Posted on 05/05/2023 6:06:02 PM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum
In 2018, director James Gunn was fired from the film for gross tweets. But this comic book sequel shows the value of his gross-out sensibility.
It's easy to forget, but James Gunn, the schlock visionary behind Marvel's first two Guardians of the Galaxy films, almost didn't get to make a third entry. In the summer of 2018, Gunn was fired from his job directing the movie, which was then in development, after right-wing trolls dug up a slew of old tweets that were in decidedly poor taste, and which included jokes about violence toward children.
But poor taste was, of course, precisely the point. Before Gunn landed at the helm of a top-tier comic book franchise, he was a low-budget gross-out horror provocateur. His filmmaking career started with Troma Entertainment, the company most famous for the Toxic Avenger franchise, and his credits included work on films like Tromeo and Juliet, a hyperviolent, sexually explicit, gleefully vulgar reboot of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. Shock, outrage, ultraviolence, and scatological humor were the tools of Gunn's trade and he crafted a public persona to match.
When evidence of that persona resurfaced, executives at Disney decided to give Gunn the boot. The famously family-focused company didn't want to be associated with his brand of black comic grotesquerie.
Gunn, in turn, went to Marvel's chief rival in the superhero movie business, the DC Comics universe of characters, to make another superhero movie with a brand more forgiving of his past image. That film, 2021's sequel-reboot Suicide Squad, was an exuberantly violent but ultimately sentimental romp that not-so-subtly dealt with themes of cancellation by murderous (starfish monster–controlled) mobs.
(Excerpt) Read more at reason.com ...
Am fan of Guardians I and II - III sucked. Had I been there alone I would have walked out.
I like I and II as well. Have the dvds to watch at home. Will probably see III but not expecting a whole lot.
Jokes about violence toward children is not merely “poor taste”. It is unforgivably vile.
While I have not seen episode 3 yet, I just rode Cosmic Rewind and it was fantastic. But that said, try to hold off on big meals until after.
CC
Saw Part I. Will never watch another. The premise is stupid, the writing terrible, and the acting is laughably bad. It’s marketing-driven garbage aimed at +40-year old men who are perpetual adolescents.
I’m more of a Deadpool type of person.
The Pumaman is about it for me.
It’s a stale joke by now.
So are most of the Marvel pictures.
It’s a stale joke by now.
So are most of the Marvel pictures.
Just about every movie ever made lies to the audience at some point. The only difference is the amount of lies used.
Good to know. I was going to go won’t now
Liked 1, hated 2. Haven’t seen MCU anything since Endgame.
Hope they bring the team back to make yet another, with the same director.
I’ll see III. I’m a Zoe Saldana fan.
Gunn rubs DC now
I saw III this afternoon.
I think some of the visuals, being shot for 3D, got a bit too congested in 2D.
Other than that, it was fun.
I don’t joke about violence towards children. Some kids need a serious spanking. So do their parents.
The first movie was interesting the 2nd was nauseating for the mass murder violence and Kurt Russell singing...
Deadpool was good. Deadpool 2 sucked except for the parachute sequence. The chubby kid couldn't act his way out of a paper bag.
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