Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy was a massive success this weekend, proving once and for all that people will see a sufficiently entertaining movie starring a tree. Guardians received rave reviews from fans and critics alike, and it may surprisingly end up the biggest movie of the summer. But as one writer points out, it also may signal the dawn of a new era for movies: the end of plot.
Steven Zeitchik's article in the Los Angeles Times argues that in contrast to years of established filmmaking, Guardians and the larger Marvel universe represent a new type of movie where the specifics of the plot rarely matter. This isn't to suggest that Guardians is poorly written; it's just that it has no meaningful narrative. Blockbusters from previous years – Jaws, Star Wars, and even Christopher Nolan's Batmans – are driven by a fairly standard three-act structure that can be broken down into the rising action, climax, et cetera. In contrast, Marvel's movies usually lack that coherent structure, but they're still fun because we enjoy seeing interesting things happen to interesting people. For all intents and purposes, Guardians is a movie about five weird misfits blowing things up, but that doesn't mean it isn't exciting and engaging.
It's not that there's no plot. The plot just doesn't matter in the broader scheme of things. Much like Seinfeld was famously "about nothing," movies may too have reached a stage where plot specifics are no longer the driving force. Zeitchik draws comparisons to the "jokeless comedy," arguing that like The Hangover, blockbuster movies are increasingly about situations and characters. Again, this is not a knock against the quality of movies like Guardians. Zeitchik only means to point out that big movies, far from being uniform behemoths, are changing too.
Plus, when plot doesn't matter, neither do spoilers! We're free!
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