SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE, BUILDING AND DESIGN

THE DESIGN SCHOOL

FOUNDATION IN NATURAL BUILD ENVIRONMENT

NAME: YEN WEI ZHENG

STUDENT ID NO: 0320266

FILMS SELECTED: (Guardians of the Galaxy & The Avengers)

WORD COUNT: 901

ENGLISH 2 (ELG 30605)

WRITTEN ASSIGNMENT 1: COMPARE – CONTRAST ESSAY

LECTURER: CASSANDRA WIJESURIA

SUBMISSION DATE: APRIL 8th, 2015

Pre-writing (Listing)-Heroes

-saving their planet

-dislike each other at the beginning

-bad teammates

-Marvel superhero

-forms an alliance

-steal, use, secure the powerful item

-powerful enemy

-starship

-invade by the villain

-character personality traits and portrayal

-helped from an organization

-mission to protect the Earth/Galaxy

Movie Comparison

Writing a comparison essay of 2 films with the same genre that are categorized as science fiction, I have chosen my favorite movies to write about. Which are Guardians of the Galaxy (2014) and The Avengers (2012), besides that, action and adventure genres are also involved in these 2 films. Their similarity derives from the film’s characters, the weapon of mass destruction, objective of the heroes and the organization.

To begin with, the range of diversity between the characters in these 2 particular films aren’t that far apart. Let’s start with The Avengers; their leader is Ironman, who often leads the team show great leadership from their mission despite his personality of being a self-centered and arrogant person, he is a tactician on the field, backing himself up from the flaw. As for the Guardians of the Galaxy they have Peter Quill A.K.A ‘Star Lord’ as the leader who is also a master strategist and problem solver that can be related to for being a space bandit for quite some time. Next will be our power house and muscle guy, any team will be incomplete without someone like Hulk and Drax who is a master combatant. Both of them suffer from anger management. Moving on to our weaponry expert is Hawkeye who is a marksman, skilled and armed in archery with various bows that have different abilities, while Rocket; a bounty hunter in the form of a genetically engineered raccoon, he is well-versed in the use of high-powered firearms, from all over the Galaxy. In terms of harnessing the power of nature and using it in battle, Thor and Groot are the ones to be known for. Thor the demi god, who is able to manipulate weather and summon lightning as his command, whereas, Groot the tree-like humanoid manipulates living trees including itself. Lastly we have our assassins, Black Widow and Gamora. Both female assassins are well trained in combat and also in various martial arts and combatant skill.

Secondly, in both films there is an item that the villain obtains and turned it into a weapon of mass destruction which takes form of a cosmic stone. In the film The Avengers it takes form of a cube and it is called the Tesseract. The Tesseract is an Infinity Stone of unparalleled power that is owned by Odin, it is now kept and secured in Asgard. Loki uses the Tesseract, in conjunction with a device built by S.H.I.E.L.D, to open a wormhole above Stark Tower to the enemy’s fleet in space, launching his invasion to subjugate Earth. But in the film Guardians of the Galaxy the destructive weapon is stored in an orb, opening the orb reveal the Infinity Stone, an item of immeasurable power that destroys all but the most powerful beings who wield it. The villain in this movie ‘Ronan’ embeds the Stone in his Warhammer, taking its power for himself and granting him the ability to obliterate an entire planet.

Other than that, the objective of the heroes are identical with each other, they defended against the evil. In The Avengers, the team was assembled by S.H.I.E.L.D but they were unwilling to cooperate with each other and with the organization. The Avengers become divided; both over how to approach Loki and the revelation that S.H.I.E.L.D. plans to harness the Tesseract to develop weapons as a deterrent against hostile extraterrestrials. But after realizing what was more important, they sort out their priority by defending the Earth from the invasion. As for the Guardians of the Galaxy, they are a group of extraterrestrial misfit, knowing that the odds are against them, they form an uneasy alliance. Jonathan Haidt once state that “The most powerful force ever known on this planet is human cooperation- a force

for construction and destruction”. All’s well end well, where their burning passion and team spirit helps them work well as a team and was able to defeat Ronan from destroying their planet.

Furthermore, the organization in each film plays a big part as they are the foundation of our heroes’ success, widely considered as the reinforcements of our heroes. S.H.I.E.L.D in The Avengers is an espionage, law-enforcement, and counter-terrorism agency. Its headquarters is the Helicarrier, an enormous flying aircraft carrier kept airborne at all times, and among other stuffs, holding a squadron of jet fighters and lodging an intercontinental ballistic missile. The agency is led by their director Nick Fury. Not just relying on The Avengers to dispose the enemy, he can sometimes be seen to lend a hand to our heroes when in trouble. In the Guardians of the Galaxy, the Nova Corps is an intergalactic military and or police force for the planet Xandar, retaining order and justice for all. The responsibility of the Nova Corps is to defend the civilization of Xandar, they helped assist the Guardians to end the doings of Ronan and saved the entire galaxy from the wraith of Ronan.

In conclusion, the aspect of the films does not deter the likeness of each other. Instead, it is quite similar in terms of the characters, the weapon of mass destruction, objective of the heroes and the organization. In fact, they are from the same genre and both are under Marvel Universe. Science fiction film have always been a prefer choice to many, it has seldom disappoint us from the action and explosion to the main plot of the movie.

ReferenceAvengers members. (n.d.). Retrieved April 5, 2015, from [website]http://marvel.wikia.com/Category:Avengers_members

Marvel's The Avengers. (n.d.). Retrieved April 5, 2015, from [website]http://marvel.wikia.com/Marvel's_The_Avengers

Rocket Raccoon. (n.d.). Retrieved April 5, 2015, from [website]http://marvelcinematicuniverse.wikia.com/wiki/Rocket_Raccoon

Guardians of the Galaxy (film). (n.d.). Retrieved April 5, 2015, from [website]http://marvel-movies.wikia.com/wiki/Guardians_of_the_Galaxy_(film)

Guardians of the Galaxy. (n.d.). Retrieved April 5, 2015, from [website]http://marvel.com/characters/70/guardians_of_the_galaxy

S.H.I.E.L.D. (n.d.). Retrieved April 5, 2015, from [website]http://marvelcinematicuniverse.wikia.com/wiki/S.H.I.E.L.D.

Nova Corps (Earth-616). (n.d.). Retrieved April 5, 2015, from [website]http://marvel.wikia.com/Nova_Corps_(Earth-616)