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Guardians of the Galaxy
Blaine: After “The Avengers” became very successful, Marvel was thinking about putting more of it’s comic book characters on the big screen. Kevin Feige, the producer of the Marvel movies said they were thinking of how many Marvel movies they were going to be able to make and keep them interesting for the audience. They wanted something new and unfamiliar and so they announced at Comic-Con 2012 that they would make “Guardians of the Galaxy” into a movie. I remember looking up Comic-Con 2012 online and seeing a comic book drawing online of the Guardians of the Galaxy and my thoughts were that this would be a really interesting movie for Marvel to make. I was so excited about it because it was something completely new. It was killing me to know when to expect this movie because at the time they had no script, no director and no actors. As time went on they announced who would be in the movie and I was completely amazed of who they were adding to the cast list because these are well known actors you’d never expect to be in a comic book movie. There was a mid-credit scene in one of the other Marvel movies that leads to “Guardians of the Galaxy” and that was “Thor: The Dark World” featuring one of the main characters, the Collector played by Benicio del Toro. I remember being so excited to see that mid-credit scene because I got to see what one of the characters of “Guardians” was going to look like before they showed all the trailers and footage. I think I was the only one in the audience who was excited to see that mid-credit scene. Kevin Feige said what was exciting about that mid-credit scene was that it was introducing a new character and have a star appear in one of their films. Like Samuel L. Jackson’s appearance to the first “Iron Man”, people who have no idea of who the character is, but know the actor very well would be curious and want to know who he is. My friend James and I were lucky to see “Guardians” opening day.
Plot (Spoiler Alert)Five galactic criminals, Star-Lord, Gamora, Drax the Destroyer, Rocket Raccoon and Groot, come together to stop an evil force known as Ronan the Accuser from causing destruction around the Galaxy. 
Blaine: Writer and director James Gunn likes to plan everything out and likes to know what everyone who’s involved with a project are doing when making a film. It also important to him to work with a cast and crew of people who he not only respects their talent, but he really likes them as people. James Gunn is a people person. The first thing that excited James Gunn about “Guardians of the Galaxy” was creating the visual look of it and the very first thing he did was write a 19 page document that was called “The Look of Guardians of the Galaxy”. What it was about was creating a space opera that brought color back to these type of movies. James Gunn wanted “Guardians” to be more space adventure than a super hero movie. No one really knew who Chris Pratt was, but “Guardians of the Galaxy” is what made him a star just like what “Thor” did for Chris Hemsworth and Tom Hiddleston. I was already familiar with Chris Pratt for having a small supporting role in the 2008 film “Wanted” and this is the first movie I’ve seen him in where he is the leading man. Chris Pratt passed his audition, but his looks needed to change because he was chunky. Chris had to transform that body fat into muscle weight if he was to play Star Lord. He was lucky that they trusted him to pull it off. His character, Peter Quill/Star-Lord, was abducted in the late '80s by a bandit named Yondu and Peter has grown up adapting to life in space. If he returned to Earth I bet it wouldn’t matter to him to see how much things have changed since the ‘80s like with technology because he’s seen and done a lot of things in the Galaxy Earthlings don’t usually get to see or do. He’s uses blasters, he drives a space ship and he’s had sex with different species of hot women with pink skin or have tentacles, but one thing that remains the same is his taste in music. Zoe Saldana has the word Sci-fi written all over her because she has been apart of the “Star Trek” movies and being a blue native alien in the highest grossing movie of all time, “AVATAR”. She went from blue to green skin. It was challenging for both Zoe and the makeup people in trying to find the right green for Gamora that wouldn’t put people off, but also vibrant and youthful and engage people without losing the element that she is an alien. It amazed Zoe how many hours it takes to have makeup applied on your skin. She was in the makeup chair four, sometimes five, hours every morning. Zoe has never had the makeup experience before. Zoe loves to try new things and challenges. She feels Marvel creates amazing movies that give you an adventure and at the same time be challenged. Dave Bautista said he would go to set everyday having a hard time believing he got the job of playing Drax the Destroyer. Like Chris Pratt, Dave did well with his audition and he wanted this job more than anything he’s ever wanted. Dave was a professional wrestler before he went into acting. James Gunn had no idea who Dave was, but he was impressed with him during the audition process. Everyday Dave would learn something new, he would do his best to give James Gunn what he wanted and he was happy to be working with such skilled actors who he could learn from. Dave was amazed with the stuff they can do with makeup. It took four and a half hours to apply all the makeup on Dave’s body and the problem was he couldn’t sit down while they were doing it, but he was allowed to lean on a little perch from time to time. He would also hold onto these two sticks on the sides that he could on to for his arms. James Gunn had called up Benicio del Toro on the phone and asked if he could read the script for “Guardians”. Benicio loved the script and was on board after that. Like I said Benicio made an appearance in the mid-credit scene of “Thor: The Dark World” as the Collector and when I saw “Guardians” it felt like a bigger introduction for the Collector because for one his place looks a lot bigger and there’s a big music score in the background compared that mid-credit scene had. James Gunn said Benicio was great because he’s a serious actor. James Gunn loves throwing Easter eggs into his movies and there’s a lot of Easter eggs in the Collector’s collection. These are the creatures that are in the Collector’s glass boxes in the background. The dog in the astronaut outfit is known as Cosmo the Spacedog, another Marvel character who is a Guardian in the comic books and across from him is a Chitauri, a species that Loki leads into causing destruction around New York that the Avengers fight against in “The Avengers”. A Dark Elf from “Thor: The Dark World”. And then there’s Howard the Duck another Marvel comic book character. He has dialog at the after credit ending and is voiced by Seth Green. Howard the Duck was James Gunn’s favorite Easter Egg of them all. James Gunn even added slugs from one of his other movies “Slither”. The character Yondu was not in the original script according to James Gunn, but he added him in and he wrote the part for Michael Rooker, whom he has worked with before on “Slither”. James Gunn was very happy that Marvel allowed Michael Rooker to be in the movie. I known of Karen Gillan from “Doctor Who” series five through seven and after seeing her in “Guardians” I was like “Wow” because she was bad ass! She was tuff and mean. Karen made the biggest sacrifice more than any other actor in “Guardians” and that was have her hair shaved bald. Karen was very brave to do that, however she did wear a wig whenever she wasn’t scheduled to shoot and I think it’s because it must have been uncomfortable for her and I can’t blame her. 
