Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Guardians of the Galaxy (2014)

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Posted by Sam Graham (Member # 2889) on 08-03-2014, 08:46 PM:

CINEMA: 13th Avenue Warren, Wichita, KS
AUDITORIUM: 14
PRESENTATION: Dolby Digital Cinema (2D)/THX
PRESENTATION PROBLEMS: None [Cool]

RATING: Three stars (out of four)

THE PLOT: A woman with a young son selfishly dies of cancer. Wackiness ensues.

Our hero is a dead-on low rent Han Solo knockoff in the spirit of campy low budget 80's Han Solo knockoff characters in a movie that is the spirit of campy low budget 80's Star Wars knockoff movies. Why this needed a $170 million budget I'll never know.

Probably for the music rights, mostly.

Anyway, it was a shit ton of fun, so...

Posted by Monte L Fullmer (Member # 2797) on 08-03-2014, 11:17 PM:

Kinda reminded me of the classic 1980 "Star Wars" knockoff, yet really really hammered on Akira Kurosawa's classic "Seven Samurai."

The New World release of Roger Corman's

"Battle Beyond the Stars."

The fun and silliness continues ...

Posted by Buck Wilson (Member # 5885) on 08-04-2014, 01:22 AM:

LOVED IT. Seemed the rest of the audience did too.

This movie has people coming back to see it again and again like very few movies do at the theater I work at.

Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 08-04-2014, 11:30 AM:

I liked it as well. There were A LOT of ways it reminded me of the original Star Wars movie but in a good way. Unlike a lot of movies of this type, it had interesting dialogue and good humor -- it was kind of like "The Avengers" in that respect. And it had a heart, which many of these films don't.

We watched the 2-D version but from the way things looked, I'd expect the 3-D would be good.

The only complaint I had was there were too many characters to keep track of. I felt lost a time or two, and felt they could have simplified it a bit and made it a bit shorter. But these were minor quibbles. Overall, very entertaining and a worthy addition to the Marvelverse.

4 out of 5 for me.

Posted by Steve Moore (Member # 4753) on 08-04-2014, 03:07 PM:

Sam Graham's reviews of films always make me chuckle!
I will see for myself when we get it, this coming Friday at my local establishment

Posted by Connor Wilson (Member # 6088) on 08-04-2014, 04:40 PM:

Alamo Drafthouse One Loudoun, Ashburn, VA
August 4th, 12:30pm show
Theater #3
Presented in Sony 4K, Linear PCM 7.1
Issues: None.

I liked how this was a diversion from the traditional MCU movies and we got to see relatively unknown characters. I know Rocket from Marvel vs. Capcom 3, but that's about it. Emmet Brickowski's potrayal of Peter Quill was great, Zoe Saldana seems to be stuck in science fiction, and possibly she'll be remembered for playing kooky aliens and the black chick in Star Trek. Bradley Cooper's Rocket stole the show in a way no snowman voiced by Josh Gad can.

For a phase two Marvel movie, the sound mix was great. After 2013's half-baked mixes for Iron Man 3 and Thor 2, and after seeing Captain America 2 at an unimpressive auditorium, I was wondering how improved it can be if I watched it again in Dolby Atmos.

Posted by Mark Ogden (Member # 43) on 08-04-2014, 06:30 PM:

In 3D and "RPX" at the Regal Stadium 12, Nanuet, NY

Pretty much a complete success, as far as I could see. Keeping characters straight was a little dicey, but as far as story, inventiveness, characterization and pure spectacle was concerned, the forthcoming Star Wars movie will have a hard time topping it.

Be sure to stay until the very end of the credits for a special appearance by one of the most beloved characters in all of filmdom. [Wink]

Posted by Terry Lynn-Stevens (Member # 7349) on 08-05-2014, 12:52 AM:

This movie was great. Reminded me very much of an 80's type movie. The characters were great and this movie was funny. I saw it on a Monday night late show to a sold out show that applauded at the end of the film.

I also thought the expanding aspect ratio for the action scenes really worked for this movie as well. The soundtrack was great (this is the rare occasion that I might want to pick up the CD soundtrack). This movie also had the perfect timing for the release and word of mouth is what made me see it so early in the run.

