2014: The Year In Action

For F*** Magazine

---

Text:

2014: THE YEAR IN ACTION

Top 10 action movies of 2014

By Jedd Jong

Action movies kind of get a bad rap in high-brow film criticism circles and there’s a perception that film critics will turn up their noses at any movie in which stuff blows up, dismissing an action film outright as “brainless”. Sure, as with every year, 2014 has had its mediocre franchise movies (Transformers: Age of Extinction, The Amazing Spider-Man 2 and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles didn’t make the cut for this list). But we’ve also had a good number of high-quality action blockbusters too. At F***, we believe there’s definitely such a thing as a “good” action movie, and not just films that are so dumb they’re enjoyable – though there’s a place for that too. On this list, there are a few films that have scored a 90% approval rating or higher over on review aggregating site Rotten Tomatoes, so let it not be said that movie critics as a whole are unable to appreciate the explodier things in life. Let’s get rollin’!

JOHN WICK

During the holiday season of 2013, the Keanu Reeves-starring 47 Ronin opened to a largely negative response. It was a historical fantasy mishmash that never quite gelled and Reeves looked out of his element in it. In this year’s John Wick, Reeves gets his mojo back in a big way. 47 Ronin was the inauspicious feature directorial debut of Carl Rinsch. John Wick is the first feature film directed by stunt performers/choreographers Chad Stahelski and David Leitch but it’s a slick, well-constructed affair complete with a colourful mini-mythology built in. There’s a “hitman hotel” called The Continental which is neutral ground and there’s a hitman bar where they all hang out when they’re off the clock! Keanu may not have a ton of range as an actor, but was there anyone who thought the dude from Bill & Ted could pull off playing a highly-trained, cold, lethal assassin? There’s also a pretty badass supporting cast, with Michael Nyqvist as the head of the Russian mob, Willem Dafoe as Wick’s fellow hitman and old friend and Ian McShane as the owner of The Continental. Practically no shaky-cam is a plus as well.

GODZILLA

The King of All Monsters turned the big 6-0 this year and got a grand birthday bash in the form of his second proper Hollywood movie. Die-hard Godzilla fans have made no secret of their distaste for the 1998 Roland Emmerich-directed film, so there was a lot riding on this reboot. We at F*** love stories of “promoted fanboys” and Gareth Edwards, a monster movie fan as a kid and the director of the indie creature feature Monsters, landing the job of directing Godzilla ’14 is a great example of that. Sure, it isn’t exactly the best use of Bryan Cranston or Ken Watanabe (not to mention Oscar-calibre actresses Juliette Binoche and Sally Hawkins) but this one does get a good deal right. It manages to be respectful of the source material, taking the premise as seriously as possible while serving up lots of large-scale spectacle. Godzilla actually fighting other kaiju (the Massive Unidentified Terrestrial Organisms, or MUTOs)? An Akula-class submarine regurgitated by a MUTO and stranded in the trees? An airport monorail action sequence? That glorious atomic-breath-down-the-MUTO’s-throat bit? Deserving of a celebratory roar in our book.

RUROUNI KENSHIN: TOKYO INERNO

This year, fans of the Rurouni Kenshin manga series were treated to the second and third instalments in the movie adaptation trilogy back-to-back, with Tokyo Inferno released in August and The Legend Ends in October. Live-action adaptations of manga and anime haven’t exactly had a sterling track record so the quality of the interpretation with this movie series did delight many fans of the source material. Our writer said “Kyoto Inferno is literally the best of both worlds: the stylised action and rousing storyline of a manga, and the star power and production values of a blockbuster movie.” The historically accurate period details and intricate, tightly-choreographed sword-fighting sequences created with minimal CGI assistance also added to the film’s appeal. Most adaptations of manga and anime are notorious for struggling to present their dense, complex plots to neophytes unfamiliar with the source material, but director Keishi Ohtomo was able to strike an adequate balance. If you’re not into the plot, there’s plenty of action to keep you entertained but if you’re a fan, it certainly caters to you too.

X-MEN: DAYS OF FUTURE PAST

While fans have generally been happy with how things are progressing at Marvel Studios, it’s a different story with the Marvel properties that still reside at other studios, like with Fox’s X-Men series. There’ve been highs (X2: X-Men United, X-Men: First Class) and lows (X-Men: The Last Stand, X-Men Origins: Wolverine) so it is understandable that many were sceptical about X-Men: Days of Future Past. This era-spanning odyssey, taking place simultaneously in a post-apocalyptic future and in 1973, brings together much of the cast from the X-Men trilogy and their younger brethren from First Class. Adapted from the monumental 1981 comic book story arc of the same name, this is a “retroactive continuity” or “retcon” story, in effect wiping the slate clean so we can all move on from some of the spottier entries in the mutant filmography. However, this was a retcon done right, where it wasn’t too convenient or effortless to change everything. We also got Evan Peters as a gleefully scene-stealing Quicksilver, quelling fears of a poor portrayal based on the questionable character design.

