Sunday 28 July 2019

Around the World: Russia


As promised from a while ago, a post just for the Russian superhero film, ‘Guardians’ as it was needed. When you see the typical superhero stance on a poster and they are dressed in ‘special’ suits, plus there’s a guy who is half bear, you can guess what sort of film you’re going to get.

With a standard plot about four individuals who were experimented on and as a result of these experiments, that turns out only a few of them agreed to, they all have super powers. Now the leader on this programme has gone rogue after getting powers of his own, a secret task force is assembled to recruit back these gifted individuals to help defeat the evil guy. Standard. The ‘Guardians’ as they are called, are defeated at first but then through the power of montage they are given weapons and go into training mode and once again go into battle with the now crazy evil guy. He’s crazy now too as he literally tears apart a building and wants to take over all the satellites. There is also a side plot where the only woman in the group can’t remember her life before the experiments but you can guess who she was married to before a mile off

This may sound like I’m not taking this film seriously but I was actually very much looking forward to seeing this film, no matter the outcome. For a standard plot, I was still very much confused throughout. I didn’t really understand the need for the experiments in the first place or what the evil guy was really up to, all I know is that he was evil and killed people and experimented on people. The real fun parts was when the task force recruited the guardians, going to various parts of the Russian domain and seeing what they could do with their powers. And of course seeing one man go full bear, that was enjoyable and most amusing as he ruined quite a few outfits but never seemed to be without clothes. 

The film was not adapted from a comic book or novel source material although considering the wider plot, I’m surprised. The fact that this film did not do very well at the box office was not a surprise. Even the filmmakers were quite optimistic and announced a sequel would happen with Chinese characters BUT that never happened. The filmmakers said to was due to the fact that no one knew the characters. There was no ready made fan base to hype the film despite the marketing team going all out. But in a movie world filled to the brim with superhero films, TV shows, comics and books, maybe there just wasn’t space for the Guardians to thrive. Except, on a late night screening at an obscure cinema that appreciates the more ridiculous things in life. 

Next up... check out all the films HERE
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