Jury Duty and Guardians of the Galaxy

[gothrockrulz]

You know that jury summons I couldn't find (but I did eventually)? Well, even though I had it up in plain sight for weeks, I forgot about it until literally the last minute. Called the night before I was supposed to appear, heard my group summoned. Called out from part time job (down to just Mondays for my retail job), showed up at the courthouse downtown. Stuck around all day and got picked. Had to call out from my full time job Tues-Fri. We the happiest jury ever (literally, our awesome bailiff and all the staff around us were amazed how chill and fun we were) finally reached a verdict this afternoon. I have NEVER felt more free in my life. And I swear I'm NEVER forgetting about something like this again. (JFYI, I now know all sorts of cool stuff about how blood is tested for alcohol content.)

Last night, I blew off some stress watching Guardians of the Galaxy. It was really fun! I really resented the beginning, though. Yeah, just have a long, drawn-out, heartbreaking scene about a mother dying of cancer. You need to clinically depress all but the hardest hearts in the theater in order to get us to sympathize with Starlord. It's a good thing the rest of the movie was crazy fun, or else my emotions would never recover. The scene gathering Starlord, Gamora, Groot, and Rocket all together as they beat the crap out of each other was golden. I do wish we could have had more character backstory and development, like Avengers did, but that's okay. I'm glad they didn't try to force too much sappiness with Starlord and Gamora. Gamora ain't here for none of that nonsense. Lee Pace and Karen Gillan were pretty much wasted, though, just because there wasn't time to give them a chance to do much. Overall, though, it had a marked Star Wars vibe, and I enjoyed it.

Comments

[csg-dear4life.livejournal.com]

I've been summoned once, but never got on a jury.

[gothrockrulz.livejournal.com]

Same happened to me a couple years back, I think? Hope I never get stuck on a jury again.

[rhoda-rants.livejournal.com]

Yay for fun juries!! That's an experience I've never had; possibly when/if I move out and can serve in some other city than the one where my relatives work for the court. (Can't do juries for that reason right now--think I've mentioned that before.) Sounds like you had a cool week!

Saw Guardians mere hours ago, AND!
Concur on the dead-mother-dying-from-cancer thing. Ugh. Had about e-bloody-nough of that sort of thing. Even more awkward/unpleasant was watching it with my mother, who is a five-time cancer survivor. Again--ugh.


Off-topic, there's a great article in the current Atlantic about the Dead Mother trope, where it may have come from, what the implications are, some movie recs that subvert it. It's mostly focused on Disney movies, but it's hardly the only place it shows up.

Also concur on the Star Wars vibe--Starlord was like Luke and Han combined, super-snarky, but also tortured/angsty because of his backstory. Not bad. I loved Rocket. Zoe Saldana is awesome in all things always. Karen I liked just fine, but her character is so machine-like she just didn't get to do much. There was one moment right after she blows up Gamora's pod where her mouth sort of twitches, and it's like she's sort of having some emotion/conflict/regret about that, but it's so repressed it's impossible to read. Which I'm saying is a good thing--well done on her part getting that across. But she didn't get nearly enough to do.


I'm making graphix! :)

[gothrockrulz.livejournal.com]

Yeah, Starlord is totally a mashup of Han and Luke, and I love that. I didn't really like Saldana as Uhura in Star Trek, but I like her bit part as Anamaria in the first PotC movie, and I LOVED her here. This is my fave role of hers so far. Also, it hit me that one scene that displays a lot of skin simply for male enjoyment in the trailer didn't make it into the movie. *high fives whoever made that decision* I liked Gillan/Nebula having almost a moment of sadness, too. Can't wait for the graphics! (Edited for spelling. :P)

[msantimacassar.livejournal.com]

So glad you survived jury duty and it wasn't a really horrible case or anything! And hopefully got some nice tidbits for future writing, haha.

I haven't seen GotG yet and I'm not sure I will anytime soon. It looks super silly, but I'm glad to hear it was still fun.

[gothrockrulz.livejournal.com]

Thanks, jury duty was educational, but only fun during breaks.

GotG definitely is a movie that takes nothing seriously, much less itself, but it's still great. MUCH better than the new Ninja Turtles movie trailer we suffered/laughed through.

[xerinmichellex.livejournal.com]

I've been on "stand-by" jury once, where you call in the day before your scheduled date of appearance, and thankfully didn't have to go in. I just renewed my license, and my jury summons came shortly after that; so I'm basically waiting to see if I get flagged again.