They had a cast of great actors, but there were two people missing and they were the people who could provide the voices for the CGI characters Groot and Rocket Raccoon. Then they were thinking of Bradley Cooper and Vin Diesel to do the voices of those characters and I was like “Yes!!!” Sometimes when you look at a character that looks dark or tuff, you think he’s got a deep voice and that’s what I thought when I saw Groot. Who better than Vin Diesel, I mean he’s one of those guys with a great voice and he’s done voice work before in “The Iron Giant”. Vin Diesel did say he needed to find a project that his kids could see. At the time I didn’t know that Groot only has three words to say “I am Groot" because I never read the comics, but still Vin Diesel was a perfect choice. My friend Jena once said “Vin has the easiest job because he doesn’t have a lot of lines”. When I look at Rocket, I think he’s a character with a lot of attitude and Bradley Cooper has shown that through his voice in a lot his movies like “Silver Linings Playbook” and “Burnt” and that’s why he was the perfect choice for Rocket. Bradley Cooper said this is the kind of Marvel movie he wanted to see because it was absolutely fresh and there was nothing like it before. It took a lot of people to bring Rocket to life and not just Bradley Cooper and the visual effects department, but also James Gunn’s brother, Sean Gunn, who would perform as Rocket on the set wearing a blue or green screen skin tight suit. James Gunn said that Sean was just as much of an important member of the team as everyone else. Sean would bend down to the height Rocket would be and according to his brother, walk like a crab. They also would have a midget on set as well and she would wear this purple suit on her entire body with a cut out of a raccoon on her chest because that’s where Rocket’s head would be. Bradley Cooper created another aspect to Rocket when he came in to the recording studio. They would video tape Bradley as they were recording his voice as a reference for the facial gestures and sometimes the hand movement. Then the visual effects department take what Bradley and Sean did and create something additional to that. The last thing it took to help bring Rocket to life was for the visual effects department to study a real Raccoon by the name of Oreo. I recall seeing an article saying Stan Lee wouldn't make a cameo in “Guardians of the Galaxy” because it’s not his creation, but he did end making a cameo anyway because he’s still the creator of the Marvel universe. Originally Stan Lee’s cameo performance was going to be apart of the Collector’s collection. James Gunn is a big comic book fan and he’s an expert in comic books. James Gunn said that a lot of characters who are extras in the film have names of characters in the comics like Bereet, the pink skinned alien who shows up at the beginning of “Guardians” on Peter Quill’s ship after she and him slept with each other LOL. James Gunn also said that sometimes the characters from the comics are very similar to the characters they put on film and then other times they are different. James Gunn also mentioned that he had a lot of close friends play the extras in the background. Like I said James Gunn is a people person and he is good at making friends. “Guardians of the Galaxy” was the first Marvel movie to show a full look at Thanos, who is a very dangerous villain to the Marvel Universe, even though I don’t read the comic books, but still judging by the looks of it he is a big deal. Thanos made a small appearance in the mid-credit scene of “The Avengers” and you can see just the side of his head while he’s smiling. Thanos is mentioned a lot in “Guardians” than any other Marvel movie before because the Avengers aren’t fully aware of him yet, but everyone else in the galaxy fears him. Thanos is voiced by Josh Brolin. Like me, Josh Brolin doesn’t read the comics, but he knew how popular Thanos is and that’s why he said yes to the part. The feeling I had when I saw Thanos for the first time saying dialogs was like wow because he’s a big deal. My rating on “Guardians of the Galaxy” is five out five stars. Comic book drawing of “Guardians of the Galaxy” 
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