Guardians of the Galaxy Review

Comic book movies are a big deal. I already talked about what I liked about the Captain America movie, and Marvel is committed to release new films adding to its cinematic universe to build to big events inspired by the comics. This year another Captain America movie hit theaters, but that was understood to be good even without knowing about any of the surprises. The Marvel film released in theaters later in the summer was so good that I went back to see it in 3D just to see all of the nuances I missed out not knowing much about the world of the film. Let me explain why Guardians of the Galaxy delivers as a comic book movie and exceeds my expectations.

Directed by James Gunn, Guardians takes the comic book movie to an entirely new setting but still allows us to connect to an epic struggle. Earthborn protagonist Peter Quill, known as Star Lord in the Marvel comic series, is a space pirate who unites with other rogues to deal with an impending galactic doom. The catch is that this movie stands alone without building up developments like the Avengers needed to introduce its members. This is a difficult task as the previous Marvel movies mostly took place on Earth, but they still need to set up how galactic threat Thanos will find a way to battle the mightiest heroes Marvel has to offer sometime in the near future (as in not in the next Avengers movie). Gunn makes this happen by traveling across the galaxy to exotic places including ruins of ancient civilizations, galactic empires, and a mining colony formed in the remnant of a celestial being. The movie wears its inspiration of science fiction films on its sleeves, incorporating a lot of red to give a gritty feeling to its environments. Furthermore, for all of the multicolored people living in the various space settings, we still get cameos of Stan Lee, Lloyd Kaufman, and Nathan Fillion to remind people that the space film is the big budget debut of a guy who started out making niche movies like Peter Jackson and Sam Raimi did before they hit the big time.

Because this is a movie about a comic book team, the chemistry between the actors really brings the quality into perspective. Unlike the Avengers, every member of the Guardians is a rogue that does not play nice with others until they improvise a means of combatting a great force of destruction. Thanos is in the background allowing a Cree zealot Ronan the Accuser, played by Lee Pace (Pushing Daisies), to be a villain that does not need much explanation or development. Quill, played by Chris Pratt, is entertaining, resourceful, and insightful in a way someone stuck in the ’70s would be given that a mixtape is the only connection he keeps with his home planet. Zoe Saldana as the green-skinned assassin Gamora is not as deep as Uhura from the Star Trek movies, but she is an important force in this movie to the end. The group has a big bruiser in Drax, played by wrester Dave Bautista, who is hilarious when he is unable to understand simple metaphors and is able to learn from his mistakes. I was really impressed with how they handled the characters that were completely computer generated. Vin Diesel as Groot was the one character without a tragic past, and though he only has a limited vocabulary he manages to be the emotional core of the team. Finally we have Bradley Cooper as Rocket the small furry mammal not to be confused with a raccoon. Rocket serves the role of attitude like Wolverine does with the X Men, which is apt because both are of short stature but manage to pack quite a punch into their adversaries. Somehow all of these characters come together to beat Ronan in acquiring an Infinity Stone, and they do it with a lighthearted tone amidst the gravitas of a world destroying power.

Guardians of the Galaxy was, in my opinion, the standout hit of the summer. It somehow managed to be better than the Winter Soldier, introduced Marvel characters that were previously unknown to the general public, and dealt with a storyline that would not directly relate to a future movie for quite some time. See it in theaters if you can, and stick around after the credits for a scene that makes total sense given Disney’s recent acquisitions of entertainment companies.