SNOWPIERCER

Here’s a movie completely different from your run-of-the-mill action flick. This adaptation of Jacques Lob’s French graphic novel Le Transperceneige owes much of its unique feel to Korean director Bong Joon-ho, who also co-wrote the screenplay with Kelly Masterson. A dystopian sci-fi fable, Snowpiercer is set aboard the eponymous train, perpetually circling an otherwise-uninhabited earth, stuck in a catastrophic ice age. Boasting a unique design sensibility, a talented cast, incisive, sometimes disturbing social commentary and intense, brutal action scenes, Snowpiercer was the “I’ve seen this really cool movie and you should too” flick of choice this summer. U.S. distributors The Weinstein Company insisted on cutting about 20 minutes of footage and adding voiceovers, but Bong refused to compromise. Bong was eventually successful in getting the original, uncut film released and even when the film was restricted to a limited release, the positive response was enough to win it a wider release. If there’s still anyone who thinks Chris Evans is nothing but a pretty boy, this is the movie to point them to.

EDGE OF TOMORROW

It’s a shame Edge of Tomorrow wasn’t a box office champ, because we sure were entertained. Adapted from the Japanese light novel All You Need is Kill by Hiroshi Sakurazaka, the film meshes a Groundhog Day-style time loop with futuristic mech suits, an alien invasion and a D-Day-esque beachhead battle. It also gives us Tom Cruise putting aside some of his ego to amusing effect as a military PR guy with no combat experience plonked into the middle of battle, having to seek out a seasoned warrior played by Emily Blunt to guide him through his predicament and teach him the ropes. The action in this is truly exciting stuff, sufficiently different from the battles with alien invaders taking place in big cities we’ve seen in blockbusters past. It’s also always great to have a badass female character show the guy just how it’s done and while “Emily Blunt” isn’t the name that immediately comes to mind, she sure looked awesome in this movie be it slicing at Mimics with a giant sword forged from a helicopter blade or rising from a downward facing dog yoga position. Top all that off with a hilarious turn from Bill Paxton as a blowhard drill sergeant-type and you’ve got a howling good time.

THE RAID 2: BERANDAL

Action movie junkies went positively nuts over The Raid: Redemption, a badass film in which two SWAT officers face off against an apartment block full of deadly thugs. As such, there were high expectations associated with the sequel, expectations which The Raid 2: Berandal certainly met. It upped the ante when it came to the hyper-violent action spectacle when such a thing seemed impossible given all that happened in the first Raid. Iko Uwais returns as Rama, his opponents this time around including the trio of hired killers comprising “The Assassin”, “Hammer Girl” and her brother “Baseball Bat Man”. The film concludes with a virtuoso kitchen fight which took 10 days to film and comprises 196 shots. In order to shoot the car chase sequence, one of the cameramen was actually disguised as a car seat, passing the camera from the Director of Photography on one side of the car to a camera assistant on the other side to create a seamless shot through the car. Fans of this film are understandably weary of the upcoming Hollywood remake of The Raid, but apparently selling the rights for the remake was how director Gareth Evans was able to fund the sequel.

CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE WINTER SOLDIER

Marvel Studios has just announced their exciting Phase 3 line-up, but let’s take a moment to look back on just how amazing both entries into the Marvel Cinematic Universe in 2014 were. Captain America: The Winter Soldier is adapted from the story arc written by Ed Brubaker (who gets a cameo) in which a figure from Steve Rogers’ past returns in a new form to haunt him. Directors Joe and Anthony Russo set out to create a film which harkens back to the political conspiracy thrillers of the 70s, even managing to rope in Robert Redford. They definitely succeeded, creating a film which had just enough real-world resonance without compromising on the big-budget spectacle. It’s even more impressive considering this is the Russo Brothers’ first big studio action film, going from paintball battles in TV’s Community to super-soldiers duking it out as giant helicarriers fall out of the sky. The events in this film also upend the status-quo for the MCU at large and gave so-so TV series Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. the kick it needed. We also get introduced to Anthony Mackie as the Falcon, who is the current Captain America in the comics. The special features on the Blu-ray also teach us Mackie’s catchphrase, “Cut the check!” which we cannot stop saying.

GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY

It’s kind of funny to think of it as such seeing as it’s a $170 million movie from a major studio, but Guardians of the Galaxy has an appealing underdog quality to it. It’s based on more obscure source material than its counterparts in the MCU, its most famous names voice CGI creations, it’s weird and woolly and some feared inaccessible but as it turns out, everyone loves this. Young or old, male or female, tree or raccoon, audiences fell in love with this “bunch of a-holes” in a big way, and at the time of writing, this is the highest-grossing movie of 2014. Director James Gunn crafted a spectacularly entertaining film populated with loveable oddball characters and packed with cosmic adventure, comedy and a heady dose of nostalgia in the form of Star-Lord’s precious mix-tape. Also inspiring was the physical transformation actor Chris Pratt, known for being the schlubby dude from Parks and Recreation, who inspired swoons with his chiselled bod and Han Solo-style roguish charm. There’s also just how genuinely moving this turned out to be; we doubt there’s another film that had you misty-eyed over the bond between a gun-toting raccoon and his tree friend.

