that has the potential to be more conducive to it.

I'm sure stuff like the scene with the Collector made comic fans wet, but, to me, it was just really weird and rather random and not entirely necessary.

I'm not familiar with the source material either but I think it's pretty apparent they're setting up the Collector to be a bigger character later on. It was already established in Thor: The Dark World that he posses one of the other infinity stones. And Benicio Del Toro is a big name actor that you don't waste on an unimportant side character.

This film is setting up a lot of things that will inevitably pay off in later sequels like Jon C. Reilly and Glenn Close's characters.

Anyway, the Collector scene was necessary from a storytelling perspective. First it allows for a breather in between action scenes and second it provides vital exposition that informs the main characters about what it is they're dealing with.

Might wanna check your monitor settings. That robe is dark brown not black. =P

I believe he wants photographic evidence of you at your keyboard whilst you were composing your review.

Detropia (2012)

I've been fascinated with Detroit for some time now. Brilliantly shot if a little short on content.

Guardians of the Galaxy (2014)

Hands down, best movie I've seen in years. Stop what you're doing and go see it right now.