A Preview of Guardians

The 11×13 poster given away at the screening.

Marvel Studios next entry to the Cinematic Universe they have created based on their comics is Guardians of the Galaxy, a film that has been the subject of very little marketing or publicity until the last month and a half or so. Since the National Basketball Association finals, the studio has gone full-court press on the film. One of their publicity stunts was a screening of 17 minutes of footage.

This 17 minute screener packed out cinema’s across the country. Conceivably, this screening was a sizable risk for Disney/Marvel, but it seems to be paying off. After relatively extensive scrolling through Twitter and Google search results, it is difficult to find anyone saying anything negative about the upcoming film at this point.

The footage opened with James Gunn being charming and trying to sell us on the film – it was announced several hours before the Pacific Time showing of the footage that Gunn had wrapped the film and was transiting to press tours, so I expect we shall see a lot more of this in the coming weeks.

We jump in at what is ostensibly the meeting of the characters, as they are confined to prison for various crimes. The bulk of the footage shown today follows this chapter of the story. We see the group that becomes the Guardians begin to get to know each other. If the writing is the fresh and snapping, the delivery is delightfully flawless. The actors bring these B-level comic characters to life with A-level passion and talent.

The IMAX 3d was perfect. This 17 minutes of IMAX 3D is certainly the best experience I have ever had with a 3D film, which certainly sells me on needing to see this movie in IMAX 3D.

Yes, this was totally a marketing stunt for the biggest risk Marvel Studios has taken in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. As far as I can tell, this is like a line Star-Lord has in the screener: “That was a good plan.”

This extended trailer was shown in the middle of the screener. Enjoy!

Guardians of the Galaxy opens August 1, 2014.