DAWN OF THE PLANET OF THE APES

“Apes with guns” – sounds silly, doesn’t it? Well, director Matt Reeves and crew managed to take that and turn it into one of the most intelligent, riveting mainstream films of the year. 2011’s Rise of the Planet of the Apes surprised many moviegoers by being a relevant, superbly-made reboot of the flagging Apes franchise, bringing it back from the misfire that was Tim Burton’s 2001 remake. The sequel skips ahead a decade, with Caesar leading a shrewdness of apes as the human population dwindles. Caesar forms a fragile alliance with the human Malcolm (Jason Clarke), but second-in-command Koba is none too happy about it. The clash of ideologies is presented compellingly, aided in no small measure by the impressive, hyper-realistic visual effects work by WETA Digital. Fox is pushing for Andy Serkis to be considered for a Best Supporting Actor Oscar nomination and if this awards bid is successful, history will be made. There’s no doubting the legitimacy of the performances Serkis, Toby Kebbell and the other performance capture actors turn in. And on top of all that, we get Gary Oldman as the leader of the human survivors! “Apes together strong!”

Shoutout from Lexi Alexander

When I was part of Zoe Saldana's round-table interview during the Guardians of the Galaxy Singapore press tour, Saldana spoke about the dearth of women in creative roles in Hollywood (you can read the article here). I brought up Lexi Alexander, director of Punisher: War Zone, Oscar-nominee for her short film Johnny Flynton and a World Point Fighting/Karate champion. In short, an all-around badass.

This piqued Saldana's interest and I was really thrilled that Ms. Alexander herself came across the article and mentioned it on Twitter. Here are some screenshots of her Twitter feed and the responses it received:

"Femme Malheureuse" is French for "Unhappy Woman". Thanks Ms. Alexander for considering me an #ally! 

Guardians of the Galaxy Interviews: James Gunn

As published in Issue #55 of F*** Magazine

At the time of this posting, GotG is a massive success and Gunn has written an open thank-you note to the fans and to Marvel which can be read here.

---

Text: 

GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY INTERVIEWS

JAMES GUNN

By Jedd Jong

The guy who will lead the Guardians on their cosmic journey from the director’s chair is James Gunn, whom some pundits are saying could be the next Sam Raimi or Peter Jackson. Like those two, Gunn comes from a background of deliberately schlocky horror films but is poised to hit the big time with the massive Marvel movie that is Guardians of the Galaxy. Gunn cut his teeth on the low-budget kitschy gore-filled flicks of Troma Entertainment and wrote the screenplays for films like Scooby Doo and the Dawn of the Dead remake. He made his directorial debut with the sci-fi horror comedy Slither, which has become a cult favourite among horror aficionados and is known for its disgusting body horror effects. There’s also James Gunn’s PG Porn, a web series in which he pairs adult actors with mainstream ones, re-creating scenarios from pornographic movies – just without the sex.

Gunn sat down with F*** at the Guardians of the Galaxy Southeast Asia press conference in Singapore to discuss the process of finding his leading man in Chris Pratt, the impact of Star Wars action figures on his filmmaking career, the decision to have two of the biggest stars in the film voice CGI characters and the design philosophy behind the film’s aesthetic.

Are you concerned about how the film will perform at the box office?

Am I worried about the box office now? Of course! I hope the film does well, it looks like it’s going to do okay, it’s a different thing, we’re trying to build a franchise so the first movie is about creating a group that people want to go and see. But yeah, I’m always concerned about that mostly because I want the opportunity to do another one and if the movie does well, I’ll get to do that. If we make $4 billion, I’ll be really happy (laughs).

What would happen if Beezel from Movie 43 met Rocket Raccoon?

(Groans, then laughs) It will be very strange because one’s CGI and one’s animated. I’ve never even seen the final movie, so I have no idea.

What is the biggest difference between Guardians of the Galaxy and the other Marvel movies?

The biggest difference is me and the cast of weirdoes we have involved with this film, and I don’t only mean the cast as (just) the actors, I mean the cinematographer, the production designer, everyone involved with this movie – we really wanted to create something completely new and completely different, a huge action-adventure set in space that hearkened back to older films but was also like something nobody had ever seen before. So that need to make it, it wasn’t like “oh, we’re doing this in relation to Marvel”, it was like “no, we’re making this movie in relation to all movies as a whole”. We didn’t feel very restrained by Marvel, we were trying to make a movie that was completely itself and that’s probably the biggest difference.

You compared the Avengers to the Beatles and the Guardians to the Rolling Stones…

Yes, that is true. We’re a little bit looser, a little bit more rock and roll and little bit screwier than the Avengers, they’re kind of the clean-cut good guys and we’re the scraggly that will come in and save the day but steal your wallet on the way out.

Is Chris Pratt Jagger?

Uh…I don’t think it breaks down like that! (Laughs)

You wrote a novel called The Toy Collector. How does it feel to have action figures of a movie you’ve directed, and what do you think of the Guardians toys that have been produced?

I love it you know, because when I was a kid, I loved Star Wars figures. I liked the ability to be able to love a movie and then have a little piece of it that I could play with and with those figures, I was able to create my own Star Wars adventures and my own Star Wars stories that were different from the ones that I had seen, and maybe in some ways, that was part of the birth of my filmmaking career, because I was learning how to be a storyteller. And so the idea that kids will be able to own a Drax and a Star-Lord and a Rocket and be able to tell their own stories with that and in that way become more a part of the film and have more of an intimacy with the film, I think that’s a really exciting thing.

Were you into 70s pop culture even before making this film?

