Years ago I was luckily enough to be in Hall H at San Diego Comic Con for the Marvel panel. They brought out the cast of Iron Man 3, showed some test footage of Ant-Man, and then got into their plan for phase 2 of the Marvel Movie Universe. First came the announcement of Thor The Dark World, the audience went nuts. Second came the announcement about Captain America The Winter Soldier, the audience went crazy for this news. Then the announcement that Guardians of the Galaxy would be released… I remember hearing people around me yell, WHAT THE? and WHO? followed by “isn’t that the comic with the raccoon?”
Yes, I was shocked also by the news. We all were. Not many of us growing up, reading comic books ever listed Guardians of the Galaxy as one of our favorites, not even in our top ten. If Marvel were to have polled us back in the day and asked what comic book characters would you want to see on the big screen, none or almost none of us would of said Guardians of the Galaxy.
Yet, here we are today and I’m so pumped for this movie. So pumped that I camped out for a couple of hours to only see 17 mins of the movie 3 weeks before its released. Also at Disneyland I waited in line to see the 1st 10 mins of the film in 4D.
I’m not gonna go into great detail on what I saw at both these sneak peak/first looks but if you are someone who hates any spoilers, I would suggest stop reading now.
Still with me? Sweet!
I’ll start with the Disneyland footage because its the 1st 10 mins of the movie. Like any sneak peak of a movie, its always extended footage of something we already have seen in trailers. Same goes for what footage they usually show at panels is footage that ends up in the trailers released to the public later.
The film starts with Starlord’s spaceship landing on a deserted planet. He gets off it with his mask on and begins walking around, then takes out an device which shows images of people that used to live on the planet. This shows a hidden door where he enters to looks like an old great hall from some past civilization that used to live on the planet. He takes off his mask and puts on his head phones with his awesome mix tape and starts to blast music. He begins to dance around and rocks out while these little dinosaur type creatures are running around him. Some of them jump to try and bite him but he kicks or punches them away while singing & dancing. At one point he grabs one by the neck and is singing into his mouth and holds it like a microphone.
He then whips out his device to find out where the mysterious orb is hiding. Starlord uses a lot of gadgets in these 10 mins, he is like a bad ass Batman in it. Outside two ships land and Korath the Pursuer follows Starlords’ tracks inside with his men. Then the scene you have seen a lot in the trailers with the “Who are you?” and “I’m Starlord.” Starlord escapes using some cool gadgets and slides back into his spaceship. The 4D was pretty awesome with air blowing in your face when the spaceship lands, lighting flashes behind with the weather on the planet. Smoke comes out the walls at one point when Starlord blows up the wall. I wonder if movie theaters will get like this someday. Would be cool, but I would hate to know how much it would cost, like 20 or 30 dollars to see a movie like that?
The 17 mins first look footage:
The scene starts out with all the guardians getting their rap sheet. Yes the scene with John C. Reilly’s character Rhomann Dey who see in all the trailers. It was weird seeing them not block Starlord’s middle finger. They are then led off in hand cuffs with Groot saying “I am Groot” and Starlord keeps yelling at him “yes I know, you have told me for the 80th time.” Starlord notices a blue guard playing his walkman, yes the scene you have seen in the trailer. He tries and tries to get it back from the guard but keeps getting shocked.
They are off getting hosed down by orange water and then have to put yellow jail suits on. We see Rocket without a shirt on and see that his back has what looks like wires were
in him at some point. They are now force into the mess hall of the Nova jail. Above them is a watch tower with glass windows and one guard in it. Slowly the other prisoners notice them walking through. Many of the jailers yell at Gamora. She is not liked because of her pass. There are so many people in the jail, I bet there are easter eggs for future stories.
A giant blue man walks up to Rocket Raccoon and is talking smack to him. Groot walks up and sticks two of his fingers inside the blue man’s nose and lifts him up by it. Rocket Raccoon tells everyone to listen up that they are now in charge of everything. Classic! A man walks by with a metal leg, the group walks to a corner to come up with a plan to break out. As Rocket Raccoon says, he has broken out of a ton of prisons and has a plan. 1st, Gamora must steal a security bracelet from a guard, Starlord will need to get the metal leg from the man who just walked by. Last they need to get the battery out of a box up by the watch tower. Groot slowly leaves the group and walks up the tower while Raccoon keeps stressing to the group that they must get the battery last. Groot grows big then calmly removes the battery. Alarm goes off! Guards are rushing down and so are these red flying orbs with guns on them. It turns into a prison riot. Drax quickly over powers the guards with the guns and throws one to Rocket where we get the now famous line in the trailers “Ohhhhh yea” The group fights their way up the guard tower while bringing the battery Groot stole. Gamora using the security bracelet she stole from one of the guards to open the door to the tower. Starlord puts down the metal leg and Raccoon was like oh I really didn’t need that. Starlord is so upset, “why did you make me get it from the guy?” Raccoon, because I thought it would be funny to see the guy hop around.” Raccoon is able to override the controls in the tower and turn off the gravity control in the prison, everywhere but inside the tower. The tower attaches from the main body and Raccoon takes controls of the flying red orbs and is able to turn the tower controls into a make shift spaceship to escape from the prison.
There was plenty of action and humor in both scenes. Music is gonna be a huge part of the movie. As a guy who doesn’t care for 3D, I really thought the 3D in IMAX was amazing. I might actually go see it in IMAX now. This movie is gonna be a lot of fun to see on August 1st. Like I said, who would of thought we would be so hyped up for a Guardians of the Galaxy movie.