Guardians of the Galaxy: The Injection of Comedy

Guardians of the Galaxy: The Injection of Comedy 

By: Kirk Brown

Guardians of the Galaxy was released in 2014 in a time when the film medium was flooded with dark and serious superhero dramas. Movies such as The Dark Knight, The Dark Knight Rises and Man of Steel all dominated the superhero market in the years before Guardians of the Galaxy’s release. These movies all took very grounded and dramatic looks at the characters that were being portrayed in them and molded the superhero genre around that at the time. Guardians of the Galaxy looked at this trend in the superhero genre and asked what if we put a walking tree, a talking raccoon, a man-child, a meat head and a green alien together and sent them on a quest to find a magical glowing purple stone that could destroy a planet faster than you could sing, Oooh-Child, if you accidentally dropped it? The answer is you get a massive box-office hit.

Guardians of the Galaxy successfully spun the wheel on its head and portrayed an immensely fun and entertaining film because of its ability to inject comedy through its amazing characters. The characters are the reason the comedy works. The films ability to utilize its rich and fully realized characters so well is the reason that the comedic moments they portray come off as real and believable, rather than comedy written into the script. When the characters laugh together, we laugh as an audience because we have emotionally connected to these characters and can see ourselves in their place. Through its outstanding characters, Guardians of the Galaxy successfully subverts the cliches of superhero movies at the time of its release by utilizing a creative, fun, wacky and truly heart-felt take on a comic book that received no attention in 1969 when it released. It paved the way for a new wave of superhero movies, seamlessly blending comedy into the superhero genre in outstanding fashion.

Guardians of the Galaxy was able to blend its comedy so well into the emotional and key moments in the movie because the characters that were portrayed were so human on the inside while being completely alien on the outside. The walking tree, that can only say the words “I am Groot”, portrays depth and emotion throughout the film as we see him protecting his friends in the prison and Ronin’s ship. This need to protect the ones he loves is his catalyst throughout the movie, ultimately culminated at the last sequence in the film when he makes the ultimate sacrifice, dying for his friends to save them, stating: “We are Groot.” The talking raccoon longs for a place in the world and a sense of belonging, thoroughly portrayed in the scene when Rocket gets drunk in the bar on Knowhere and states: “I didn’t ask to get made.” The man-child never had the environment or catalyst to grow up and mature because we see him lose his mother at the very beginning of the film, and right after being abducted by an alien spaceship. Peter Quill is stuck in the nostalgia of the past, constantly listening to his Walkman and attempting to run from his present. The meat head’s sole purpose is to avenge the death of his wife and child so that he may find peace with their tragic passing. Drax encapsulates this perfectly when the guardians are agreeing to go after Ronin and the power stone and states to Quill: “I will fight beside you and in the end... see my wife and daughter again.” The green alien portrays a woman who conveys complete sternness and the strive for doing what is morally right, while on the inside longing for a sense of affection and fun in her life (enter Peter Quill). The scene that perfectly shows us that Gamora is finally willing to show her emotions and accept the love and happiness she knows that she deserves, is an incredibly wonderful subtle moment in the film when Peter puts on his Awesome Mixtape: Vol. 2 given to him by his mother and ‘Ain’t No Mountain High Enough’ begins to play. Gamora then steps toward Quill and smiles and slightly begins to nod her head along with the music. The depth and humanity that is portrayed in these characters allows for the funny moments to feel truly funny. Comedy is injected to further develop the characters and add even more depth to them so that we as an audience can identify with them even more and laugh with them, rather than the comedy being written on the script as a joke for the audience to laugh at.

The characters in Guardians of the Galaxy are why the comedy works so well, but HOW does it work so well? The answer is the situations the characters are put in, more commonly known as the plot of the movie. In the second opening sequence of the film we see Peter Quill scouring an alien planet in search of something. We see him wearing his helmet with glowing red eyes, as he enters an ancient cavern and menacing music plays. Immediately after, our expectations are subverted and Peter takes off the helmet, turns on his Walkman, puts on his headphones and ‘Come and Get your Love’ begins to play as he dances around the cavern and kicks around small alien animals. This sets up Peter as someone who is not only carefree and cocky, but someone who is stuck in the past. Soon after, men arrive to take the artifact Peter has grabbed from this alien place. They attempt to arrest Peter and this situation is the perfect catalyst for the first comedic moments in the film that truly stick the landing. We see Peter’s cocky attitude come out when he states that his name is Star Lord and he is a famous outlaw after his arrester looks confused, and then Peter immediately fights back against his arresters. Later in this sequence after Peter has escaped, we get a slow in the action as a woman emerges from the bottom of Quill’s ship and asks what is going on. Peter responds by stammering and forgetting her name. As the film continues, we see this artifact Peter has found join the five main characters together and introduce them to one another. The plot serves the characters in this film which in turn serves the comedy. The prison escape, the sequence on Knowhere, the bickering with Yondu and the final battle with Ronin all serve as perfect scenarios for the characters to react and interact with each other in real and hilarious ways that come off as genuine moments of comedy between the main characters. It is a story told, realized and echoes on through humor (Hulk, 2014).

Guardians of the Galaxy’s successful injection of humor and fun into the superhero genre sparked a new wave of superhero movies that would see major box-office success. Shazam, Deadpool, Thor: Ragnarök and Guardians of the Galaxy: Vol. 2 all followed the motif that the first Guardians of the Galaxy laid the groundwork for. All of these films were able to achieve that successful injection of comedy into their works, but Guardians of the Galaxy pioneered the breakout of this form of superhero genre setting up a plateau for these other films to launch off of.

Guardians of the Galaxy’s brilliant look at its in-depth characters was the major catalyst for the humor found throughout the film. Creating alien life-forms that felt as real and human to us as our best friends, was nothing short of amazing work by James Gunn (Director and Writer of Guardians of the Galaxy). Through these incredibly real aliens we are able to experience humor that is in turn completely real and genuine. The humor is not forced in any way in this film and only serves to strengthen both the plot of the film and the characters within. The plot in relation to this perfectly serves as a catalyst for these characters and the humor. It allows for the characters to react and interact with each other, and with their surroundings and situations in ways that only those characters could. Through the successful subversion of the superhero genre at the time of this film’s release, which was crowded with films that portrayed dark and gritty superheroes in overly serious situations, Guardians of the Galaxy was able to take a widely disregarded comic book, that arrived in Marvel in 1969, and create a hugely successful and popular franchise that has seen an as popular sequel and a third movie that is currently in the works. Guardians of the Galaxy seamlessly blended comedy into the superhero genre through its wonderful characters creating a motion picture that will never be forgotten.

References

Hulk, F. (2014, August 12). Film Crit Hulk Smash: GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY AND THE ART OF CONSTRUCTING JOKES. Retrieved September 28, 2020, from https://birthmoviesdeath.com/2014/08/12/film-crit-hulk-smash-guardians-of-the-galaxy- and-the-art-of-constructing-jo