I’m pretty much into pop culture in general. I love good pop culture and I’m sort of fascinated by bad pop culture, so being able to…usually when you have these outer space dramas, there’s nothing resembling pop culture whatsoever because they’re really “out there”. Even Star Wars, which is very human, is very “out there” and above it all. In Guardians, we aren’t above it all. This is a guy who is taken from Earth when he’s 8 years old so to him, this is not pop culture, those are holy relics. He thinks Alf, that’s a masterpiece! He thinks of these songs that his mother gave him, they’re the greatest, they’re Beethoven, they’re Mozart! Blue Swede is the greatest group of musicians of all time! It’s being able to see it through Peter Quill’s eyes, he still has the eyes of a child, which is pretty fun because I feel like maybe I do as well.

How important for you was it to find the right Peter Quill?

It was the most important thing and I tell you, my hardest day on this movie I think was…we searched so long and so hard for Peter Quill, and we read everyone you can imagine: A-list stars, people that no one has ever heard of, everybody, because I really wanted to bring to the movie what Robert Downey, Jr. brought to Iron Man. He came in and he was able to create this character that worked really well within the story but also had something more there and brought something to it that was his own thing and he made it better than what it was on the page, and I knew that that was our bar, we needed to find someone who was as good and we needed to find somebody that if ever he was in a movie with Robert Downey, Jr., we think that he could hold his own and probably kick his ass.

And so, we looked and we looked and we looked, and we narrowed it down to 5 actors, many of whom are very famous people. We did a screen test with all 5 of those actors and they were all very, very good – but I went home that night and I was like “none of them are quite right.” I’ve never talked about this before, but that was my lowest point – I really thought I was going in the next day and Marvel would be like “well, it’s too late, we need to choose somebody” and Kevin Feige would say “we’ve got to go with so and so” and I felt in my heart that none of them were quite right. I went in the next day, we watched the screen tests and Kevin turned to me and said “god, they’re all really good, but I don’t think any of them are quite right.” And I was so, so happy, and that’s when I knew I had a true partner in Kevin Feige who is the producer, somebody who had my back when I needed it, somebody I could trust, somebody who wasn’t going to settle for second best and that was a big relief. And so when we found Chris, which wasn’t too long after that, yeah it was a relief and I knew it within 20 seconds of him auditioning that he was the guy.

What was it about him that made him “the guy”?

Um, that’s a great question…

He doesn’t come across as your typical action hero…

No…I think that’s what it was! I mean, Chris is a personality and he has a certain way of speaking that fit the words I had written for Star-Lord so perfectly and added himself to it, so there was this extra thing. Here’s the thing: Chris Pratt is the biggest movie star in the world, it’s just that people don’t know it yet. There is nobody like him, nobody. He is a big masculine dude like so few movie stars are today, but he’s also very funny. He’s a fantastic dramatic actor and he also has a vulnerability that very few actors have. He has everything that you really want in a leading man and is not only one of the greatest movie stars today, I think he’s in the line of the classics, the Gary Coopers, the Clint Eastwoods…that’s the kind of talent he is and that’s the kind of rare talent he is, so I was extremely happy to find Chris.

Karen Gillan is not the name that immediately springs to mind when one thinks “blade-wielding femme fatale” because she’s best known as Amy Pond in Doctor Who, but she looks awesome in the trailers. What was it about her that made her the right fit for Nebula?

She’s a good actress. I wasn’t there the first time she auditioned, she auditioned for the casting director, and he would send me the tapes of the different actors and he would say the people he thought were good and I was going through it and I saw Karen Gillan. I went “oh, who is that?” and I remembered she was in Doctor Who. I just watched it out of curiousity, like I didn’t think she was going to be that good, and I started watching and I was like “holy s***, that girl’s a real actress!” I thought she was just this goofy, I thought she acted like Amy Pond – and she does kind of act like Amy Pond, she’s a fruit loop in real life. She’s a really nice girl and she’s this really grounded, terrific actress and in fact, I’ve got to say, we screen tested her and out of all the screen tests of everybody, her screen test was really my favourite because she added a lot of depth to the character and it just so happens that when you put that makeup on her and give her a couple of weapons in her hands, she really is a sort of Clint Eastwood character. She’s really terrific.

In the cast, you’ve kind of had the two biggest names, Bradley Cooper and Vin Diesel, voice computer-generated characters. How did it work out that way?

We just try to cast the best person for every role and Bradley I came to because we auditioned a lot of people for Rocket and Rocket was another very, very difficult role because Rocket is very funny, he gets a lot of the laugh lines in the movie but he’s also somebody we’ve got to believe as a real character. The core of who Rocket is is that he’s this sad little mangled beast that’s been screwed over by the universe and you’ve got to feel for him. You’ve got to think he’s funny in the beginning, then when you go through the movie, you’ve got to think “oh man, I feel sorry for him, he’s had a real rough life” and you’ve got to see it through his eyes and see what he sees. Bradley as an actor, in his career, has done comedy really well and he’s done drama very well and he was able to bring that together in the character of Rocket.

I remember when some of the executives saw the first cut of the movie and were like “we love it, it’s great, but Bradley Cooper doesn’t sound like Bradley Cooper!” It’s like “we paid him all that money so what about that?”

And I’m like “of course he doesn’t sound like Bradley Cooper, he sounds like Rocket!” And that was the end of that and Bradley and I from the beginning were like “what does he sound like, who is this guy, what does he feel?” and so he was great.

