…as evidenced by the success of the latest Marvel Studio’s movie Guardians of the Galaxy.
I saw it on opening day. It was great, a proper mix of irreverent humor, solid fight and battle scenes, decent worldbuilding a la Marvel’s comics universe, and unexpectedly deep character moments. A worthy and wonderful change from the Disneyfied, focus-grouped disasters of ‘Iron Man 3’ and ‘Thor 2’. This movie is also kicking serious butt at its box office debut.
Please take note, Disney. Marvel is not DC comics – try to balance the stupid angst with more stupid fun. And DC: Man of Steel may have been your Waterloo.
Nothing sums it up better than a tweet I saw referenced earlier this year on AbsoluteWrite.com:
DC: Superheroes in space is serious business. Frowny faces. Taiko drums.
Marvel: *runs by with lampshade on head*
To top everything else, the screenplay was written by a woman who had previously struggled with getting her SFF chops taken seriously in Hollywood. Not all women writers WANT to write contemporary rom-coms and serious biopics/documentaries. Some of us want to write riveting, glittering science fiction and fantasy with big guns and long odds. Nicole Perlman’s victory is good for all SFF writers. Not just ones that happen to be female.
It’s good for writers who want to write humor into their SFF. And strong female characters. And epic battles. And searingly tender moments, without shame or overcompensation into ‘Jackass’ skits or sickly-sweet overproduced emotional arcs.
Space opera can be many things to many people. I’m thrilled to see that a decade after ‘Firefly’ died, the spirit lives on in a big, splashy, hilarious, moving way.
Warning: GIF spoiler.
You have been warned.
Really.
We are Groot.