Genius Trailer Shows What DC’s Guardians of the Galaxy Would Look Like

I’m excited for Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2—the first movie was a fun intergalactic romp, comedy meets space meets superpowered creatures, all bound together by a nostalgia-fueled soundtrack. This brilliant trailer, which shows how the first movie would have been made in the DC/Warner Bros. factory of dark cinema, has me laughing more than the genuine Guardians trailers.

Everything about the first Guardians played like a wink at the audience, tongue firmly in cheek as both superhero and space travel movies were riffed on. Even when they’re fighting the big bads, our intergalactic heroes still have time to crack jokes and engage in dance-offs. I mean, the breakout stars were a talking raccoon and a very mobile tree. By all initial review accounts, the second movie is even better and a ton of fun, and I can’t wait to see it.

The fan-made trailer “If Guardians of the Galaxy was DC” is clearly made by someone with a deep appreciation for the films from both comics houses. It mashes up scenes from Vol. 1 into the bleaker DC landscape beloved by Zack Snyder et al. Welcome to a universe where there’s lots of brooding, lots of screaming, lots of fighting, lots of dwelling on angst, dying parents, anguished children, and nary an errant chord of Blue Suede’s “Hooked on a Feeling” to provide relief.

Instead, we get the ominous drumbeats of looming doom (“Drums, drums in the deep,” my brain kept repeating), a lot of darkness, and a lot of snarling villains and brutal battles. The trailer is so well-cut that I kept laughing even as the scenes were rendered highly dramatic, knowing the much lighter way they were intended. Of course, as in most Things Internet, the YouTube commenters have the last laugh:

“I donno. Still too much color,” wrote Dogsport1.
“This is fake, there are no Batman characters awkwardly shoehorned into this movie,” said Ujjwal Mohindra2.
“Instead of an epic dance off challenge, it would have been “Really, your mother’s name is Meredith too?” from Aaron Morris.

This is a good bit of fun at the stylistic differences that tend to pop up between Marvel and DC cinematic universes. Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to listen to something awesome.

(via Moviepilot, image: screengrab)

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