Guardians, Take 2

The movie's lighthearted. That's fine. Men in Black and Spaceballs were both pretty lighthearted. So was the Hitchhiker's Guide film. (Come to think of it, Hitchhiker's wasn't utterly awful in its own right, it was just a poor adaptation of the radio show/novels.)

Since I compared the heroes protagonists to the ones in Farscape (and on re-watching Guardians I realized I made a colossal mistake in comparing Gamora to Aeryn - Gamora's probably the most morally "good" member of the team for at least the first half of the film, whereas Aeryn takes a long time to snap out of Evil Soldier Mode) I thought I'd better compare the villains to the ones in Star Wars as well. This might make my point better. Both films have a Big Bad, a Dragon, and a Bigger Bad.

The Bigger Bad is the most evil guy in the setting, but he's really kinda beyond the scope of the plot. That's the Emperor in the original Star Wars film (he never shows up, but Tarkin and Vader are running the show in his name), and Thanos in Guardians (we see him, but he personally does nothing).

The Big Bad is the primary villain of the story, the one with the plan that the heroes need to stop. Tarkin in Star Wars, Ronan in Guardians. Usually - not always (think Blofeld, or Vader in Empire) - the Big Bad will be killed off at the end of the story.

The Dragon is the Big Bad's greatest asset, either the biggest or second-biggest physical threat to the heroes (depending on how physical the Big Bad is - that's one difference between Tarkin and Ronan). Vader in Star Wars, Nebula in Guardians. (They both happen to be cyborg pilots with familial connections to one of the protagonists, but that's just a coincidence.)

Another thought on Interstellar

is that it can't quite decide what it wants to be.

As I said last time, the first hour or so of the film sets it up (misleadingly) as Atlas Shrugged In Space.  The second hour of the film: "Humans are flawed. Some will make mistakes and others will just outright lie and endanger the entire human race to save their skins." The third hour: one part Doctor Who space magic (Steven Moffat's probably slapping himself for not having come up with this already, as the third act is totally right up his alley), one part Spielberg sentimentality.  The first two hours aren't entirely at odds with each other, but the third most certainly is.

And therein, to me, lies the main problem. As late as the scene where Matt Damon was failing his docking maneuver, I was prepared to love the film.

The Winter Soldier review, take 2

Take 1 having been written under the influence of an extraordinarily negative fellow critic.

Captain America The Winter Soldier does one thing utterly and totally brilliantly, and it really needs a name for this sort of thing.

(Spoilers)

And the award for Most Misleading Headline In A Non-Political Context goes to these guys.

"Taking a break" is not the same as "leaving."

"Leaving the band" suggests he's gone for good. I refuse to contemplate AC/DC continuing on without Malcolm Young. While Angus Young and Brian Johnson are far more public - the faces of the band, if you will - it's Malcolm's band. 

Hell, even Thin Lizzy decided to change its name to Black Star Riders when they decided to do a new album decades after Phil Lynott's death.

Oh, another reason I liked Thor to the degree that I might - might - just be willing to call it the best g*dd*mn superhero movie ever made was because its politics weren't really shoehorned in there. I just stopped and said "what" when I was watching The Avengers and all the heroes were upset because Samuel L. Jackson was making weapons. Because it's okay for Tony Stark to have an Iron Man suit, but woe betide the United States whenever he has a hangover. (And I know Joss Whedon has a hangup about guns from how they're treated on Buffy, but they're how us mortals like to protect ourselves, thanks very much.)

Thor didn't bother trying to pull any of that crap on us.  The Ice Giants that Thor protects at the end were by no means innocent, but there was a peace, one that Loki spent the entire film trying to undo, and one that the Ice Giant leadership didn't seem to have an interest in breaking (until Loki appeared to hand them victory on a silver platter, at any rate).  Thor saving the Ice Giants was less a political message and more a necessary part of his character arc, and I'm not going to dispute the notion that peace is a worthy goal.