Overall a great time out at the movies.

Posted by Monte L Fullmer (Member # 2797) on 08-05-2014, 07:02 PM:

One of the rare ones that can be easily watched in 3D and one forgetting that you have glasses on.

-Monte

Posted by Lyle Romer (Member # 1266) on 08-06-2014, 06:38 PM:

I would say this movie was ridiculously entertaining. It didn't take itself too seriously like a lot of the comic book adaptations.

It wasn't a "good" movie in the normal sense but it was a fun movie. It might have been ever so slightly too long but it was a perfect summer popcorn movie.

I'd probably say 3 out of 5 stars

quote: Connor Wilson
I was wondering how improved it can be if I watched it again in Dolby Atmos

I haven't seen that many movies in Atmos but this was the best mix I've personally heard. There was a lot of pinpoint surround effects especially during battle sequences and there was noticeable use of the ceiling speakers. One thing that stood out as kind of cool was during one of the mix tape songs, the drums were located in the right rear corner of the auditorium.

Posted by Manny Knowles (Member # 1171) on 08-07-2014, 07:41 PM:

Loved it. Tons of fun.

quote: Sam Graham
Our hero is a dead-on low rent Han Solo knockoff in the spirit of campy low budget 80's Han Solo knockoff characters in a movie that is the spirit of campy low budget 80's Star Wars knockoff movies. Why this needed a $170 million budget I'll never know.

Maybe it is an expensive upgrade of a "Star Wars" knock-off. Maybe it isn't. That's debatable. Even so, STAR WARS was an expensive upgrade of older stuff. (As was RAIDERS.) So I wouldn't hold that against GOTG.

But while we are on the subject of STAR WARS knock-offs, I'd argue that the Special Editions and the Prequels are truly the expensive, unnecessary, unwelcome and unappreciated knock-offs. Much more egregious than GOTG!

quote: Monte L Fullmer
One of the rare ones that can be easily watched in 3D and one forgetting that you have glasses on.

Agreed!

quote: Lyle Romer
I haven't seen that many movies in Atmos but this was the best mix I've personally heard. There was a lot of pinpoint surround effects especially during battle sequences and there was noticeable use of the ceiling speakers. One thing that stood out as kind of cool was during one of the mix tape songs, the drums were located in the right rear corner of the auditorium.

Sounds horribly distracting!

Posted by Stu Jamieson (Member # 4626) on 08-09-2014, 08:30 AM:

The latest entrant from Marvel Studios is a fairly typical affair in the plot department - stop the bad guy from obtaining the McGuffin which would enable him to enslave the universe blah blah blah with the fully expected showdown finale in which the good guys naturally, narrowly win (sorry for spoiling the ending).

Where the film hits it's stride, though, is in the painting of it's characters - which are a marvellous, dysfunctional and irreverent bunch of varying galactic species with individual agendas converging on a common goal of claiming the reward on a valuable artefact....... oh, and maybe saving the galaxy.

Bradley Cooper is wonderful as the feral, sentient racoon, Rocket. And Chris Pratt's Peter Quill (AKA Starlord) is a good, funny, charismatic hero. Vin Diesel is mostly MIA as the tree creature, Groot, and Zoe Saldana provides some jade eye candy and sass as the honourable assassin, Gamora. And it also has John C. Reilly and Glen Close in perfunctory supporting roles.

With such a great eclectic gaggle of characters it's a shame they don't have something more interesting to do but it sure is fun watching them do it. But, sadly, when the action ramps up, the character interactions ramp down and the film is far less interesting. If it were closer to 90 mins it would be all the better for it as the meagre plot creaks a little under it's given 120 min running time.

But, on the whole, this is a very entertaining movie with a great set of characters and will possibly become a more interesting story when it meshes with The Avengers in a future project.