And then, Vin is a delight! Did you guys see his video the other day when he was standing on stilts doing the character? He’s crazy (laughs) he wears stilts when he does the voice so he feels like Groot!

How many iterations of “I am Groot” did you make Vin say?

A lot, a lot! Anyway, man, I watch the movie now and I watch Groot speak and I swear, I don’t feel like that’s a human who’s talking! I feel like that’s a tree! And it’s so crazy, people think I’m crazy, they think I’m nuts when I say this but I say to my editor when I’m sitting next to him working on the movie, “I can’t believe how much emotion this guy brings to 3 words that he says 30 times in the movie!” And he really tells the whole story with those 3 words and he’s kind of a fan favourite when they watch the whole movie. Man, he’s great. I can’t imagine anybody…Vin Diesel was born to play Groot! Nobody in the world could have ever done it better!

What were the inspirations for the aesthetic of the film, and what were your directions to Charlie Wen, Ryan Meinerding and the other concept artists when they were designing this film?

Well, I think that when I first got hired to do this movie the first thing that really struck me was the opportunity to create a space action adventure that had its own sort of aesthetic to it. I gave them, everybody involved sort of this booklet of what the rules were of our world. One of the things was, when Alien and Blade Runner were made in the late 70s and early 80s, they came in with this sort of dark look and they were amazing for their time, but they also sort of created what all future movies looked like and everything had to be dark and seedy and all of this.

With Guardians, I really wanted to bring back the colour of films from the 50s and 60s, pulp films, and have something that was brightly colourful yet still grounded and dirty and messy and lived-in and real, to sort of combine those things in a way that hasn’t been done before. So I think it really is taking the best from the history of films and also creating something new, and I could talk about that for an hour because there were a lot of things in that document that were…usually in a space movie when you go to a planet, it looks as if every building was designed by the same architect, you know? But go to downtown Singapore and there’s a bunch of different stuff; same thing with any city in the world, there’s a bunch of different looks there, there’s stuff that’s really old and stuff that’s really new, and if something’s been around for a long time, you can bet that there’s something made of stone next to whatever the floating building is next to it.

So it’s trying to create that post-modern world with a mix of different things in it, and to really create that contrast of having something really beautiful next to something that’s sort of ugly and for that, there’s a painting by Magritte called Visions of Light (actually The Empire of Lights), and  I don’t know if you guys know this painting but it looks like it’s daytime on the ground and it’s night-time in the sky and I used that as kind of a guiding force in creating these landscapes that were beautiful skies with these really cavernous, ugly landscapes contrasting each other and using that throughout the architecture, throughout the movie.

Guardians of the Galaxy

GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY

2014

Director: James Gunn

Cast: Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana, Dave Bautista, Vin Diesel, Bradley Cooper, Lee Pace, Michael Rooker, Karen Gillan, Djimon Hounsou, John C. Reilly, Glenn Close, Josh Brolin

Genre : Action, Adventure, Sci-fi

Opens : 31 July 2014

Rating : PG13 

Run time: 121 mins

            Phase 2 of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) is drawing to a close, the release of The Avengers: Age of Ultron imminent. With Guardians of the Galaxy, the MCU heads, to quote Dragonheart’s Draco, “to the stars”. Peter Quill/Star-Lord (Pratt), taken from earth as a child, is in search of a prized orb. His treasure hunt sets him on a collision course with some rather colourful characters. These include Gamora (Saldana), an assassin and the adopted daughter of the intergalactic tyrant Thanos (Brolin), Drax (Bautista), hungry for vengeance after his wife and child are slain, Rocket (Cooper), a smart-mouthed, cybernetically-enhanced raccoon and Groot (Diesel), a humanoid tree creature. This unlikely band calls themselves “the Guardians of the Galaxy”, confronting bounty hunter Korath (Hounsou), treacherous zealot Ronan (Pace) and Gamora’s jealous adopted sister Nebula (Gillan) in order to prevent Ronan from getting his hands on a cataclysmic weapon.

            Following the departure of director Edgar Wright and actor Patrick Wilson from the upcoming Ant-Man, murmurs have begun to swirl that the executives at Marvel Studios are exercising too much creative control over their films. That Guardians of the Galaxy even got made assuages those fears at least a little. Producer Kevin Feige says this is the “riskiest movie [he’s] done since Iron Man” and that is not hyperbole. In the hands of maverick director James Gunn, he of Slither, James Gunn’s PG Porn and Troma Pictures fame, GotG is wild, woolly and drastically different from everything else that has come before in the MCU. If Thor, drawing on Norse mythology, was outré, this is certainly even more so. The screenplay which Gunn co-wrote with Nicole Perlman is sharp and consistently funny, irreverent yet far from cynical and alienating (hee) as it well could’ve been.  

            In an age where it feels Hollywood has gotten more and more homogenised, it is refreshing to see a big-budget, mass-market blockbuster that is, well, this refreshing. Spectacle is not in short supply, the world-building on display truly dazzling and electric. For at least a few kids out there, this is going to be their Star Wars: Xandar, Knowhere, the Kyln, the Dark Aster their Tatoonie, Bespin, Hoth or Death Star. These are colourful worlds but they still retain grit and believability. The visual effects work, the character animation on Rocket and Groot in particular, is very commendable. The tree-creature and the talking raccoon both convincingly inhabit the same space as the flesh-and-blood actors, their expressions and movements nuanced and even genuinely moving.