On GotG:
I'm going to have to disagree with some of your points. . .but in a friendly manner.

1. Yeah, I get the Dying Parent/Cancer Parent trope is overused and emotionally manipulating. I don't think I've teared up quite so quickly since Up. But I wasn't really bothered by the trope here because I don't feel like it was a card used to give Peter a tragic past just for tragedy sakes. IMO, it did serve a larger purpose to show the transformation from a scared, cowardly little boy who couldn't hold his mom's hand to a guy willing to risk his own life for the universe and billions of people he's never met. It could've probably been threaded better into the overall story, though, and not pulled out during the final climax. But I believed Peter's regret and self-guilt at not holding his mom's hand one last time and how that affected him.

2. I actually preferred this unit of "team" over The Avengers; but this is probably my personal preference. I like "band of misfits join together and form their own family" over the fan-fictionness of The Avengers where superheros from all over join together. It felt more meaningful to have "a thief, two thugs, an assassin, and a maniac" band together and save the world. Especially with the growth that all of them took from wanting to sell the orb (or Peter) to highest bidder to doing the right thing and bringing it to the Nova Corps.

I will agree that Lee Pace and Karen Gillan were underused. Much as I don't care for him, Loki/Tom Hiddleston has set the bar high for Marvel villains. Nebula did get away, so hopefully we'll see her again in the next one.

[gothrockrulz.livejournal.com]

Hoping you don't get flagged this time for jury duty (unless you want to serve a juror).

Friendly discussion is always welcome! :D The Dead Mother Trope didn't bother me, so much as how it was executed. A brief but poignant scene wouldn't have bothered me; but this particular scene was very long and hit quite a few sensitive nerves. I did love how they used the reaching to grasp hands as a theme to show his growth, though. That was sweet. :)

The Guardians' alliance definitely felt more organic, since their bonding was a matter of being thrown together by chance and having to wing everything as a team to survive. Avengers still has a special place in my heart, though.

[xerinmichellex.livejournal.com]

I just wasn't blown away by The Avengers in general. I thought it was bloated with fight sequences and witty dialogue and how they finally banded together was contrived and a complete manipulation on Fury's part. The Avengers suffer from "too many chefs in the kitchen".

GotG felt like it accomplished what The Avengers was aiming for in working as a team. Probably because the Guardians ARE a team first and foremost. Whereas The Avengers are comprised of superheros who have their own stories, yet come together once and awhile and fight bad guys.

(On the flip side, you lose the "individual-ness" of the Guardians. I feel for James Gunn, who basically had to smash the Marvel solo flicks and The Avengers movie into ONE movie for the Guardians.)

[gothrockrulz.livejournal.com]

Considering just how many chefs were being juggled in that kitchen in The Avengers, I was very impressed, actually. You're right about the "individual-ness"--The Avengers tend to have a bit too much, and needed to lend a bit to the Guardians. Also, oh my goodness, what I would GIVE for a movie focused just on Gamora's and Nebula's past. Hoo boy, that would be awesome, would it not?

[phililen3.livejournal.com]

My country doesn't have a jury system. I think that it's good like that. But judges are people too and.... No system is perfect....

I've heard a lot about Guardians.... But the reported humour is putting me off from watching. I don't do well with American humour. I always just get irritated.

[gothrockrulz.livejournal.com]

Hmm, that's interesting. How are verdicts determined? Completely by the judge?

Yeah, now that I think of it, the humor is VERY American (and the crude kind of American) in Guardians. Even though I'm American the cruder stuff tends to annoy me, too. From what you've said, you'd probably have more fun waiting till it's out on DVD than going to a theater. I'd still recommend watching it, just for the character bonds. And Groot. He's my fave, hands down. :)

[phililen3.livejournal.com]

It is up to the judge. Prosecution argues, defence argues and then at the end the judge makes the decision. We follow the British system and the Dutch in terms of law since they are the ones who colonized us and constructed the system.

It seems like Groot is everyone's favourite.

[gothrockrulz.livejournal.com]

Hmmmm, that makes sense. I'm tempted to say I wish it was the same way here. Not sure what would scare me more if I was the defendant--my fate resting in one judge, or a panel of jurors. Scary either way.

Ah, I'm really glad Groot seems to be getting a lot of attention. Strangely enough, from the trailer, he looked kinda average and not that special. THEY WERE TRICKING US. XD