Guardians of the Galaxy: Movie Review
The Guardians of the Galaxy are by far the least known characters from the Marvel cannon that have been given their own feature film. I went into the screening pretty much clueless when it came to the origins of Peter Quill aka Star Lord, Gamora, Drax the Destroyer, Groot, and Rocket. With the awesome trailers and the unanimous praise from critics who caught early screenings, it was hard not to go into this thing without high hopes. I tried not to have high expectations, but I couldn’t help it. Well, I am more than happy to tell you that not only did “Guardians of the Galaxy” match my expectations, it surpassed them. This is one fantastic ride and easily the best film from Marvel Studios to date. (Yes, better than The Avengers, Captain America, Thor, and Iron Man films.)
Although “Guardians of the Galaxy” is connected to the previous Marvel films, it feels more like a stand-alone epic space adventure. It feels like it has more in common with “Star Wars” than “Marvel”. This is a good thing! “Guardians” feels fresh and I am dying to see where it goes from here and how it connects with The Avengers down the line. To be honest, I would prefer to see another “Guardians” film before they have them meet up with the already established Earth based heroes.
Director James Gunn has come a long way since his days with Troma. (Look out for a cameo by Troma’s Lloyd Kaufman in the prison sequence). Though I didn’t quite care for Gunn’s 2010 film “Super”, 2006’s “Slither” is hugely underrated. The filmmaker has been given a huge opportunity in helming “Guardians of the Galaxy” and I believe it paid off.
I haven’t even begun to talk about the movie itself and I don’t want to say a whole lot about it. The less you know going in, the better. Chris Pratt is now officially a star. After playing supporting characters for the past few years, Pratt has been bumped up to leading man in a major way and he knocks it out of the park. Saldana proved she can be sexy no matter if she is blue (like in Avatar) or green as she is here. Vin Diesel’s tree-like character Groot gets only three words in the whole movie, yet you can tell what he is thinking by how he says them each time. Way to go Vin! Bradley Cooper as the voice of a disgruntled raccoon? Yes, Please.
If you love science fiction, comic books, action films, comedy, films with heart, interesting characters, stunning visuals, great performances, talking gun-toting raccoons, and of course Dave Bautista kicking ass, then you are going to LOVE “Guardians of the Galaxy”. Oh, and it looks fantastic in 3D.
By: Marc Ferman