Review: Guardians of the Galaxy

Went to watch the Guardians of the Galaxy yesterday. I’ve watched Captain America and The Avengers before, but for this movie I’m mostly watching because of Rocket and Goot. Yet Marvel does not disappoint; this movie is every bit as enjoyable as others in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

昨天去看了银河护卫队。之前看过前作《美国队长》和《复仇者联盟》,但这次主要是去看火箭和格鲁特的。结果这部电影并不比那两部差;漫威出品,必为精品。

Rocket was an interesting character. He might be tiny, furry and having a tail, but he is no friendly saturday morning cartoon; make no mistake, this guy’s a veteran and a wild beast at heart.

火箭是个有意思的角色。虽然他不高,毛绒绒还有尾巴,但他可不是什么可爱的小动物;这家伙有一身历经沙场的经验和一颗野兽的心。

Many talked about how all Groot can speak is “I am Groot”, so I expected to hear a lot of it in the movie. Turns out he’s a person of a few words, only speaking up occasionally, but his grunts can be very expressive. His personality is better displayed in actions. Kudos to the writers and animators for bringing these two extraordinary characters to life.

许多人都在说格鲁特的台词只有“我是格鲁特”五个字,所以我原以为会听到很多次。结果他竟然沉默寡言,只是时不时嗯啊一下。

This isn’t to say the humanoid main characters are boring. It took them the half of the movie to stop fighting each other for the orb, and start taking on the villains as a team. The villains were memorable, too. Even though Ronan only directly crosses the protagonists’ path twice in the movie, he’s clearly established to be a powerful murderous sociopath.

我不是说剩下的主角就很无聊——电影的一半都在讲主角如何从互相争斗的对手成为同仇敌忾的搭档。同时,《银河护卫队》也塑造了印象深刻的反面角色。虽然罗南和主角直接会面仅有两次,他作为一位强大的杀人狂的影响力却一直可以感到。

Among the minor characters, Nova Prime, the commander of the Nova Corps, really stands out. TVTropes calls her a “cool old lady”, and for good reason. Being the head of a planet’s defence force, she maintains a calm demeanor, even when the planet is under assault. Plus, she’s dressed in a kick-butt uniform.

次要角色中 Nova Prime 算是英姿飒爽的老奶奶,作为星球防卫部队的总指挥官,即使大敌在前,她也从容不乱。并且那身制服帅呆了。

The music was also enjoyable – the soundtrack features many 70’s hits by way of the main character’s mixtape; it makes me want to dance. The locations were also visually impressive.

音乐也相当动听——主角一直在听的随身听,许多70年代美国最热门的音乐,让我想要跳舞。各个场景也都具有视觉震撼力。

Guardians of the Galaxy is shown in China with English dialogue and Chinese subtitles. I expected the subtitles to be bad (okay, not “backstroke of the west” bad) but it turns out to be just… kinda meh, really. It’s mostly accurate, but some of the coarse language have been toned down. (Which is why it wasn’t dubbed, I guess.) The subs did have Chinese slang, but it didn’t feel as snappy as the original dialog.

银河护卫队在中国上映的时候是英文配音,中文字幕。观看前听说字幕质量不好 (还没有《西斯的反击》翻译成 “西方仰泳” 那么糟糕) ;观后感觉算是……马马虎虎。基本上翻译准确,但是有些原版是粗话的地方,中文用了一些没那么强力的俗语,总觉得没有原文有味道。

Also, the Chinese subtitle font is pretty much the equivalent of Times Roman. Which looked rather awkward in a space opera, especially with the futuristic font in the opening credits. The subtitles are also a little distracting, but I suppose that’s just how subtitles are.

另外,中文字幕居然用的是宋体。对于这种太空肥皂剧用一本正经的字体,实在是不得其解。和开头工作人员列表未来风格的英文字体形成了强大反差。另外字幕有一些烦人,但是字幕都是这样的吧。

As an addendum, the movie is shown in China as “Galaxy Guard Team”, which is a pretty close translation. In Taiwan it’s translated as “Interplanetary Special Attack Team”, and this is the name TVTropes quotes. I don’t know where they got that name from… Must be the same people who translated Final Fantasy as “Space Warriors” (not making this up).

最后说一下,台湾把片名翻译成“星际特攻队”,而 TVTropes 说这是中文的翻译。我真不知道这是怎么翻出来的,一定是把 “最终幻想” 翻译成 “太空战士” (确有其事) 的原班人马。