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    Guardians of the Galaxy

    Movie » Guardians of the Galaxy released on August 01, 2014.

    The 10th movie in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, inspired by Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning's cosmic team.

    fallschirmjager's Guardians of the Galaxy review

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    GotG Review.

    Positives

    Honestly? My biggest positive of this film is Groot - which is a good and bad thing. He is easily the most charming and entertaining character of the whole movie. Its simple and it works. His interactions are very well handled and timed and the way Rocket sort of gives insight to what more he is saying is pretty funny. Especially the mid credit scene - which is hilariously cute.

    Star-Lord is also a pretty nice character, but even though he was clearly suppose to be the lead and most important character he sort of gets lost sometimes.

    There's also plentiful cool references in this movie - and the whole thing basically takes place around the Nova Corps which is very cool to see. Thanos also has a brief cameo which is cool (though he looks kind-of small).

    The action overall is very good too. And the movie is paced nicely too (at least after a horrid start which I will mention later)

    In between

    Rocket and Drax are both pretty mediocre if you ask me. Rocket's over-the-top silliness is not really something that works with me. He's funny sometimes, other times he's just annoying.

    Drax is ...Drax. There's not much to say about him. Here's there to smash things and have some few "derpy" funny moments. Also a big meh for me.

    The comedy for me is hit and miss. Its mostly the same style we've seen before from Marvel. Some of it is very good and worth a laugh, some of it is just way to over the top and left me shaking my head a few times.

    Negatives

    The biggest negative in this movie is easily Ronan. He is incredible dull villain that no one is going to find all that interesting, cool or sympathetic. His origin is only briefly given, his motivations are generic and he is basically ala Loki in Avengers - a stand in for Thanos and the whole movie basically revolves around setting up yet another infinity stone - ala Thor 2. Pretty disappointing considering the actor right now is killing it on a TV show I particularly like (not that I blame him)

    Ultimately its just something we've all ready seen before and its extremely forgettable from that perspective. None of the other acting performances are particular notable either so that doesn't help.

    I'm also going to come out and say right now that Gamora sucked. Though no fault belongs to Zoe, the way Gamora was portrayed was just pitiful. She had only a couple action scenes and they weren't particular impressive (especially compared to the fights in TWS). And the "romance" was really, really dumb. There's also a heft amount of ass-shots that weren't really needed either.

    Finally, the opening scene with Star-Lord as a boy was waaaaaaaaaaaaaaay over the top cheesy for me too. It almost took me out of the movie before it started.

    Oh and minor nitpick - there are several scenes in which these characters talk in the vacuum of space and Star-Lord even flies around a couple times. They briefly give a reason but otherwise its mostly glossed over. Nothing film breaking, but its kind of annoying.

    Overall.

    This is honestly nothing but another popcorn flick. What you see is what you get. While that may not be a bad thing, its not really all that of a good thing either. The plot and villain here are sooooo very weak. The comedy is hit and miss for me - sometimes its good - sometimes its over the top ridiculous.

    It does get bonus points for including Cherry Bomb though. That was awesome.

    Oh and, while worth a chuckle, the post-credit scene is not that important to the overall universe, so skip if you don't care.

    Final score of a 6/10. Not bad, but nothing really overly good either. Big step down from TWS, in my opinion.

    PS. I saw this in IMAX 3D cause I haven't been to one in a while and the 3D, as usual was garbage. Save your money.

    16 Comments

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    deactivated-5fbfd5d291164

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    Man.. I was hoping Ronan would be awesome.

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    Fallschirmjager

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    Man.. I was hoping Ronan would be awesome.

    He's forgettable as shit. If you're going to like this film its not going to be because of him.

    Even when he gets the gem and gets amped, he's not even badass.

    Big shame imo, becaus as I said. I love the actor right now on Halt and Catch Fire.

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    deactivated-5fbfd5d291164

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    @fallschirmjager: That makes me sad because Ronan is cool. Groot is my favorite Guardian though so him working in the movie is a plus.

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    Fallschirmjager

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    @dagmar_merrill: Groot's pretty awesome. He was my favorite in any case.