            Chris Pratt is proving himself to be an unlikely but most deserving leading man, shedding the pounds and putting on the muscle to play Star-Lord. His comedic timing and roguish charm combine to make him an ideal protagonist, reminiscent of Han Solo in the best way possible. Saldana continues to hold her own as the capable, commanding action girl of the moment and Bautista brings heart and warmth to the literal-minded, muscle-bound Drax. Taking Vin Diesel and Bradley Cooper, arguably two of the bigger names of the cast, and having them provide voices for animated characters can be seen as yet another intentionally unorthodox move on the part of the filmmakers. Saying “I am Groot” repeated ad nauseam may sound like an easy paycheck but Diesel, who broke our hearts as the Iron Giant back in 1999, brings that same basso profundo kindness to Groot – and sounds great angry, too. Hollywood superstars with little real voice-acting experience often “die in the booth” –Cooper does not. As the irascible raccoon, he is amusing but also makes the character far more than the requisite funny talking animal and is certainly a better choice than Adam Sandler or Jim Carrey, rumoured to be attached to the part.

            Unfortunately, the film suffers slightly in the villains’ department. Lee Pace delights in being showy and menacing, Karen Gillan is still a knockout playing against type, even painted blue and with a bald head and Josh Brolin’s appearance as Thanos is but a teaser for his later involvement in the MCU. All quite serviceable, it’s just that their confrontations with our heroes are not as dramatic and explosive as they could’ve been. Still, this is at the expense of character development for the titular team and this is more than forgivable. The eclectic supporting cast including names as disparate as Glenn Close, Benicio del Toro and Michael Rooker add a distinct flavour to the proceedings as well.

            Guardians of the Galaxy is everything this reviewer loves about movies, particularly movies that defined his tastes during childhood. There’s action, adventure, humour, visual fireworks and just enough heartstring-tugging sentiment. The soundtrack is excellent as well, Star-Lord viewing his mix-tapes as precious family heirlooms and the only physical reminder of his late mother he has left. And ultimately, this is a movie about a ragtag bunch that may be far-out but are still relatable and are totally the kinds of people (and raccoons and tree-creatures) you’d want to sit in a cantina with and just hang out. Oh, and the post-credit scene for this one is the biggest treat any hard-core fan of the weirder corners of the Marvel Universe could ever want.

Summary: Out of this world.

RATING: 4.5 out of 5 Stars

Jedd Jong

Guardians of the Galaxy Interviews: Zoe Saldana

For F*** Magazine

GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY INTERVIEWS

ZOE SALDANA

By Jedd Jong

Zoe Saldana has carved a niche for herself as the go-to ass-kicking femme in everything from Colombiana and The Losers to Star Trek and, of course, Avatar. Like Neytiri from that film, Gamora in Guardians of the Galaxy is a formidable alien warrior, though her back-story is more tragic – an orphan who is kidnapped, forced to accept a tyrant as her adopted father and forged into the “deadliest woman in the galaxy”. Looking ravishing as always in a subtle low-cut floral print dress, the actress noticed this writer’s Marvel Legends Gamora action figure on the table as she came in to talk Guardians with F***. She appeared thrilled to play with the figure, but upon closer inspection, was slightly disappointed. “That’s not my face,” she said as she examined the bored-looking, expressionless little plastic Gamora. Tsk tsk, Hasbro!

 

However, it was far too small a matter for Saldana to be bothered by and she was thrilled that she was getting another action figure anyway. She shared about her penchant for sci-fi action adventure parts, her desire to break out of the designated roles for women in films, the design of Gamora’s costume and makeup, working with leading man Chris Pratt and of her support for Argentina in the World Cup.

What’s Gamora like on the inside?

Obviously, on the surface she looks fabulous, she can fight, she can kill, she can do this, but I wanted to know why she was the way that she was. Then you learn that she was an orphan, that she was taken from her planet, that she was forced into a life of violence, battle and crime, she was forced to adopt a father that basically caused so much harm to her and her people so there’s a lot of confusion to Gamora and I felt there’s so many situations in life that we’ve heard in the news, even with the lost kids of Sudan, like if there’s anything I can compare Gamora to, it would have to be that. It’s a very similar story where you’re taken from your home in the middle of the night and you become someone else even though deep, deep down, you’re not as bad as you’re supposed to be. So that was sort of my approach to Gamora because when it came to all the fight sequences, I was like “I know she’s going to be great, they’re going to get an amazing stuntwoman [laughs] to make her look super, super cool, and I’m going to work just as hard as I always do” and then we just focus on the heart factor of her.

When you were filming an action scene, you nearly broke Chris Pratt’s wrist. Could you tell us about what happened?

His wrist. I think I did. I kicked him hard one time and he said it didn’t bother, like he said “it’s okay, it’s okay” but then I saw him kind of limping away…my god! Yeah, it happens, I think I smacked him a couple of times and I think Karen and I would bump our swords and sort of hit each other and go “oh god! I’m so sorry I’m sorry.” You have those moments that you kind of break character and you realise “oh my god, I can really hurt someone if I don’t focus and be careful.”

You were in Star Trek, Avatar and now Guardians. What is it about science fiction films that attracts you to them?

