Movie Review: "Guardians of the Galaxy"

- by Kazekun, 5 August 2014

I must admit, as an already big fan of the Guardians from the comics, I was beyond excited when the movie was announced a couple years ago. As time passed, I became weary when I realized just how much of a gamble Marvel was taking. I mean, let's face it, whoever really thought we'd live in a world where a sentient tree and talking raccoon could lead in their own movie and people could actually get excited for it?

Movie poster (click to enlarge).

But here we are, in 2014, and James Gunn’s Guardians of the Galaxy has just been released.

While I will attempt to keep this review relatively spoiler free, I just have to say: It. Was. Awesome!

I'm sure you've heard others say that this movie is more like an experiment if anything, and they're absolutely right. The movie tries to blend comedy, space odyssey epicness, a sense of scope not seen in another Marvel film to date, and an 80s pop/rock ballad soundtrack that shouldn't be, but is oddly, appropriate. It sounds like a recipe for disaster doesn't it? I mean, other past Marvel films have tried to add comedy into more serious plots and they just seem to feel rigid and forced (see - Thor: The Dark World, and Captain  America: The Winter Soldier). But here it really works, every beat for laughter was spot on and I found myself having a lot of fun while watching it.

The scale is rather large in sense, but really only just a small portion of the Galaxy is actually visited in this movie. At least, it seemed like that to me. Without any warp drives present in the film, it seemed to me that no a lot of the 'Galaxy' they're guarding is actually being represented. But that's okay, enough was shown that really no more needed to be. That all can be explored in future films (GotG 2 is already green lit, dontchaknow?). This is more of an origin story for the team anyways, so only the major, key players needed to be present. And yes, the Galaxy itself is a player.

L-R: Gamora (Zoe Saldana), Groot (voiced by Vin Diesel), Rocket Raccoon (Bradley Cooper), Star-Lord (Chris Pratt) and Drax (Dave Bautista).

Speaking of origin stories, none of the characters but Peter Quill really get an “origin” for how they've come to be represented in the film, but we get plenty of dialogue that tell us exactly what we need to know about these folks, their pasts, and what drives them. And that's all we ever really needed to know. Everyone has an agenda in this film, and they're all more or less fleshed out through subtle dialogue and hefty action. It's actually character building 101 done right. Even more impressive, everyone also gets a character arc. That's not even something Avengers was able to achieve, as good as that movie was.

There is a hefty amount of fowl language in this film, so be weary if you're planning on taking kids. No eff bombs are ever dropped but there is still a lot of Earth-curse words spoken throughout the movie. Although, one thing to look out for is the hefty amount of Easter Eggs in this one. This is probably the most nerd-heavy film Marvel has put out to date, with many, many references to the comics. Some obvious, some subtle, and all really cool and fun to discover. And as always, stay to the end of the credits. There's a whole heckuva lot of 80s references too, for the older crowd.

My biggest problems with the film stemmed not from awkward character exchanges, not from bad storytelling, and not really from bad acting (because those things really didn't exist), but from nearly non-existent dialogues in some scenes. When I saw the movie, both times, other than when we were supposed to laugh, everyone was silent for the most part. Just taking in the pure spectacle. And even then, there were a lot of loud happenings going on in background of the film itself during parts of the characters' talking so it was hard to hear them. And thus I missed some key dialogue here and there.

Drax takes on an army.

The soundtrack is rather eclectic, and plays a big part into the story and the scenes. From Blue Swede, to David Bowie, and there's even some Jackson 5 in there for good measure. If you're not a huge fan of 70s and 80s pop music you probably won't think twice about them when they're playing, but as someone who likes, more or less, all the songs here already, I felt their insertion placements were unique, and fitting.

If you're looking for one movie to watch this summer, I would suggest it be Guardians of the Galaxy. It gives a fun, space odyssey-comedy romp through the Galaxy while feeling completely self-contained and also pushing forward a certain 'infinity' storyline that's been building since Captain America: The First Avenger (or Iron Man if you want to date this all the way back to the first Marvel Cinematic Universe film). It hits all the right comedic notes, the characters are all 3-dimensional with real depth and arcs, and the acting is incredible. Everyone is talking about how great Chris Pratt is as Star-Lord, but on a second viewing of the movie I realized just how good Lee Pace was as Ronan. He really sold me on being over-the-top without being too cheesy or corny.

Ronan the Accuser.

Up next is Avengers: Age of Ultron to finish out 'Phase 2' of Marvel's grand scheme, with Ant-Man starting us out on 'Phase 3'. And while I am genuinely excited for both, I just don't think either of them will hold a candle to the GotG. Please Marvel, I beg of you to use this movie to spring board a new cosmic line of films. Nothing would make me happier.


Final Score: 5 A-holes out of 5


Have you seen "Guardians of the Galaxy" yet? Did you enjoy it? Sound off in the comments!

Tagged: movies & TV, Reviews.

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