We Care A Lot: Subverting pop through pop

Calling all Gunners. He's back and better than ever. To be clear, that's like James Gunn fans not Arsenal fans. Not that slimy club managed by a fraudster who thought he was massive cause they won the December Cup. Nothing I hate more than bottles who run off cowering when shit gets serious. No, we're talking about the legend who made his name writing those infamous Troma pictures and is now most known for his Guardians of the Galaxy series for Marvel and being granted full creative control over the future of DC. Both sides want a piece of him. Cause let's be honest, he's the guy. Women want him. Fish fear him. He's the only one with any respectable clue of how to direct a decent superhero movie. This time he's made the best piece of vegetarian propaganda since The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. We've often sung his praises in Funeralopolis because he's either got the power to improve the genre or bring it crippling to its knees. Eithers fine with us. Expand or die.

The studio puppets have come and gone. You can't remember half their names. Yet, the Gunn remains and he's only improving his craft film by film. Who else could you name? Jon Favreau?

Please, Iron Man was average. Putting aside its frequent pro military industrial complex nonsense, Black Sabbath banged but that's about it. I'll never forget that they cut out a scene with the REAL Tony Stark, the great Ghostface Killah. Iron Man is talked about now as if it's some classic of the genre. Historically speaking, yes it was an early one in the MCU and established the formula that I never liked and would be used for far too long. Act One, the central character is close to being a bad guy and we see them in some unusual situations we'll definitely never see them in again. They steal. They're selfcentred. Act Two, we first see their powers. Set pieces in this section are restrained and that's what makes them better than those in Act Three. Finally, Act Three comes in all disastrously with the big end of the world battle.

There's pure CGI overload that's far worse than anything in The Transformers series and we lose the characters. Cities are damaged but we never see that impact in any of the sequels. Each time the locations are miraculously repaired and there is no impact on New York's residents. Magic fixes of cityscapes and bringing the dead back to life eventually seizes to have any interest on the viewer. There is no stake in anything. I'd forgive all the lack of logic and character depth if they could at least make the set pieces exciting like recent blockbusters Mad Max or John Wick. Without a doubt, they should have had a break after End Game and focused on solo isolated adventures from then on.

As I said, constant building destruction and unexplored characterisation can be forgiven. If you can't be clever be cool is always my advice. Those who can't stimulate intellectually, should at the bare minimum entertain with popcorn thrills. Considering the mantra for the Guardians of the Galaxy can be broken down to 'get shit done and look cool while you're doing it', it's easy to see why I favour these guys over the Avengers. Nerds those Avengers lot. Give me Gunn's stylish intergalactic Star Trekkian adventures in space over those dull bores who still fight on earth. I can hear it now. Some defenders will bring out the Russo Brothers. God, I'm glad their time is up. Outed as frauds like Arteta. Their 'take' on the action movie with The Gray Man exposed them. They don't have a clue. Coincidentally, they did indeed make some of the better MCU movies with Winter Soldier and Infinity War. End Game was a little repetitive with them basically repeating the same scene over and over of them saying goodbye to family members all too neatly. Civil War is better than Superman 4: Quest for Peace at merging superheroes with real life politics but still pretty dumb. The best scene coming when they all fight each other at the airport. Mixed results on the political debate of whether the Avengers should report to the UN. However, for that one scene at the airport, they understood the appeal of the whole royal rumble/battle royal that you can have with the juvenile superhero genre. It's the MCU's Destroy All Monsters moment and it bangs!

Over the years if there's one thing that's disappointed me with these films it's their success at blending superheroes with popular culture and real life. They've done too good a job at making these characters fit in to NYC. Normalised it and so they've lost their exaggerated camp and cartoonish fun that should be inherent to the genre. This is what makes me keep returning to the loathed Joel Schumacher films with such fondness. What happened to those outlandish sets and costumes? The backdrops are boring now because it's just real skyscrapers that you see every day. They are bereft of imagination and design when we know they exist.

The beauty of a comic book is having these incredibly well drawn panels limited to a single frame and having your mind connect each together and filling in what is occurring outside the frames. I want that vibe back of the sound effect speech bubbles. Whack! Whomp! K-Pow! Sure, there's always going to be the desire to strive towards maturity but remember where the roots lie otherwise you lose the entire thing. Superhero films today are so ugly and this is before we even get to their overreliance on CGI. Somebody needs to go back and reconsider mise en scene and costumes. My man, The Gunn has kitted his troops out with trackies that look like they've come straight from Star Trek: The Motion Picture and I'm here for it.

