Its been roughly 24hrs since I sat down with my sons to watch Guardians if the Galaxy and Ive been struggling with how best to describe the experience - because I was quite unprepared with how much it was going to affect me. When I was 5 (or 6 cant really remember) my mother, my uncle and one of my uncles friends took me to see a little move called Star Wars (this must of been the 1979 rerelease cause in May of 77 I was 3). It is the first memory I have of seeing a movie in the theater. We went at night (which I thought was awesome) and I feel asleep before the end - but I remember sitting in that dark theater, with the smell of buttered popcorn in the air and the sweet taste of Coke-Cola on my tongue, as that Imperial Star Destroyer chased the Rebel Ship across what seemed like an endless expanse of space and I was ENTHRALLED. Mesmerized. Transported in a way that I had never experienced. That moment of awe and wonder and excitement would shape my life for the next 30 years. Instill a love (and maybe a bit of obsession) with movies - and specifically going to the movies. For a little kid whose life was turned topsy turvy a few times with divorce, moves, remarriages, severe geographic relocations, feeling like an outsider, etc. it was the one place I would always go to travel to a different time and place and live an adventure. The second time I felt that strong a feeling was a few years later when I saw Raiders of the Lost Ark. I was 8 going on 9, not a little kid like when I had seen Star Wars, and it hit on a different level - still awe and wonder, but this time with a dose of mayhem and mischief - and that is when I knew I wanted to be an actor. I was thrilled and exhilarated, a little bit scared, and above all alive. I walked out of that movie feeling like I could take on a sub full of Nazis, maybe kissing a girl might not be disgusting (this was the summer between 2nd and 3rd grade so girls were still gross), and that adventure was just a bit make believe, a smirk, a cocky one liner, and using my mothers braided leather belt as a whip away. Lots of movies would come close to that feeling in the following years (E.T., Back to the Future, Goonies, Aliens - not to mention a slew of B-movies) but since then, like an addict chasing that inaugural high, nothing has quite hit the same euphoric moment. Until now. From the first second to the last frame - Guardians of the Galaxy had me feeling like that 8 year old kid - full of reckless joy, adventure, mischief and unabashed hope. It proves that popcorn movies can be smart, funny, inventive, irreverent, and fun. They can be more than mindless entertainment to be consumed and forgotten - they sure werent to that 6 year old kid who needed an escape from a reality he didnt always understand and fuel for his dreams - they can matter. So...this is long and sappy and probably overly sentimental - but I dont care. Thanks James Giunn for giving this old guy a celluloid time machine so I could say hey to that 6 year old little boy, give em a smirk, a wink and a hug, and so that he could remind me that the force will be with you, always. #guardiansofthegalaxy io9/watching-guardians-of-the-galaxy-is-like-getting-back-p-1614421231
Posted on: Sun, 03 Aug 2014 22:28:35 +0000
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