Um, I know and then I don’t know. It’s good stories, they usually come with good directors, I like working with good people, there’s something very fascinating about being able to work with people who can imagine the unimaginable that makes me feel limitless. Also, as a woman and as a woman of colour, the roles on earth are just a little too typical for me – either you’re playing someone’s girlfriend or someone’s wife or someone’s mother – and that’s great, I love doing those roles when it comes in a great package with a great story and a great director, but not all the time, every now and then I want to play something different even though the story’s still going to be the same, you’re still going to fall in love with the guy, but I just feel a little more substantial and relevant to the story, I guess and they all have the coincidence that they’re set in space. I would love to do them on earth, but they’re not [laughs].

Was there some friendly competition going on between you and Karen Gillan who plays your adopted sister and what was it like working with her?

Fantastic, it was really great. I think our characters are very competitive, I think that Nebula is much more competitive with Gamora because there’s a preference that Thanos has with her, that I hope that in the sequel we can go into that, but I feel that in this movie, James did a wonderful job establishing this kind of relationship that Nebula and Gamora have which is very dysfunctional, because it’s one-sided. The hate is from one side and the love is also from one side, so that creates a very big conflict because they’re sisters, even though they’re not [biologically] but that’s the way I see Nebula.

Working with Karen or with a woman will never be competitive, at least from my end and from Karen, it was never competitive. If anything, it’s empowering, it is beautiful because sometimes being the only female in the cast can get to be very lonely [laughs].

How did your life change after Avatar?

It gave me the possibility to be working with a filmmaker like James Gunn, who saw my work in Avatar and thought “oh you know what, she can play a great Gamora” so being a part of an amazing movie like Avatar which is – please don’t think I’m arrogant for saying this, but it’s true – it was considered, no it is the biggest movie on earth! [Laughs] means that a lot of people saw it and it wasn’t just the audience, it wasn’t just the fans and the viewers, it was also filmmakers, actors, producers and writers and it gave them an impression of my work and a feeling that maybe they would want to work with me. It’s given me an exposition that I’m still able to benefit from after all these years and I will always be indebted to that movie, that whole experience, James Cameron and Neytiri for that.

You have several big projects lined up, Avatar 2 and 3…

…And 4 [laughs]!

And Star Trek 3, how do you balance your time between your career and your family?

God, I guess…just whatever comes first will have to be…life sometimes just needs to happened as opposed to you just controlling everything. If I create an imbalance in my life where I’m just living to work, then when all of a sudden I’m willing to live, I might miss things that are very important about life so I try as I grow older to incorporate, to try and live in harmony with all the things that are presented on my plate and those things that are presented presently on my plate may push others away or push others to another time then it was meant to be. So I’m just happy that all these franchises that I’ve done are able to be called “franchises” and that they have no intentions of recasting my characters [laughs] and these are filmmakers that I also consider my friends and my family so I know that whatever will be happening in my life, I know that they will have my support as friends and as people first, and then their support as professionals.

How much say did you have in the design of Gamora’s costume and what shade of green she would be?

(Laughs) actually believe it or not, I had, but it didn’t feel like I used it, like I used that power or that privilege or that gift. It felt like such a collaboration of trying to put Gamora together, all of together as a collective from Alex[andra] Byrne the costume designer to Vera Steimberg who did my makeup and created the colouring, the right shade of green to what kind of colour hair she was going to have.

I felt that if she had…and now I had an opinion about it, I felt like her ends needed to be a different colour because I thought it needed to be a non-human colour, a funky colour. If it was all black, then she was just going to have a very mean look. Green has been equated to Martians, to bad and evil aliens, so I was already coming with an impediment and she was supposed to be the female eye candy so I was like “well, good luck with that!” I think she needs a little bit of funkiness and we tried it and it really worked, it felt fun and youthful so we went with it. Alex was all about making her look, obviously, like a badass, but because she’s done many Marvel movies and she’s had to dress a lot of females, comfort is also very important, flexibility, especially because she knows I do a lot of my own stunts so I did not want to be restricted by the costume but I also didn’t want to compromise how beautiful it looked. So we always collaborated.

I think my biggest issue with the whole thing was probably the boots. They were made by specific people that obviously they [Marvel Studios] were always working with and talking to, but they felt…they were different levels and I would have lower ones whenever I was running, higher ones whenever I was standing and the flat ones whenever we were doing hard, stunt-y scenes, not only me but also my stunt double. And then the sets were just uneven, the flooring, so you want to be careful, you don’t want to break an ankle and then compromise the whole production so there were a lot of observations that I had with the shoes. The older you get, you just get pickier with your shoes [laughs]. I thought that was never going to happen! I was 29 years old, looking at women going “put your shoes back on, why are you changing into your trainers, we should walk in heels every day!” and now look at me [gets up to walk around] – flats! People change I guess!

The film is about saving the universe. Is there something that you’re passionate about on earth that you would like to save?