When did we stop being so concerned over the image? X-Men 2's opening scene is a work of art because it expands on the limitations of the comic book medium by having the panels flow in a continuous movement. One medium trying to better another or at least offer something different in experience. Robert Rodriguez decided it was time to make Sin City after digital came in to play and he was able to achieve aesthetic of Frank Miller's comics with their gorgeous use of colour added on to the old school noir black and white. Digital can be a friend to this genre if it was used properly more often. This is the heights the genre could reach if it actually returned to the source material wondered once more how to recreate the experience of reading the comics in a cinematic sense. Instead, they've come too lazy with so little time spent over what the look of the film should be. They're not interested in challenging the capabilities of the medium but rather finding a style that can be replicated over and over.

This is why I don't rate the Russo brothers and glad we're fucking finished with those clowns. At best, they were decent studio puppets with no individual recognisable style. Honestly, could you really tell me what a Russo Brothers movie is? Do they have a common stylistic touch familiar to only them? Do their movies have recurring themes that they wrestle with on every occasion with the plot serving to go further in to their obsessions? Simple answer is they have none of these things. They are not artists. They're just serviceable directors (and barely that competent at that either) delivering what Marvel want operating within a very tight creative boundary that poses no risk to the future of the franchise but comes with a complete lack of ambition.

Now, this is where I admire James Gunn. Cause if there's one thing about James Gunn, it is that he makes James Gunn movies. That is not to say they are perfect but they are his. He may not be there yet but I'm sure by the end of his career if he continues to hone his craft, he may qualify for smuggler status. In this industry, what that refers to is someone operating within the formulaic systems, repeatedly making genre films but demonstrating the ability to reshape whatever material that comes their way into their own movie. They find cracks in the system and illustrate they have their dirty hands over everything.

There is a subversive element to Gunn's work that recalls the likes of Samuel Fuller, Alfred Hitchcock, Anthony Mann, Sam Peckinpah and Nicolas Ray. In terms of quality, it be outrageous to put him on their level (he's nowhere near as of yet) but I see the same approach to his work as those guys had. Especially, given that the superhero genre is the most popular right now and the equivalent to westerns and noirs in those directors days. It could be a while before we see Gunn's best work but seeing him being the only one right now trying to subvert the genre and guide them in to a unique singular direction makes him arguably one of cinemas most interesting director's working today.

Usually, his contributions come through in the wacky humour, which for me counter the normalisation of where superheroes have gone within our culture. We're dealing with people that can fly and smash through walls. Somehow along the way that's become too common and normalised that it no longer has any effect. Where's the absurdity in it all? He's put weirdness back in the genre. Best two examples being in the first Guardians of the Galaxy and The Suicide Squad. In Guardians, when Rocket comes up with the plan to escape and throws in stealing a man's prosthetic leg, only to later reveal that to be a joke is vintage Gunn gallows humour. I'm amazed it ever got passed the studio. That's a moment where it stops being just another churned out superhero movie and Gunn makes his presence known. In that instance, you almost feel him coming up to you, shaking your hand and going, "Hi, I'm James Gunn".

The entire opening of The Suicide Squad is nothing short of audacious. Setting up an entire cast of popular names and killing them off so quickly was insane. The Jim Carroll Band's unsubtle and hilariously literal 'People Who Died' being used to reveal the ruse is excellent. An act of madness, which catches you right off guard in a genre that's come all too predictable. I want to take a minute to talk about the Weasel character. The Weasel. That's one of the funniest and weirdest additions to the DCU I've encountered. A character who's only ever appeared in about 2 comics. Gunn knows a legend when he sees one. He even makes his brother play the character. Another aspect that makes me an unapologetic Gunner. Taking studio dollars to create oddball nonsense and putting your own family members and close friends in all your movies too. Respect. We salute that. If there is a manifesto to this game it is take the studios big bucks to fund your weirdness, put in all your relatives and compadres and just hijack the picture. Total control and dominance to take the piss. Your movie, their money.

Gunn's off-kilter humour wasn't something generated over night and he's really developed it into fusing it through the superhero genre. Our man on the inside. His early efforts were writing the Troma flicks Tromeo and Juliet and Terror Firmer. For these, he Tromafied Truffaut and Shakespeare. Tromeo and Juliet is the trashy version of 10 Things I Hate About You and Terror Firmer is the low budget exploitation filmmakers Day for Night

He aims low and scores high. Even in these films towards the start of his career that he helped write, you can see that desire to subvert his material and poke fun at particular modes of filmmaking. Terror Firmer, as disturbing and depraved as it is, is literally the bible to exploitation filmmaking. A modern Hollywood Boulevard arising from the arrival of the independent filmmakers. Although, not always pleasant and certainly to audiences today problematic, everything is undertaken without fear for offence and as a result it is one of the best satires on the horrors that occur on low budget sets and the fucked up families formed when numerous outcasts are brought together to make movies. A must see for John Waters fans.

