We are Groot!

No art form is as indelibly linked to technology as the seventh art. The velocity with which technology has transformed this medium is awe inspiring and nowhere is it more visible than in the science fiction genre of films. When Georges Méliès set off for space in 1902 with Le Voyage dans la Lune, generally considered to be the earliest film of the science fiction genre, spectators increased their fascination with movies tenfold. We were able to see the seemingly impossible; back then in a very rudimentary form.  A whole century and many billions of dollars later, we are blasted through space led by Rocket Raccoon and the humanoid tree-like creature known as Groot, two of the most amazing digitally animated characters to hit the big screen in Marvel’s most recent film Guardians of the Galaxy.

It was another George, Lucas this time, that launched a new wave of science fiction movies, introducing the marvel that are special effects, visual effects and, a bit later on, digital animation. Industrial Light & Magic, the company which Lucas created for Star Wars back in 1977, thirty-seven years later bedazzles on with Guardians of the Galaxy, albeit now as part of the mammoth corporation that is Disney.  How far we’ve come, however, from being fascinated by Master Yoda who today, even with the digital restorations, is so very muppet-like when compared to the real-to life raccoon that is Rocket in Guardians!

The facial expressions, the detail in fur, whiskers and movement of the raccoon is truly astonishing. Granted, Bradley Cooper gives voice to Rocket and does so in an award worthy manner, but it is the talent of the artists and animators that give life to this tough, gun-toting and hilarious little being. Groot, the tree with human form and heart, voiced by Vin Diesel, is also precious in every sense and hard to take your eyes away from.  Such wizardry is only explained when you sit through the credits to the film. It is not just Industrial Light & Magic that made this possible, there are other FX, VX and digital animation companies involved and the list of animators, visual and special effects artists is almost never ending (though most Marvel movie fans know to stay through the credits for the final short scene included after they pass).

This is the work of thousands of artists made possible only with the $170 million that this picture cost to make.  Yet another contribution of George Lucas to the history of movies. Star Wars, although a movie shot on actual sets and filmed on film, was an expensive movie to make and probably the first “summer blockbuster” in the history of film. It cost 11 million, which would be about 44 million adjusted to today’s dollars, but in a mere three years had revenues near $150 million. But even in that times do change and Guardians of the Galaxy has, in three days, already made $94 million.

There are, or course, the serious, realist science fiction movies that augur our future, and we’ve written many a post about them in this blog, those like 2001 A Space Odyssey, Alien, Blade Runner, Brazil and, to name two presented this year, Lucy and Snowpiercer. And then there are the comics.

 I have already dedicated a post to my inner geek fascination with Marvel and DC Comics-based movies of recent origin (see Heroes for all Ages, May 2013), so I won’t go into that again; but I will add, in reference to the movie that is popping up here and there in this post, that Guardians of the Galaxy, based on the Marvel comic of the name that dates back to the sixties, does something that other recent comic-based movies don’t, it makes you have loads of fun!

Superhero comics had their serious side to them, for sure, but they also had humor and weren’t meant to be treaties on philosophy or the meaning of life. Some of the more recent movies have forgotten this and are really rather dark and dreary (the Thor series, for example). Enter Chris Pratt, with his rascally smile, gleaming eyes and funky dance moves, leading a troupe of  misfits and “losers” (as he explains: those who have lost someone special) and with Groot and Rocket (originally Rocky Raccoon, in honor of the Beatles) and we’re flown and blown back to our Walk-man toting, comic reading summer days!  

This is a film with a script that takes us for a fun ride. That it takes $170 million dollars to do so is something we could write about a bit longer, but this is a marvel of technology, it is summer and it’s good that we finally see a blockbuster that hasn’t totally wasted our time and money.