the great ice cream hoard of '14

this post is a misnomer.

went for a movie with chelles today (and also to the Korean Food Fair at One Utama, which, in all actuality, was the true objective of the outing. our stomachs mean a lot to us. and we hella miss korea and its food).

So, Guardians of The Galaxy.

THERE MAY BE SPOILERS. LET YE BE WARNED.

it's interesting. a talking tree, a bio-engineered wise-cracking raccoon, two badass aliens, and a human? multiple worlds, a whole bunch of new characters. humour. death. sudden bursts of dorky dancing. 80s music. "metaphors". sound ridiculous? it is. but, it works. boy, does it work.

to be completely honest, the storyline is pretty generic. it's your typical strangers meet under tenuous circumstances-try to kill each other-forced to work with each other-escape-turn friends (FOREVER)-save planet and an entire race type story.

yeaaaahhhh....

it was completely hilarious, chelle and i were laughing almost throughout the entire movie. there are all these one-liners that pop out when you least expect it (and when you do expect it but it's still completely hilarious). the soundtrack itself is hilarious, especially with the sudden apparent out-of-sync blasts of 80s music (ie; cherry bomb, the pina colada song, etc.). i think that's a trend now. they did the same thing in X-men: Days of future past (quicksilver running in that round room, taking out all the guards and saving everyone. ie; being a complete badass). the ones here were a lot more frequent and blatant though (even the opening credits)

it's more of a feel-good lightweight action flick. so don't expect to be led down all sorts of twist and turns like in chris nolan's films, or be wowed by aesthetic symmetry a la wes anderson (the movie does have a lot of beautiful scenes though. you'll see down below). it's more comedic than anything, though the action-sequences are pretty great too. and the CGI is very good (additionally, in the credits, there was a point where the screen was flooded with a wall of names, all the animators and etc. explains a lot. excellent job guys). i particularly love the way the Nova ships formed a sort of school-bus yellow hollographic net over Ronan's massive ship. it was very aesthetically pleasing to me.

and I have to admit, this chris pratt (peter quill) person is very lovely (and he sure can braid hair well. thank me later). i may have to start watching parks and rec. his facial expressions and dialogue is spot on. just the right amount of idiocy and skill to allow for stupid-luck and etcetera. i feel like they really did a great job in the casting. very bueno.

oh, i'm sorry, i can't control it. i don't know how this machine works.

and zoe saldana (gamora) of course (female lesbian crush because, obviously). have you seen "Columbia" or any other film she's been in? she is badass.

#me

karen gillan (nebula) was a little bit of a shocker (i've realised it's hard to recognise people when they're completely blue and wearing full-eye black contacts), although admittedly she had a really tiny role that included shouting and being fidgety, and disapproving in the background.

karen gillan. whoa.

in general, the villains in the movie actually get very little facetime. and we do see them, they're usually spitting snarky comments at each other, glancing angrily (ie; above), or screaming. they account for the majority of the serious portions of the film though. i feel like we'll be seeing nebulla again though. she did escape in a ship.. after removing her hand from her body. she's got some serious priorities.

dave bautista (drax) was hilarious, very literal, very stoic. amazing reflexes *stiffled laughter* that's all i'll say. definitely the bulk of the comic relief.

i love rocket (bradley c.) and groot (vin diesel). i just love them. who knew CGI chracters could evoke such strong emotions. i feel like they may have stolen the show quite a bit. especially rocket. i love how he thinks it's funny to ask for prosthetic appendages and etc. (it's really not, but his reaction is adorable).

somehow their relationship, and the way rocket understands everything groot says (despite his vocabulary consisting of only the words i am groot- and we (bawling)) just gets to me.

despite its predictability and etcetera, i gotta admit, i had a lot of emotions watching this movie. for some reason, i got really attached to the characters (although to be fair, i get attached very easily. somehow its very easy to relate to fictional characters ... i have a lot of feelings.  ...  i don't know what they are, but i have them.). they are very lovable. very lovable indeed.

especially in the part when the space craft crashed. i was like this the entire time (below).

i have it. i don't know what it is. MAYBE IT'S CONTAGIOUS.

it's a pretty light film overall but it's also pretty dark, more in the background (if you really think about what they say and etc. i guess?). rocket and gamora were experimented on. drax (and basically everyone else) lost so much (familial death).

"EVERYBODY'S got dead people!" -Rocket

there are times where the characters almost have breakdowns. you really can't discount the emotional punches in this film (though the humour kinda mellows it down a bit and makes you feel alllll better, but it is supposed to be an action-comedy so. i'd say it's just about right).

was anyone else reminded of this guy while watching groot?

i mean come on.

look at them. LOOK AT THEM.

***i've just found out they were both voiced by vin diesel.  (internal screaming). my theory holds water.***

in any case, if you've not seen it, you're missing out.

in terms of CGI and whatnot, it's pretty good too. very pretty. very very pretty. (images)

look at the pretty star ships

you'd want to believe they were real.

perhaps one of the prettiest spaceships i've ever seen (and so rotate-ey too)

it occurs to me that this current generation (mine/ours/whathaveyou) prizes humour over most things.

i mean sure, we do emphasise smarts and etc but somehow it all goes back to being funny, witty, and also being completely ridiculous at least 78% of the time. we reward.. for lack of a better word, acceptable-strange behaviour. it's all very strange. a tad lazy to elaborate myself right now but lemme explain with one video (in which you will also realise kristen bell is the most adorable thing on the planet).

not to insult her (because i do like the ridiculousness and etcetera) but celebrities being professional and polished kinda left a long time ago. now it's all about being the weirdest (and yet coolest) most ridiculous and lovable bunch of people on the planet. very odd.

i gotta say i like it. but that's just me.

*this felt really really jumbled up and incoherent... whoops.

anyway, i'm going to take the train tomorrow *makes noises*

alright.

PS: in case you're wondering, the korean food fair is really great. tomorrow (today)'s the last day so get your butts down there and check it out. they've got pretty pricey-reasonably priced ice cream (i've bought at least 6 and eaten 4 of them in the span of 4 days) and loads of korean instant noodles (which are obviously the best, i shit you not) and many other edible/drinkable stuff.

it's in the oval court of the new wing of one utama :) (get your korean onnnn) just fyi

ain't mine but it's perfect.