Guardians of the Galaxy

The Guardians of the Galaxy trailer came out and I expected nothing. Marvel running its algorithm: big cast, simple premise, summer release date, another franchise. The pitch though is almost strange enough to work: criminals and misfits trying to save the universe, which is at least a break from the billionaire-with-issues template.

The cast is what made me look twice. Chris Pratt, who does comedies. Zoe Saldana, Dave Bautista, Vin Diesel as a voice, Bradley Cooper also voice, Michael Rooker, Karen Gillan, Lee Pace, Djimon Hounsou, John C. Reilly, Glenn Close. You spend that kind of money on a superhero movie, you could fill it with pretty people. Instead they got actors. That says something.

The trailer itself is strange. It’s not grim and self-important like Marvel learned to be. It’s almost funny. The music choice, the pacing, the sense that nobody’s treating this as the next evolution of the form. I spent years watching action movies that pretended comedy wasn’t real, and I spent the last decade watching blockbusters that pretended everything was a joke to cover for no actual tone. This feels like it might be doing something in between, which is probably impossible and could be amazing or terrible.

I don’t know yet. August will show whether they pulled it off or if they just made an expensive mess that thinks chaos counts as charm. Either way, I’m more curious about this than I’ve been about Marvel in a while, which is maybe the only thing that matters.