7.5 out of 10

Posted by Connor Wilson (Member # 6088) on 08-09-2014, 09:05 PM:

SECOND VIEWING

Angelika Film Center Mosaic, Fairfax, VA
August 9th, 4:45pm show
Theater #2
Presented in Barco 4K, Dolby 3D, Linear PCM 7.1
Issues: audible HVAC

So I saw this again... In 3D this time. It was close to being a rainy August afternoon so why not? The 3D in Captain America: The Winter Soldier was a mess, but I am happy to report GotG is breathtaking in 3D. Perhaps I was more so impressed because this was the first film I saw in the Dolby 3D system. Sayonara, RealD! Colors pop and depth was realistic. I did not notice any major loss of contrast like RealD does at times. Reds really stuck out for some reason, like the eyes of "Star-Lord's" mask. It was this odd red and I couldn't explain it. Overall, I was pleasantly thrilled with Guardians in 3D.

At this moment in time, Dolby 3D is now my preferred 3D format.

Sound system was not as powerful as Alamo and the HVAC made things worse. The volume was quieter than Alamo.

quote: Lyle Romer
I haven't seen that many movies in Atmos but this was the best mix I've personally heard. There was a lot of pinpoint surround effects especially during battle sequences and there was noticeable use of the ceiling speakers. One thing that stood out as kind of cool was during one of the mix tape songs, the drums were located in the right rear corner of the auditorium.

Having heard the 7.1 mix twice, nothing like you mentioned was replicated. As you know, the right rear corner is an independent zone in 7.1, so I figured something like that could be replicated. The closet thing I heard was the drums in "Ain't No Mountain High Enough" set in the front right, slightly panned to the right wall. This briefly happened for a verse, but the drums spread once the chorus hit.

I know you heard it in Atmos, but that leaves me wondering if a different mix was prepared for Atmos. Normally, I thought the Atmos mix was the master, then it was folded down to 7.1 for more theaters, and 5.1 for all theaters. Can anyone confirm this? If so, what song was it?

Posted by Geoff Jones (Member # 3668) on 08-09-2014, 09:15 PM:

I saw both Raiders of the Lost Ark and Guardians of the Galaxy in the theatre last week with my daughters (6 & 10).

I thought Raiders was a blast and GotG was meh. All style and no substance.

At first I thought maybe it was because I'm getting to be an old fart, but my daughters had the same reaction (about the films, not about dad being a fart. But yeah, they would probably agree with that too).

Posted by Terry Monohan (Member # 8285) on 08-10-2014, 11:13 AM:

Another movie shot in 2-D and converted to save money to phony 3-D. Saw It on the small IMAX screen at the AMC Van Ness Theatre in San Francisco CA. Not much 3-D action coming out at you, looked like they had two projectors going and It looked bright. I liked the change of scope to flat so It filled the full screen top to bottom at times. A new theatre manager 'Joe' has come into this AMC house in SF. He is from the East Coast and remembers D-150 and all the nice 70mm type roadshow theatre he went to as a kid. I told him about Dolby Atmos they have in cinema #10 and they never advertise It or run very many movies in that system. I think he will change this. I told him to order some Dolby Atmos posters and banners to put up in the lobby. AMC won't advertise in the newspapers in SF so It's hard to find out any information on the sound system used. Dolby is in SF and they do a lousy job promoting this new sound theatre system.

Posted by Marcel Birgelen (Member # 6801) on 08-16-2014, 08:58 PM:

A bunch of weird anti-heros rebelling against the Evil Empire™ in a worn down out-of-this-world setting, were have we seen this before?

The sad part is, this movie might capture the original Star Wars spirit better than Episode 1, 2 and 3 ever did.

At least for me, this movie is a successful combination of action, comedy and quite beautiful cinematography. Plot-wise... well, what do you expect from a Marvel superhero movie anyway? I was actually happy to leave the "Avengers Universe" behind for once and you know what? I like this wacky universe better...

My biggest complain goes out to the Atmos Mix. Unfortunately I cannot really subscribe to Lyle's enthusiasm. Maybe the Dolby Atmos installation in this theater did have a problem, but the Atmos trailer they played sounded just fine.

So, I go the easy route and blame it on Marvel: Marvel, your audio mixing department sucks, they screw up time and time again. This one deserves a special nomination for the most distracting sound mix ever. The most noticeable part is the prison scene, where at one point something akin "ToiletBackgroundLoop8Bit11KMonoPCM.wav" must have made the mix. This irritating, low quality loop of leaky toilet sounds keeps panning around above your head and fades in and out repeatedly.