Gunn's Hollywood call up came with the live action Scooby Doo films, which I'm glad to see are finally getting the respect they deserve. He saw right through the corny sentimentalism that I'm sure most writers would gravitate towards and cut straight to the reason we all love Scooby Doo. Deep down it's a stoner comedy. Any chance he gets, his script has these little jokes about God's herb. The Alligator cigarette. Gorilla finger. Bobo Bush. Boo Boo Bama. Grandpa's medicine. Party Parsley. Hungarian Hummus. The Devil's Lettuce. Sin Spinach. Mr Green. Reverend Green. Greenest of the green. The Nixon. The ever eating boys with the great metabolism, Scooby and Shaggy, are sat in the back of the van with smoke coming out. Then not long later, just in case you didn't get the memo that these guys were Astro travellers, scuba divers, herbalistas, space cadets, men on the moon, jedi slayers, joint jugglers, cheech and chongers, coconut creekers, Scooby snackers, Reefer Sutherlands, full time florists, rocket men. Shaggy shockingly reveals to us that "Mary Jane" is his favourite name. To top it off he eventually rocks up to a gaff dressed as a blunt in a green and brown zoot suit.

Next up was his horror films, a Dawn of the Dead remake and Slither It's been years since I've seen the 2004 remake of Dawn of the Dead but the fact many deem it that clown Zack Snyder's best work, I guess that means the script must be so good that even he couldn't fuck it up. As for Gunn's directorial debut Slither, I'm yet to see. However, I hear it's a very comedic take on the horror films of the '80s with nods to Carpenter and Cronenberg. So I'm sure his particular brand of humour is evident there as well. Horror seems like a natural step for him too based on the shock element of his humour.

2010s Super serves as a trial run for placing his humour inside a superhero movie and unfortunately isn't that much of a success. Unless, you are 15 years old and it would probably be the best film ever made. Sadly, I watched it aged about 24 and was about 11 years too late to the party, sitting their thinking Christ I'm too old for whatever this is. You have to put up with the painfully awful repeated quote, "Shut up crime!", which thinks it's far funnier than it is. That's the problem here. As a low budget independent Kickass, you want to admire it for interpreting the superhero as psychopath and attempting to break down the genre. Irritatingly, this side to the film loses value because it becomes all too clear that the writer/director himself is also a bit of an arsehole too and not in like a funny way. Smug would be the right word. Any satirical points and genre analysis is lost in the cheap attempts at shock. Hence, why only a 15 year old would love such an edgy movie because it's 'awesome'.

Gunn's love for the eccentric and quirkiness in independent productions of both music and film can be both his greatest weapon and kryptonite. His track choices can be that lo-fi rubbish indie. Little incels who listen to Jackson C. Frank, The Microphones and Daniel Johnston (who are good by the way) and try to replicate that sound but it's just pathetic. Those types of indie bands. Gunn's pop tracks fare better. Above all though, no matter the song selection, it's use is so good it can make me re-evaluate the band in question or at least try to.

Strange thing is even when his work goes well, he's still working within the same confines of the thin line between likeably juvenile and annoyingly juvenile. it's not like what makes him great on a good day is that he avoids and abandons the things that make his work weak. No, it's that he just does them better. His more recent success on the Guardians series, I think can be attributed to his well-timed balancing acts with the more emotional aspects of the movie to make for a rounded and less edgy movie. He still has these bizarre tastes in both humour and musical choices but he's using this more now to push himself in to very idiosyncratic places that are admirable and not smug. Whereas, previous failures such as Super, Movie 43 and The Belko Experiment have been too distracted by the spectacle and the gross out shock value that they cannot fully succeed in their aims as satire.

The brilliance in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol.3 is in how Gunn takes you not only on a journey through Marvel comics but through what personally interests him. Each choice he makes is unique and he's clearly not trying to do this generic act that appeals to everyone. Somehow though he makes his distinctive detours interest the viewer too rather than alienating audiences. For example, much of the plot of Vol.3 focuses on providing a back story for Rocket. As Mark Singer has accurately pointed out, Rocket Raccoon has not always been that popular amongst the Marvel fans or even the writers. He appeared in only 10 comics in his first 30 years and wasn't even an original member of the Guardians. He came in when they re-branded in the mid-2000s. His increase in popularity and transformation in to a household name has come almost entirely from Gunn and now he has dedicated a 150 minute movie to addressing the character's origins.

