Galactically Great Guardians!
Marvel did a superb job on this film; it’s clear that they’re world building and expanding for the future and it shows. I found Guardians of the Galaxy to be entirely fun and entertaining movie. One of it’s few weaknesses, like so many team movies is that we have very little when it comes to the background of the characters and they try to give everybody some screen time, and disappointingly not everybody gets enough—even major characters such as Gamora and Drax don’t even get some flashbacks to enhance their origins, just exposition dialogue. And so these great characters truly do deserve it. In addition, the character of Ronan is profoundly one of the biggest faults to the film as he is a one-dimensional villain.
But I think that the Guardians are a totally different change of pace from other comic book team movies such as the Avengers, the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Watchmen, and the X-Men is that the whole group is nothing but as Peter Quill puts it, “losers”. They are not heroic paragons or idealists but iconoclastics and criminals who are literally thrown together by fate and chance and take a stand and say, “we’re a bunch of a-holes, but we’re not 100 percent dicks” in that they’re not going to simply stand by and letting billions of innocents get killed.
Overall, the plot is extremely well crafted and first rate. It doesn’t seem to slow or drag at spots as we are introduced to Peter Quill who was abducted from Earth as a young boy by a group of criminals and thieves and grew up to manhood among them. Stealing an alien artifact, he finds himself pursued by just about everybody including Gamora the Assassin and Rocket and Groot; a pair of eccentric bounty hunters. Ending up in prison, he is forced to team up with his former enemies to escape and finds himself forming an unlikely team of misfits and outcasts who have all been looking for a family to belong to.
Then, Ronan the big villain appears and steals the artifact, an unparalleled weapon of mass destruction and Quill and the others are forced to make a decision. To let Ronan kill billions of innocents or run away as they always have before? As it turns out; they are a bit more decent, heroic, and idealistic than anyone—even the rest of the galaxy thought. It’s nonstop adventure and action throughout yet balances itself nicely with a lot of comedic one liners that keep it from being too depressing or dark. Guardians of the Galaxy doesn’t take itself very seriously and I think that is why it is so refreshing film; sort of like The Avengers crossed with Star Wars.
As for the casting, they were first rate. Chris Pratt as the rougish Peter Quill was great. He had a fantastic balance between irreverent jerk and sympathetic hero as well as a great comedic wit and surprisingly managed to portray some emotional depth and sensitivity when needed. Dave Bautista was a fine surprise as Drax the Destroyer; Zoe Saldana was pretty good as the warrior Gamora; Michael Rooker was a nice mix of a twisted criminal as Yondu; and say what you will about Lee Pace might have come off as rather one-dimensional as Ronan, he had the dramatic voice to project the overblown megalomaniac psycho convincingly. And Bradley Cooper just simply stole the show as the voice of the anthromorphic Rocket Raccoon. He was funny, engaging, and a great quipster.
The special effects were vividly striking and strange enough for a science fiction epic from Quill’s Star Lord helmet materializing to the Nova Corps spaceships, to Quill freezing to death in space, to even Ronan’s Death Star Destroyer and Yondu’s floating armor piercing arrow. Not to mention the different planets, the aliens, and all created a unique and different universe than we’re used to. The 80s music soundtrack was a nice retro touch as well.
Unlike Marvel’s previous showings, the “Guardians of the Galaxy” is a pretty obscure comic book series that they’ve chosen to adapt unlike such staples like “Iron Man”, “Thor”, “Captain America”, and “the Avengers” comics into the cinematic universe that they’re been crafting. Of course, that gives them a lot more freedom and flexibility as well and they used it extremely well in creating a new universe and it’s very different, very zany, and energetic as well. It’s unique and uplifting space opera romp, definitely worth seeing not just once but again as an incredible mix of superhero sci-fi and comedic moments. I think even someone who isn’t a comic book fan would have a good time with this movie and if you have seen all of Marvel’s cinematic features; then you’ll appreciate this movie even more as it expands and diversifies the worlds you’ve seen and the hints that it throws into the future for the fans to enjoy. Of course you realize, they’ll have to have Howard the Duck in the future movies too.
RATING: 4 and 1/2 STARS!!!!
