Guardians Of The Galaxy is Marvel Studios’ most out the box film to date, that follows the adventure of a rag-tag bunch of thieves, that have to unite to prevent a mysterious orb from falling into the wrong hands. Dubbed the amalgamation of Indiana Jones and Star Wars by enthusiastic fans, is it at all possible that Guardians can live up to the hype? In all honest opinion, just.
Don’t get me wrong, there are many admirable aspects to the film and on the whole this is a good movie. For instance, this is by far Marvel’s funniest film to date, with a consistent feel-good tone maintained throughout the entire running time. Be it through the dialogue, slapstick or physical comedy, Guardians Of The Galaxy never loses a brilliant meta atmosphere that is very much unique to this genre.
Also the performances are all well-done. Chris Pratt who dawns the mantle of the one and only Star Lord, does a terrific job at providing a persistently loveable performance. His role can be seen as the combination of both Han Solo and Indiana Jones, and Pratt, although not on the level of the aforementioned, does a nice job at handling his first major lead role with all the swagger necessary to provide a convincing frontman performance.
Lee Pace’s performance, as Ronan the accuser, is also a tremendous addition to film. Despite living up to stereotypical bad-guy conventions, the use of the characters deep space culture is a fascinating departure from any traditional comic book bad guy. As well as this, there is a terrific set of support cast who add a great deal of charm to the picture. John C Reilly and Glenn Close as members of the Nova Corps, despite only having a few scenes, do well to add comic relief as well as drive and explain the plot.
On the other hand, there are some issues with the film to anyone with prior knowledge or understanding of the characters. The main issue for me, is with the character of Gamora. This has nothing to do with the excellent performance by Zoe Saldana, but more so the portrayal of the character through the writing. This is just nit picking by the way, as many of these faults if you have no previous knowledge or expectation of the character would never occur. Prior to the film’s release, Gamora has been depicted as the deadliest woman in the galaxy, someone who should not be messed with and is solely independent, elements that seem absent in this portrayal. My expectation of Gamora was a role that would challenge, even surpass, Scarlett Johansson’s Black Widow, but Saldana’s character seems more so a femme fatale and love interest rather than a persona that could support herself. Despite this she is very much a terrific on screen presence, as well as a great foil for Pratt’s Star Lord.
Dave Bautista as Drax The Destroyer equally seems to struggle in his first acting performance. In my opinion, there are moments when he seems out of his depth, but as a debut role and being surrounded by stellar performances, Bautista is nothing more than okay. Saying that however, whilst he may not be able to handle the serious moments, Bautista does a great job with the comical dialogue presented to him.
However, Guardians Of The Galaxy excels with the characters of Groot (Vin Diesel) and Rocket Racoon (Bradley Cooper). Firstly, Groot is the sentinel tree-like creature who adds a wonderful mix of emotion and comedy to the picture. The well rounded animation adds so much humanity to a character, who is limited to a three word vocabulary, with every facial expression providing
laughter or connoting tragic emotion. In many ways he mirrors the warmth and comedic elements of Diesel’s previous work as the Iron Giant, providing much needed heart to the group of criminals.
Rocket Racoon, despite the success of Groot, is truly the show stealer. In a role that could make or break the picture, Bradley Cooper and the superb motion capture animation, certainly brings an original dynamic to The Guardians Of The Galaxy. It’s odd to say a Raccoon's wit and sharp dialogue make a film as humorous as expected, but I feel Guardians Of The Galaxy may be the first time that phrase has needed to be uttered. Along side the success of his tree companion, I would not be surprised to see the franchise focus more so on the animated characters in future instalments.
The plot of the film is okay, more so predictable than anything unique. However, what director James Gunn had done terrifically, is expand the Marvel universe to new and uncharted territory. The Guardians Of The Galaxy is a great building block to this expanded universe, as well as a terrific warm up act for the future big bad of Marvel, Thanos. Despite not having a direct effect on Avengers 2: Age Of Ultron due for a 2015 release, I would highly recommend watching this film if you are not entirely familiar with the direction in which Marvel is heading.
To conclude, Guardians Of The Galaxy was/is an over hyped film, does that make it a bad film? Certainly not, but I can envisage due to severely positive fan boy word of mouth that many will leave the picture thinking what all the fuss was about. This is a cult hit, but is far from the sophistication, presented by the Marvel cinematic universe, in this years Captain American 2. Nevertheless, The Guardians Of The Galaxy with its retro soundtrack, feel-good vibe and terrific meta comedy is a film not to be missed, and I am certainly interested in what this franchise has to offer in the future.
My Rating: 7.5/10
IMDB: 8.8/10
Rotten Tomatoes: 92%
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