Though it was certainly not the best movie of the summer, I am over the moon that Guardians of the Galaxy is the number one earner at the domestic box office for the year. Sure I had some quibbles with structure and the way some of the action was shot, but all of that is trumped by one simple fact - it was so all so wonderfully weird.
When defending the Googie architecture that dominated the mid-century Southern California landscape against some of it's harshest critics, Douglas Haskell astutely pointed out that Googie helps to prepare people for the, "sensible strangeness to come." As someone who grew up in 1980's/1990's So Cal, I could not agree more. Starbursts, sloped roofs, cinder blocks and concrete were everywhere. Perhaps this is why I am now able to appreciate the work of architects like John Lautner, Richard Neutra and Pierre Koenig?
Pop art is the perfect delivery system for weirdness. Thanks to Guardians of the Galaxy, a whole generation is being exposed to absurdist humor, the work of illustrator Chris Foss and the music of David Bowie. The inclusion of Bowie is doubly apt in that from the 70's onward, his particular brand of pop music has also served as a Trojan Horse for the weirdness of Andy Warhol, Lou Reed, Iggy Pop and electronica.
Judging by the fact that an old friend's son has seen this film three times in a theater and that another friend's daughter can be seen on Instagram grooving to the hit soundtrack, I feel pretty confident that the future is going to be a cool and weird place.
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