Alright, there’s a lot to unpack here so let’s address the giant transforming bear man in the room. This movie, made in Russia, has a freakin’ “Were-Bear” and it makes me giggle with delight because it’s just so damn perfect! With that out of the way, let’s let the Guardians wiki page do some explaining.

“The film is about a group of Soviet superheroes created during the Cold War. The group includes representatives of the different nationalities of the USSR. Protagonists’ superpowers reflect strengths and traditions of the people of the USSR.”

It might be easy to say that this movie is riding the wave of popularity formed by other superhero flicks in the past few years, but after giving the trailers for it their fair shake, I have to say I’m actually pretty excited about this film. Yes, there appear to be aspects to it that we’ve come to expect when following various adventures of super-heroics, because after all, there are not many power sets or plots that haven’t been done before. The story seems fairly straight forward: Super-bad guy does bad things, government collects good supers to combat super-bad guy. Explosions, fights, slo-mo, and tongue-in-cheek dialogue are all promised in the few short moments of the trailer. Pretty standard if you ask me.

However, what has me excited for Guardians is the fact that this film appears more compelling than some of the superhero movies we’ve seen recently and was made for a fraction of the cost. The 330 million RUB (5 million USD) budget is evident in the trailer’s larger CGI-filled shots, but it may not even be an issue since they still have a year to clean it up before its released. Yet, even if it’s left as is, compare the look of Guardians to the final look of Doomsday in BvS with a budget 50 times larger and it’s clear great things can be accomplished with substantially less money.

Additionally, the character design is unique and surprising which is an entirely new feeling for me. Anytime a superhero movie gets made, I tend to already kind of know what to expect from characters and their powers. This, however, is totally new and I’m excited to see the various ways a different culture handles fight scenes with super powers.

According to the Wikipedia page for the film the four main protagonists have elemental power sets. Land, water, air, and…. grizzly bears? I guess? Kidding aside, the “were-bear” stuff in the trailer seems par for the course of a tank style character doing his best to smash everything up but the others are doing some interesting things. Having Ler–a “Landman” (yeah. that’s apparently what they’re going with)–surround his body in an exoskeleton of rock for hand to hand combat is something I’d normally only expect to see in comic book form, but seeing it done in an action sequence is incredibly satisfying. Then there’s Khan’s “Windman” (oh jeez) power set that appears to be a combination of speedster and ninja. The clip below showcasing these powers is pretty brutal for the actions of a protagonist, as he has no qualms slicing and dicing some bad guys in a way that’s reminiscent of another sword-wielding character.

Now THAT’S the Winter Soldier we wanted!

Frankly, I’m totally on board for Guardians and hope there’s some way of seeing it here in the US once it gets released. What do you think of the trailer? Can anyone who speaks Russian verify the accuracy of the translation? Let’s discuss in the comments below!

Image: enjoy movies