By TIM DAVID HARVEY.
THWACK! There's nothing quite like the sound of wood on cork. Like the moment a champagne bottle is popped at the toast of celebration. That split second sound that leads to an euphoric eruption of epic enthusiasm. Sports hold that moment for us like no other outside of the Hollywood dream of the movie world. In mere moments ones life can change from relative years of obscurity to seemingly evergreen celebrity like no other. It happens on just another day, to someone that seems like just another person. But then it all comes together like the fates aligned for it all meant to be. This is how lives change in the blink of an eye as it all comes to pass. This kid is the perfect example of this. He just seemed like another supporting player in someone else's moment. You knew his face, but not his place. The star of someone else's victory lap. Like the legendary Oakland Athletics. Or Billy Beane. Or heck, even Brad Pitt! But then his number is called from life's dugouts. And you're about to know his name for sure! A late, great legend like Phillip Seymour Hoffman (Rest Peacefully) see's it...even if the kid pointing to himself and mouthing "me" in question doesn't...yet. Here's a guy who they said "lacked confidence", "to put it nicely". Which Pitt replied, "then give him some". You can be afraid of a lot of things in this life. Success, failure, fame, notoriety. The makings of your moment...the damn ball! It's all a metaphor and part of life's rich tapestry of challenge that you have to weave and re-write your own way. So in symbolism this kid steps up to the plate for his 'Moneyball' moment. Putting the whole team of players and movie-making moment on his tense shoulders and back as he assumes the position with the bat. He takes the deepest of breaths and centers himself. All his nerves and excitement culminating together as he tightens his wrists. Here's the pitch and this is his make or break...then it all snaps. As this kid's a hit! He knocks it right out of the park! Right out of the whole arena of clapping and cheering fans calling his name over and over again like the new MVP.
CRACK! The strip of leather keeps snapping in the mid-air! Looking like it's going to unravel forever, until it licks it's target and in a snap recoils back to it's starting point like a boomerang. Ripping things apart in fine defining lines and points of laceration. As the whip coils back its wrapped around the hands of a man who tightens his grip around this potent weapon, just like he did that powerful bat. A leather jacket would go nicely with this leather accessory. Maybe even a fedora of some kind. Let's face it too this guy knows how to rock the wanderers khaki and cowboy look. Maybe that's why this Hollywood player looks to continue his cinematic stampede with Westerns as well as the best of science fiction future. Right now some of this may just all be rumor, but the question that doesn't need answering like rhetorical is who else but Chris Pratt could be the new 'Indiana Jones'. He's already drawn Harrison Ford comparisons for his last two movies and would be perfect to step into the tipped hat of the otherwise irreplaceable Ford. About to have more franchises under his leather belt than even Harrison did, after playing Han Solo in some set of trilogies that war with the stars or something of that force or nature. Awakening his out of this galaxy, superhero super-stardom even more, Pratt is anything but the definition of his second name as he defines his in the modern movie lexicon. Just to think a mere few years ago, the biggest thing he was a part of was a cute and chubby, fondly funny supporting star in the stellar sitcom 'Parks & Recreation'. Now it's all Parks and Raptor recreation (thanks for the pun Matt) for a guy who is muscling up to the best roles in the leading man weight room that's full of pin-ups and thespian poster boys. It all started with more supporting roles of significance in movies like the big-hitting 'Moneyball' and the Jessica Chastain war-report 'Zero Dark Thirty' that saw Pratt and a Seal-team of soldiers hunt down Osama Bin-Laden. What else can this out of this world talent do? He's even cornered everyone's favorite best-man role. From the birth of Vince Vaughn's 'Delivery Man' and a Jason Segel, Emily Blunt hilarious 'Five Year Engagement' inbetween, to the future love of Joaquin Phoenix's 'Her'. Now this guy looks set to assemble with one of the greatest posses of all-time in 'Training Day' and 'The Equalizer' director Antoine Fuqua's remake of 'The Magnificent Seven' (the classic original a remake of the Japanese 'Seven Samurai' itself) alongside the likes of Denzel Washington, Ethan Hawke and Kingpin himself Vincent D'Onofrio (as of late a Pratt ally of sorts). Now how's that for Marvel's most marvelous man (yep that's right Tony...or should we say Downey, you may have 'Iron Man' and 'Sherlock Holmes' but look what this Guardian has now in Avengance)?