Brave to say the least and the emotional impact can't be understated. Gunn doesn't treat this like a run of the mill superhero movie. As though in his mind he views this in particular scenes as an 80s romantic comedy or 30s screwball comedy and even a 2000s stoner comedy. Calling each part volumes and having these tapes is definitely him making this more suitably '80s and cartoony.

These are his characters though and he clearly cares enough about them to keep you with them permanently rather slipping in to boring third acts with mindless destruction. You don’t normally get this level of attention to each character as Gunn gives here. Quill trying to deal with his former flame, Rocket's trauma over the death of his old gang, Drax's desire to find a place in the gang as this utter idiot with the best of intentions, Nebula discovering the more she gives the more she gets back and Mantis who can manipulate people's emotions and still can't achieve genuine respect as a member of the group. The Guardians remain these loveable losers, mischievous misfits and outrageous oddballs bandying together to do the impossible. There's a lot of strands here for Gunn to juggle but somehow he never loses his characters in the spectacle.

In addition, Vol.3 provides the opportunity to treat us to a second cameo from Howard the Duck, my favourite character in the entire MCU. Here, he joins a sleazy cards game. What else would he be doing? No-one else directing these movies shares Gunn's passion for that character and desire to weave him back in. To everyone else he's disreputable character that Marvel first made a movie about and also the last due to how offensive and disliked he was. Therefore, as consensus has shown, one to be avoided. Howard the Duck is my second favourite Marvel movie, falling just behind The Toxic Avenger (that time Troma got their hands on some Stan Lee produce). So you can probably tell where my heads at with this silliness and I think myself and Gunn share the same sensibilities. Especially, when his last films have both featured Kaijus. Another reason why he's Funeralopolis's golden boy. He champions what we champion. He speaks for us.

His brother gets another shot at playing Kraglin. He goes all Turner and Hooch buddy cop with Cosmo the Dog and is now the proud wearer of the arrowhead passed down by Yondu. Referred to as the Yaka arrow, which can change its trajectory based on a whistling technique known to Centaurians. My guys still learning how to get his rod erect and to fly through the air.

Observing what happened with Yondu illustrates for me Gunn's development as a director. He's the only one with any basic cinematic awareness for story and character currently making superhero movies. Seeing him take the guy who played Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer and turn him in to this lovely father figure was so unbelievably wholesome. Gunn has a range now that he's never demonstrated until he started making these Guardians films. He's added undeniable warmth to his ability to shock.

Up until Vol.3, Vol.2 was, and this will not shock you, my favourite movie of the MCU. There was something so inviting about a Marvel movie which scraps the usual repeated plots for this perfectly pedestrian hangout shore leave episode, where characters work out their long standing troubles with their fathers. My Sweet Lord superbly used when they visit Kurt Russell's created world. Sort of like a more amiable Honey Boy.

Wonderfully soundtracked too with Sam Cooke's Bring it on Home for romantic scenes. It wasn't like a traditional movie but an episode of television devoted to being a non-plot driven piece where characters can deal with their hidden feelings for each other and all they've been through that can become unaddressed for too long with all the action episodes.

Yes, you could say, James Gunn brought it home that day. In my book, the best MCU movie for actually offering something different and genuinely character oriented with great music. Sure, some will say the first is better because of the novelty of seeing them all come together for the first time and I can understand that. Personally, I prefer how the chemistry has improved between the cast and seeing them effortlessly have fun together rather than having to dedicate so much time to the initial set up. One thing that hasn't aged well with the first is how heavily it links back to The Avengers with Thanos and has to some serve some wider narrative that isn't as interesting. These sequels have been much more isolated affairs able to stand on their own. Being a break from Earth is welcome so it's not just the same old skyscrapers. They've finally established themselves as having a base on the planet, 'Knowhere', which is really funny cause I swear that makes much of The Holiday Special canon.

Evidently, Vol.3 has earned some of the best reviews of the series. Is it better than Vol.2 though? Whilst emotionally Vol.2 is a hard one to beat and did come first, I'm more impressed by this coming now and where this indicates Gunn is heading towards artistically than I am concerned with which is better. The Suicide Squad was good and very nearly great. Since that film he's been really mastering the ensemble like never before. You could say he's giving us that Star Trek movie Tarantino promised but never did. His new thing is doing the whole Seven Samurai men on a mission but in a pleasing pop way. The Suicide Squad had all the chapters as though trying to be Inglorious Basterds. In Vol.3, he's delivering it more on the dialogue with these jokes about whether they're heading towards a "trap" or a "face off". The Mexican stand-off fan in me appreciated that one. A sort of formal wit that Gunn's displayed since day one but is now starting to come very interesting in his desire to carve serialised pulp adventures.

