In another timeline (not necessarily the darkest, but certainly different), Joel McHale is the one dancing to “Come and Get Your Love” as Star-Lord, kids can’t buy backpacks with the likeness of Alison “Black Widow” Brie on them, and the brothers who directed “Beginner Poetry” and “A Fistful of Paintballs” are working on Avengers: Infinity War. Actually, that last one’s for-real happening, but the other two only exist in my mind when I’m watching “Intro to Recycled Cinema.”
Community obviously doesn’t have the budget of the average Marvel movie, so if Dan Harmon wants to riff on Guardians of the Galaxy and Star Wars, he’s gotta do what Party Down did and hire Steve Guttenberg. Also, he has to have the lo-fi action be intentionally terrible, with multiple aliens and robots making the same noise, Pop-Pop dressed as a carrot for some reason, and corny dialogue that Jeff ripped off from Buzz Hickey. Annie is either an assassin or a pleasure droid (or maybe both), Elroy’s eye keeps popping off (but that’s fine since he’s a robot), and we all learn an important lesson in the end: Don’t use the words “the Force” in your movie, or else.
“Intro to Recycled Cinema,” while a good episode, didn’t earn its emotional ending. The Abed caring about integrity stuff was fine, but Jeff swiping the laptop over fears that he’ll be the last man (or pleasure droid) standing at Greendale was too rushed to sink in. With that said, all the well-timed Chief Starr and the Raiders of Galaxy material worked well, as both a loving embrace of good sci-fi and the callousness of movie-making for a quick buck.
Let’s meet the Guardians of the Greendale.
Chief Starr
The Mayor of Outer Space and Meridian
Scorpio Nine
Glip-Glop
Minotaur Man
Steel Drum-Playing Twin from The Matrix
Dracula
And the Guttenberg
