Movie Review: Guardians of the Galaxy

Guardians of the Galaxy (2014)


A group of space criminals must work together to stop the fanatical villain Ronan the Accuser from destroying the galaxy.  Short synopsis of Guardians of the Galaxy taken from IMDb.com

Another movie review.  This one is still in theaters too, and judging by the crowd at the cheap seats, I'd say it must have been popular.  I had heard it was good myself, and was excited when it finally arrived at the local 'three buck house.'

So up front, I think Guardians of the Galaxy was good.  I quite enjoyed it.  If you want the recommendation without having to read through my rantings, then stop here, go get a ticket (or rent it from "da box," if it's out there yet), and enjoy.  This one was fun, funny, and just regular 'ole great popcorn entertainment fun.



Now back to my regularly scheduled rantings.  What can I say?  To me, Guardians has one of those old-time silly story lines that doesn't make a whole lot of sense sometimes, but the good thing is that it doesn't have to.  The important part is, good guys are trying to stop bad guys from destroying the galaxy, and that's really all you truly need to know.

The self-styled "Guardians of the Galaxy."  From left to right we've got Zoe Saldana as the sultry assassin Gamora, Chris Pratt as wise-cracking Peter Quill (aka: Star Lord... who?), Bradley Cooper as the voice of homicidal/genetically modified racoon Rocket, Dave Bautista as "never call me a thesaurus" Drax the Destroyer, and Vin Diesel as the voice of the walking tree with a heart, Groot. / Source: kernelscorner.com

"But wait", you say.  "Tell me more so I may know if this film is worth my three bucks at the cheap seats."  Well let me tell you, Guardians of the Galaxy makes the most of what its got going on.  The plot I alluded to earlier goes something to the effect of: hero steals super-thingy, gets sent to prison, gets joined up with a rag-tag bunch of anti-hero sorts, this new gang of protagonists goes off to try and sell the super-thingy, discovers said super-thingy is actually a weapon, and then endeavor to do the heroic thing and keep the uber-bad guy from using that weapon to destroy creation.

It reminded me so much of movies from my youth.  You know, back in the good old days, when movies didn't need to take themselves too seriously to be enjoyable and deliver simple thrills.  Granted, I wouldn't make a solid diet of such fare, but it is remarkable to find a film like this in recent years where so many films are trying so hard to do...  well who knows?  Even the Marvel stuff, which is a mixed bag at best.

"I've got better style sense than Thor and my hammer is bigger and shoots cool purple people eater light out of it." / Source: collider.com

Now to be honest, a few of the names and characters in this plot left me scratching my head from time to time (maybe I am getting old, but Glen Close's role as "Nova-Prime"...  sounds like some new kind of laundry detergent), but then I never read the comic book associated with this newest Marvel big screen foray.  The only comic I've read very much of is The Walking Dead.  That and Guardians have about as much in common as...  well the bad guy, Ronan, looks like he could be from post-zombie apocalypse America.  I dug that whole black barrister's wig he had going on.  For sure. 

And there was another slightly longer cameo from that big guy who showed up at the very end of The Avengers (Thanos, I think his name is).  For those of you who know, may I ask, who is this dude?  He did do a fair impression of Emperor Palpatine at one point - my wife turned to me and said in her best imitation "The Force is strong with this one" (yes, I know her quote wasn't accurate, but I got it) - but other than that, I'm pretty sure the filmmakers are just taunting the faithful here.  When this Thanos punk finally gets some real screen time, he better be as big as all the hype build-up.

Thanos, you big tease, you.  All I can say is that he'd better blow up worlds and split atoms with his mind and do theoretical physics while playing "Lady of Spain" on the Ukelele when he finally does his villain thing for realsies. / Source: comicbook.com

Hmmmm....  What else to say?  The movie's humor was its lynch pin, and when it could have drown in run-of-the-mill CGI action scenes, the laughs kept me invested.  For instance, the following exchange between lead character Peter Quill (aka: "Star Lord," a pseudonym that is a running gag throughout Guardians) and Gamora, the film's heroine character, is just one example:

Gamora: I'm a warrior, an assassin. I don't dance.
Peter Quill: Really? Well, on my planet, we have a legend about people like you. It's called Footloose. And in it, a great hero, named Kevin Bacon, teaches an entire city full of people with sticks up their butts that, dancing, well, is the greatest thing there is.
Gamora: ...Who put the sticks up their butts?  That is cruel.

The only part I didn't quite jive with was the segment in which the super-thingy is discovered to be the super weapon.  We are introduced to this Collector guy (briefly played by Benicio del Toro, so at least for a little while  he wasn't off further soon-to-be ruining my memories of J.R.R. Tolkien's masterpiece novel The Hobbit), and there is some slightly annoying exposition, followed by a needless showy display of the weapon's power...  Forgive me, but do all movies need to spoil the surprise early by showing us what their magic bullet can do?


The film's soundtrack is another plus, depending on your nostalgia level for the music in question. I grooved to it myself.

And also, the villianess Nebula was a bit cliche to me, though I realize she is probably part of a beloved comic experience and so couldn't be exorcised without much fan-boy retribution.  Though her fight scene with Gamora was pretty exciting.  And kudos to the filmmakers for keeping the concluding action scenes from being too drawn out. 

In conclusion, Guardians reminded me in some key ways of The Avengers.  In the good ways.  I'm sure that is not a coincidence.  Of course, there is some less than appropriate/crude humor in places, and the film does contain a fair amount of violence and a bit of sexual innuendo here and there, so the PG-13 rating is certainly fitting.  So probably not for the younger set, in my opinion.  But otherwise?  Yeah, totally worth the cheap seats ticket price, even when it was a sold out showing and we sat in the third row.  The crick in the neck was so worth it. 


The parting comment:

Source: moviepilot.com

Superhero movies are a mixed bag these days.  But hey, a walking tree and a gun-toting racoon?  Beats an angsty alien from distant red-sun-orbiting planet, in my opinion.