For some reason Gunn seems to be the only one trying to expand on these worlds he's building and have fun with his own creations. Counter Earth being a fantastic location too for Gunn to subvert those realistic backdrops that have plagued and dominated the MCU. Through this setting, he can present the familiar as unheimlich. There's cars and houses like any neighbourhood but at any moment he can throw in an animal that you've never seen before and blow your fucking head off. Those seeking for the superhero genre to return back to its over the top weirdness like myself, would be advised to check out Gunn's recent output.

On departing the cinema, I ran in to a couple of friends, namely Fabian Barthez and Mike Delaney. Despite not seeing them in a while, Fabian's bald head was going off like a homing beacon. I couldn't miss it. The human lighthouse made this point that some of the track selections were odd such as picking Faith No More's We Care a Lot over their bigger and more liked hits from Angel Dust. This caused me to go back and listen to some of their most known hits. I have always held the opinion that Faith No More are fucking shit and this re-listen did nothing to change that.

Faith No More make the sort of god awful funk metal the Red Hot Chilli Peppers made at the start of their career when they were somehow even more insufferable than the Californication/By the Way era. As for this We Care a Lot track, which I must point out, I'd never heard even heard of before Vol.3, it is by far the best thing that shite group ever had their name on. Something I would probably credit to the fact it sounds like Metallica trying to make a groovy danceable post-punk song and doesn't have the usual terrible vocals. Here we return to the reason why I'm a Gunner through and through. Another fine example of him perfecting his ability to take things that may not have interested people in the past and may have been disregarded back then but somehow against all odds making them hooked now and share that love of his peculiar tastes. I always had a downer on Rainbow because Dio replaced Ozzy in Black Sabbath. I will admit though, Gunn's opened my eyes to the catchy fun of Since You Been Gone Since Vol.3, like Rocket's popularity growth, We Care a Lot has been racking up some serious numbers on the Spotify and I'm sure will cement itself as a fan favourite in future. No doubt it being this parody of the 'usefulness' of Live Aid charity concerts with millionaires asking for the public's money and 80s pop culture within the body of a catchy anthem appeals to Gunn.

In a few years, don't be shocked to see Gunn's Guardian films compared favourably to pre-MCU films such as Sam Raimi's Spiderman 2 and nonce's X-Men 2 as classics in the genre. They're that good and so superior to all the crap the MCU has given us since this began with Iron Man. Whatever he does next, I want more of this men on a mission business. Maybe we can actually reach the absurd display of masculinity the westerns had. Warriors with codes and maybe just maybe they can adapt to our modern times with female liberation and the superhero film can finally have something interesting to say. If the superheroes are dying out maybe he'll be the one to go full Sam Peckinpah and do this bloody The Wild Bunch style send off. I'm not declaring him a genius or a master artist. He's fucked up before and I'm sure he'll fuck up again. However, he does demonstrate the most hope to do something with this popular genre. Everything he does it turns to Gold. Roll down the red carpet and give this man the keys to the kingdom. Making these Marvel movies is a dirty job but someone's got to do it.

Director: James Gunn

Screenplay: James Gunn

Starring: Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana, Dave Bautista, Karen Gillan, Pom Klementieff, Vin Diesel, Bradley Cooper, Will Poulter, Nathan Fillion, Sylvester Stallone, Sean Gunn

Cinematography: Henry Braham

Music: John Murphy

Production Company: Marvel Studios

Distribution: Walt Disney Studios

Motion Pictures

Country: USA

Run Time: 150 Minutes

Budget: $250 million

Plot Synopsis: Suffering the post-break up blues, Star-Lord must gather the troops, who remain ever unreliable, in order to rescue a dying Rocket Raccoon. To complete this mission, they will have to come face to face with Rocket's dark past.

Bonus Points:

-Kaiju heavy third act

-Howard the Duck playing cards

-Kraglin and Cosmo going full Turner and Hooch buddy cop

-The terrific Beastie Boys fight scene

-The sexy trackies and zero gravity walks

-The The's This is the Day getting whacked out prebattle

-Gunn continuing his men on a mission series and sense of subversion. The only auteur making superhero movies today

-Bautista saving the kids

-Star-Lord's adamance it's a face off not a trap