Also, can SOMEONE please tell those amateur mixers that most of the sound from rain falling from the sky comes from it hitting the ground and not from the falling part. So, the sound of rain hitting the floor coming from the ceiling sounds frickin' fake.

I will refrain from further examples of bad sound mixing, as there are plenty, but they weren't sufficient to alter my opinion of the movie in general.

quote: Terry Monohan
Another movie shot in 2-D and converted to save money to phony 3-D.

Please, this is the biggest B.S. I've read in a while. First of all, even with both eyes closed, the THREE-DEE looked awesome... And, mind you, I'm generally no fan of 3D.

Furthermore... This movie was barely even "shot"... Besides a few actors that weren't some weirdo space creature and a few props in the foreground, it all came out of a huge rendering farm. CGI doesn't need 3D conversion, as you can just render the pictures for both eyes right from the start.

Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 08-16-2014, 09:24 PM:

I had a guy tonight who saw the movie (in our place) 2 weeks ago raving about how great the 3-D was in it. I myself never saw the whole movie in 3-D but what parts I did sample looked really good, I thought.

Almost every live action 3-D movie has scenes that were "converted" in some measure rather than purely shot in 3-D. Even "Avatar" had such scenes.

Posted by Terry Lynn-Stevens (Member # 7349) on 08-17-2014, 12:30 AM:

quote: Mike Blakesley
Even "Avatar" had such scenes.

What scenes in Avatar were converted?

Posted by Marcel Birgelen (Member # 6801) on 08-17-2014, 04:07 AM:

quote:
Even Avatar required tiny amounts of stereo conversion, for example the opening macro eyeball shot was far too close for a stereo camera rig to film, and this first shot of the film was converted stereo from 2D.

The source is here.

Posted by Connor Wilson (Member # 6088) on 08-17-2014, 08:10 AM:

So I heard that the Atmos mix was distracting, both from a person who hasn't heard it in the format and takes Lyle's word for it (Manny), and someone who has seen it in Atmos (Marcel). I can't say for myself, but I liked it in 7.1 both times.

An example of rain used correctly in Atmos was 'Noah.' In outdoor scenes, rain was placed normally as it was hitting the ground, but for a shot inside a tent or ark (don't remember which), the rain was on the ceiling because it was hitting the top of the tent or something. I'm not sure if it was mixed like that, but that's my theory on mixing rain in Atmos.

Posted by Marcel Birgelen (Member # 6801) on 08-19-2014, 03:21 PM:

I've also heard it in 7.1 now and although it feels strange, I must admit this mix is far superior to the Atmos mix... Which is a shame, really...

For me, this sounds like yet another Marvel mix that started its existence as a 7.1 mix and got "Atmosed" by throwing in a few gimmicks, very much like Thor 2. Only they now decided to throw in a few more "special effects", because the Thor 2 mix just sounded like the 7.1 mix for about 98% of the time. The end result is one heck of a bad, distracting Atmos mix.

So, do yourself a favor and go see this in "plain-old" 7.1.

Posted by Terry Lynn-Stevens (Member # 7349) on 08-19-2014, 05:42 PM:

quote: Marcel Birgelen
Only they now decided to throw in a few more "special effects", because the Thor 2 mix just sounded like the 7.1 mix for about 98% of the time. The end result is one heck of a bad, distracting Atmos mix.

So you have had two bad experiences with Atmos. Would you keep going back for movies in Atmos?

Posted by Marcel Birgelen (Member # 6801) on 08-20-2014, 01:12 AM:

Yes, because the problem is not the technology itself, it's how it has been used. And my Thor 2 Atmos experience wasn't bad, it just wasn't better than 7.1. The Atmos mix of Gravity was just plain awesome for example. So, I know what the system is capable of. It was clear that the people who worked on it had a good and solid understanding of both what's needed for great "immersive" mix and the technology involved. Maybe Dolby should invest a little more in quality control on the production side and make sure people are using their technology adequately.

Not all movies equally benefit from Atmos, so for many movies I just don't care, I just want the sound system to be good. But a sci-fi/fantasy/action/adventure movie like this one would surely benefit from a great Atmos mix.