Star Wars is arguably the ultimate film franchise in any genre, but in its own backyard, it maintains an impressively monolithic stature. For all of the George Lucas influence that can be seen in the world of film-making today, there have been surprisingly few successful cinematic space operas in the past few decades. There were plenty of candidates in the late 70’s and early 80’s, but even the ones that weren’t embarrassingly cheap, such as The Black Hole and The Last Starfighter, met with relatively modest reception.
Battlestar Galactica is probably the most iconic of Star Wars’ children, but it is primarily a television phenomenon. More recently, The Fifth Element mined similar ‘space fantasy’ territory with some success. Joss Whedon’s Firefly universe is a very direct descendent of Star Wars, but exists on a smaller cultural scale. The most successful modern science fiction franchises are The Matrix and Transformers, and for whatever they are worth, there has still never been anything that has combined space travel, futuristic technology, fantastic themes and fun-for-the-whole-family adventure in quite the same way as Star Wars.
However, in recent years, what is generally referred to as the ‘superhero’ or ‘comic book’ genre has actually been something of a Trojan Horse for successful, mainstream sci-fi. Thor and Man of Steel in particular each incorporate cosmic themes, and will likely continue to do so in their sequels. But Guardians of the Galaxy may be the best chance that has existed in quite a long time for something reminiscent of Star Wars to truly reach cultural saturation and spawn its own film series.
I have not yet seen
Guardians, as it has not yet opened in my area. I am aware that it has received some positive feedback, though, and Marvel Studios has already greenlit a sequel for 2017, including the return of director James Gunn. All of that speaks well to the film itself, and to its likely financial fortunes. But beyond that, is there the potential here for something more to develop?
Guardians of the Galaxy seems to have just about everything going for it. A likeable cast, a diverse group of characters, spaceships, undoubtedly incredible action and visual effects and a healthy dose of humor. Still, the best thing that it has going for it is its connection to
The Avengers. The Marvel Cinematic Universe continuity is the crucial gateway here, and the current state of the box office is nothing if not a demonstration of how much it pays to be part of a franchise.
That is a good thing, because without that franchise connection, even a perfectly good space opera can fail to truly find a large audience, or worse, suffer a fate so pitiful that it discourages further studio investment (see
John Carter).
Guardians should not have to worry about showing up on the radar of general audiences. The questions are whether it will be good enough seize the opportunity, and if so, just how big it can be.
For Warner Bros, it has to be frustrating to watch Marvel Studios take this step, because ‘the next
Star Wars’ is precisely what they were hoping that
Green Lantern could be. While the Guardians and the Green Lantern Corps characters are different in the details, the respective cinematic potentials of the two franchises are very similar. In any event,
Green Lantern failed to reach that potential and the character and mythology await a reboot. DC Comics certainly has plenty of science-fiction source material waiting in the (Thanagarian) wings. We will have to wait at least a short while to see what becomes of all of that, though.
In the meantime,
Star Wars itself is coming back to life on the big screen. Barring a serious misstep—which seems unlikely judging from what indicators we have to go by at this point—it will always be a cultural presence almost without equal. But shouldn’t a franchise so successful lead to more of the same? I certainly hope so, as a viewer and a fan.
Guardians of the Galaxy seems like as good a candidate as there has been in quite some time. If the humor is sufficient to attract general audiences and older viewers, if the quality of the story captivates, and most of all if the characters truly resonate, then there may be a near-perfect storm brewing here. If it all works out, we may have the beginnings of a deceptively rare, long-form space adventure on our hands here. That is the sort of thing that I am always hungry for more of.