Not bad for a guy that used to be homeless when he wasn't a daytime 'Magic Mike' like stripper. Not bad for a kid from Virginia, Minnesota whose about to turn 36. Not bad for a kid who grew up being on 'The O.C.' before he was Andy Dwyer. Not bad for a guy that was named "Disgusting Danny" in the movie 'What's Your Number' alongside Captain America; Chris Evans, The Falcon; Anthony Mackie and his wife 'Scary Movie' star Anna Faris. A guy who used to only be know for being that recognizable face from 'Bride Wars', or 'Jennifer's Body'. Or that girlfriend stealing prick that got nailed with a keyboard hitting "F### you" in 'X-Men' Professor X star James McAvoy's own 'Wanted' breakout. A modern Marvel that was once a voice in an animated 'Batman' episode. One of the many Hollywood stars that was part of that Raspberry awful 'Movie 43' film. A guy that auditioned to play Captain Kirk in the 2009 'Star Trek' movie before the perfect Chris Pine took the role and bridge, although how great would it have been to see Pratt as James T. with all his charm and charisma for what we're sure would be a breakout role that he would have made his own? Yet, something else was meant to be. Just like the fact that he didn't end up being cast in another Sci-Fi huge hit, 'Avatar' as he read for Jake Scully who would end up being played by the at the time breakout star Sam Worthington. But those in the casting department who said he didn't have "that thing" or "it" that they where looking for couldn't be more wrong today. A guy who once upon a time played regular Joe's with names like 'Bobby', 'Barry', 'Kyle', 'Scott', 'Justin', 'Doug', 'Darren', 'Brett', 'Paul' and of course 'Andy', then played someone called 'Emmett'. Someone confused as the 'Special'. A 'Master Builder' in the magnificent new 'Toy Story' child's C.G. dominating film 'The LEGO Movie' which brought the building block play-thing franchise to new commercial crossover heights. With Pratt voicing the biggest yellow star since Bart Simpson with short and humble pie eating brilliance for anyone that previously wrote him off, all whilst claiming "they liked him before he was cool" in a new franchise family. There just may be more Lego piece characters than actual human beings in this wide world...this is just how big this thing is and could get brick by brick.
Then came something even bigger and out of this world. A real Star. Or should we say Peter Quill A.K.A, Star-Lord. Who? The star of 'Guardians Of The Galaxy'. Last years biggest blockbuster and movie if not one of the biggest things ever seen out of the monster dominating Marvel comic-book franchise. And just when you thought Robert Downey Jnr's 'Iron Man' lead 'Avenger's' was the king of all of Stan Lee's teams of 'X-Men' and the 'Fantastic Four'. And just when you thought that with all the 'Star Trek' and 'Star Wars' Kirk's and Solo's there wasn't enough room in this galaxy for another guardian and spaceship travelling planet explorer. And to think Pratt at first passed on his breakout and iconic role because he didn't want everything to turn out as blue as what happened with 'Avatar'. To think critics thought a film with a talking Racoon and tree was going to be lost like a scud missile in a Black Hole. Little did they know that the talking Racoon and tree where Bradley Cooper and Vin Diesel. "I Am Groot" indeed! That's bark speech for; "how wrong they all were"! With his out of this world talent on display alongside a group of A-list franchise stars including Sci-Fi queen Zoe Saldana-who Pratt could have easily starred alongside in both 'Star Trek' and 'Avatar' if given his shot back then-this new leading man lead a gang of misfits to the top of the world. Still armed with a Solo blaster, red leather outlaw jacket and the most 'Awesome Mix' your dearest mother could give you, Pratt's Star-Lord was instantly iconic in this modern movie classic. Now after years of not being able to buy a role, the man whose landing many legendary ones will one day in the future be the measure of new actors trying to take his biggest star in the world mantle. Just like RDJ's Tony Stark of Hugh Jackman's Wolverine one day people will be wondering who could possibly take over the role of Star-Lord in a 'Guardians' reboot from the one and only Chris Pratt. Still, if there was ever a role to rival that, it'd be this one right now in 'Jurassic World', as Pratt's park-ranger Owen proves you don't always need Jeff Goldblum for a big and bold 'Jurassic Park' movie. Re-opening the gates of this franchise and his own career, Pratt is like Dr. Alan Grant on steroids, whilst extra starch pressed into his Bob Peck Raptor hunters khaki's. The former young actor who always seemed to play characters that couldn't mature is now playing someone so muscled up that the biggest star in this monster movie isn't even a T-Rex. This guy can even tame this series most sinister creatures, the Velociraptors. A gang that could even rival a Galaxy hopping one of green aliens, tree's and small critters with even more bark. Pratt and his new movie powerhouse are leaving more than just their big footprint as they have stomped all the box-office competition to the tune of the second-biggest opening in 690 million dollars. And just to think this time a year ago this guy was considered to be a nobody in some Hollywood circles. Now this 'Jurassic World' film is on a Gallimimus pace to overtake no other than 'Avatar' as the worlds most successful movie of all-time. It's funny how things turn out isn't it. Now with the whole galaxy, Raptors and karma on his side this star has become the lord of the films. With a Jones for another franchise and something magnificent in his holster this man has as many potential big movies as his characters have pockets. We haven't even dino-claw scratched the surface of what this leading man is cooking up in his lab. Something good...something bad! A little bit of both? This man has more than part of a plan now and it defies this very earth and nature of extinction. Those old directors and films back in the day just went and bet against Chris Pratt...probably not a good idea!
#SuperheroSeason
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