    I think most people will probably say Rocket. He's just not the type of character that works for me, but his portrayal is probably accurate to the comics.

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    Jphu8414

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    Well at least most of the characters are very close to the comic, and I'm glad to hear that Groot and Star-Lord were good as they are my two favorite members.

    It sucks to hear that Ronan wasn't good though...I was really looking forward to him

    Nice review, I'm actually still waiting to see it.

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    Fallschirmjager

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    @jphu8414: For a character that only says 3 words, Groot was everything. He was funny, he was badass and he was emotional too. It was pretty fantastic.

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    SaintWildcard

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    Edited By SaintWildcard

    Boring villain and a lot of comedy... sounds like Avengers

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    AllStarSuperman

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    I am so pumped for this movie, I'll be seeing it later today/well "tomorrow". I'll come back and read this then.

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    stormshadow_x

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    Well. We still have Ninja Turtles ;). I was pumped because everyone was saying how incredible this film is and now I know that it's not on the level people believe it is.

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    Dragonborn_CT

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    Oh well... I already anticipated this about Ronan... I really, really wanted him to be an great villain, but I figure we really shouldn't have expected much for someone who is basically the "enforcer" type villain for the big bad at large. Which sucks... Great review bro.

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    MadeinBangladesh

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    Hmmm this the first in the middle review I have seen for this movie. ALl I see is positive reviews.

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    Fallschirmjager

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    Edited By Fallschirmjager

    @madeinbangladesh said:

    Hmmm this the first in the middle review I have seen for this movie. ALl I see is positive reviews.

    I prefer more depth to my films. Nothing wrong with action popcorn flicks - and to be fair its what this was advertised as - but I don't judge those films the same way I judge films that have good plots, good performances and emotional depth.

    Compared to Cap 2, which is an excellent political thriller, also features a team dynamic, has comedy that isn't so over the top and has equal to or greater action sequences (especially in fight choreography) and I find a movie like that whole superior in every way to GotG type film.

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    Z___

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    Edited By Z___

    Listen to this man!

    I agree with nearly all your points Falls. My range would also be around 6-7/10.

    @fallschirmjager said:

    good plot, good performances and emotional depth.

    Like you said, I also look for these factors in movies^ along with other elements of entertainment that are found within the respective genre of the movie(s).

    Imo, GotG had no emotinal depth just like you stated. The beginning of the movie was cheesy (although I liked young Star Lord's scream).

    The visuals were great! The best I've seen this year in fact. Story & character development lacked, which I like how you reiterated.

    The comedy was very hit-and-miss.

    And Ronan was extremely cliché.

    Of all this though, I respected the movie for what it was. A popcorn flick~ No depth whatsoever, just for fun to watch really. The problem is, for this kind of movie, the more you dig in the details, the less you find yourself enjoying the afterthought, lol.

    Thanks for your review, I walked into the movie not expecting much after I read it. And I wasn't disappointed.

    Z'

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    Fallschirmjager

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    Z___

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    Edited By Z___

    Other reviews for Guardians of the Galaxy

      As good as the Avengers 0

      The first full venture of the Marvel Cinematic Universe away from planet Earth (aside from the Asgard stuff and space elves from Thor) this movie successfully transitions from the Earth based heroes to a cosmic scale. Fans of the movies that are not comic fans are going to find themselves a little lost in terms of who is what, with the only connection to the other movie being the Collector, who was only seen briefly in Thor: The Dark World. In my opinion, the Avengers was a great movie, bringi...

      9 out of 10 found this review helpful.

      One of the Best Marvel Movies Ever Made 0

      Guardians of the Galaxy was never the most popular Marvel super team, so it was a little surprising that out of all of Marvel's back catalog, this property got chosen for the big screen, leapfrogging ahead of so many other projects.While three of the five member team look pretty human, one is an anthropomorpic raccoon, and the other is a living tree, meaning the film was going to be heavily reliant on CGI characters, not a good sign on paper.It's also a hard team to introduce with varying and co...

      2 out of 2 found this review helpful.

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