Saving the universe. I’m joking. Something I’m passionate about…women. I’m very passionate about women. I love being a woman, I am a devout artist, that is who I was born to be, and I am starving for a feminine presence, more of a feminine presence in art, not just in film, but also in our directors, in our painters and sculptors, we need that. Not just women, men need that. Men need women. It’s very important that if art is supposed to imitate life, we need to have a more accurate depiction of what life really is in our art. So, it’s very discouraging for me as an art-lover and a film-lover that whenever I’m not shooting films and I want to go to movies, I don’t have a decent selection of films where they’re female centred. And the female films are usually precious little movies, I just want to see harder movies! I want to see women playing characters that the men get to play, that are psychopaths, that are villains, that are crazy, that are cops, that are detectives, the heroes sometimes because in reality, that’s who we are, you know, just as much as the men are, so that’s one thing I’m very passionate about.

Is that how you choose your roles?

Yeah. I don’t choose it because I have this duty; it’s natural to me. I wasn’t just made to be someone’s wife or someone’s mother or someone’s girlfriend, it’s like that’s a part of me, but if I did that all day I’d be like “oh god, how boring!” I’m a serviceable human being. Yes, servicing is part of who we are supposed to be as a human race, but not all of it, so it’s not real. It’s unnatural to me to see women in a movie who just come out and oh, she’s sexy or she’s naked and she’s making love and the man always talks to her like she’s a piece of crap and then he walks away and then she dies! And he doesn’t cry for her. Oh my god, that doesn’t even represent the men I know in my life, you know what I’m saying? And our action movies sometimes are voided of sentiment and drama and human behaviour, accurate human response to something.

That’s why I love Guardians because Quill, to me, is the perfect hero. He’s so broken, he’s so scared, he’s so flawed, he’s such a player, all these things are what makes him special, what makes him the worthiest candidate to save the universe, as opposed to somebody who just comes and bends steel. It’s like “okay, great” [laughs]. I want somebody to learn to bend steel because they’re unlearning ugly things about themselves. I hope I stayed on the same…I tend to trail away, sorry! [Laughs]

Speaking of Quill, how was it working with Chris Pratt?

It was wonderful, he is sweet, talented, humble, everyday kinda guy, super diverse in his acting, it was just…and he’s a husband and a father, everything about Chris Pratt is made for a star. That is an individual, an actor who is worthy of being called a movie star and these are things that I don’t believe in, I don’t believe in “stars” and “fame” and “celebrity”, I believe in artists. But this man, I would want to see stories being told through his eyes because he’s fun and he takes you with it, he’s just great. And, he doesn’t think that he can do it. And I’m like “I think it’s a little pattern, a little shtick you’re pulling here, you know what you’re doing, you planned this out...”

No, he’s totally, just naturally like (imitating Pratt) “I don’t know if I could do this…”

I say “Chris, just do it!” And then he does it and it’s just great. I mean, look at the transformation that he did with his body for this movie, it makes me want to cry because he worked so hard for it and it wasn’t just for aesthetics. It wasn’t just a cosmetic thing because that would give out the wrong message.

He was coming from one place and one world where he always got used to being told “you’re gonna be second because you’re not attractive, you’re not the material that you need to make a movie star”.

And he said “well first of all, that shouldn’t be the material that you’re basing a movie star on, but if that is, I’m just going to do it for health reasons first and two, to prove that it can be done.” And then everything else just fell into place, it was beautiful to watch.

When you were talking about female directors, I was thinking if perhaps you would consider working with Lexi Alexander, who did Punisher: War Zone, she’s an interesting female director.

What movie is that, can you tell me?

Punisher: War Zone

When did it come out?

2008. It was buried by the studio…

Gary? Is my publicist here? Can you make a note of that?

Her name is Lexi Alexander, she’s a martial arts champion and an Oscar-nominated short film director who made a comic book movie and wants to create action films.

I like her already!

You were in Infinitely Polar Bear alongside Mark Ruffalo, and perhaps Gamora and the Hulk would get along because they’re both green. Do you think the Guardians will get to meet the Avengers further down the line?

Yes. I think that that reunion is inevitable. I just hope that I’m in it, I really do.

(To Gary) There’s this filmmaker, Lexi Alexander, who made this movie called Punisher, Punisher: War Zone. Can you remind me to go get it? Where is she from, the States?

Germany, I think.

Nice! I like her already.

Have you been watching the World Cup?

Yes, are you kidding me [laughs]?! Ask me what time I woke up today! 3, okay, and I saw the entire Argentina match, did I tell you guys about it?

How are you awake and fresh now?

Because remember guys, I come from L.A. and it’s 15 hours behind, I don’t know what time it is now, is it the middle of the night?

Gary: It’s 10 o’clock.

Zoe: That’s why. Give me two hours, I’m going to be miserable [laughs]. I’m joking actually.

Did you sleep after watching the match?

No no no, because we were so excited that Argentina won! The makeup artist is from Argentina, so I have to root for Argentina because otherwise she wouldn’t have helped me [laughs].

You’re supporting Argentina in the finals?

Yes. I’m Latina, I’m a first generation Latina, I grew up in the Caribbean so half of my friends are called “Diego” [after Maradona]. Latinos just do that. When you have a boy, they say “let’s name him Diego!” and thank God the women go “no” (laughs). If not, the whole of Latin America would be named Diego Maradona! Football is something that I grew up watching, my husband [Marco Perego] used to be a soccer player and now there’s even more soccer in our lives, my brother-in-law was from England and he’s a devout soccer fan so there’s a lot of soccer from one house to another. You should see our Whatsapp, that’s all we ever talk about! Never thought I would do this, but I’m passionate about soccer!