Thursday, July 24, 2014

Guardians of the Galaxy
Releases August 1st, 2014
2 hr 2 mins
Rated PG-13
Action/Adventure, Family


Director: James Gunn

Chris Pratt as Peter Quill / Star-Lord
Zoe Saldana as Gamora
Dave Bautista as Drax the Destroyer
Vin Diesel as Groot (Voice)
Bradley Cooper as Rocket (Voice)
Lee Pace as Ronan
Michael Rooker as Yondu
Karen Gillan as Nebula
Djimon Hounsou as Korath
John C. Reilly as Rhomann Dey
Glenn Close as Nova Prime Irani Rael
Benicio del Toro as Taneleer Tivan/The Collector
Josh Brolin as Thanos (Voice)

Review by Stephen M.

Guardians of the Galaxy is a fun space adventure that was sorely lacking in Marvel repertoire of movies.  While the movie is very good, it fails to unseat Captain America: Winter Soldier as the top Marvel movie for me.  One of the lesser known comic book super groups will become a household name and they have Chris Pratt who plays Peter Quill and Bradley Cooper who plays Rocket to thank for that.  Bradley Cooper as Rocket steals the whole show with his furry bad attitude.  I love the fact that they don't call him Rocket Raccoon, to which Rocket would reply "What's a raccoon?"

The band of five comes together as a group when their universe is threatened by Ronan, who gets his hands on an infinity gem that Thanos was after.  Aside from Peter Quill, very later back story is given on the rest of the members.  And even then, we only see the surface of who Peter Quill actually is.  Besides Chris Pratt and Bradley Cooper, Zoe Saldana is good as Gamora, and Vin Diesel as well given his limited line of "I am Groot."

On the flip side, part of what makes the film a step stone away from great, are all the other characters starting with Dave Bautista as Drax.  Drax's character is incredibly limited and disappointing. Him being the butt of jokes due to his ignorance is funny but gets repetitive quick.  Ronan was not what I was expecting, with his fight scenes quite disappointing given how limited it was.  Michael Rooker as Yondu and John C. Reilly as Rhomann Dey also falls into the category of out of place characters.  For Yondu, you essentially have a blue Merle.  Nebula (Karen Gillen) has a much more limited role than I would have expected as well.  It is a shame given her cool patchwork appearance.  As you can tell it's a recurring theme, and it continues with The Collector and Thanos as well, being underwhelming due to their limited appearance.  I guess what I'm saying is that it could have been a longer film with bigger battle scenes!

Besides Rocket and Groot or Rocket and Peter's hilarious dialogue together, what really sets the mood and makes the film good is the amazing soundtrack.   Peter, as a child before he is abducted, loves to listen to his walkman with a mix tape of upbeat 1970s songs by his mother before her passing.  Catchy songs like "Hooked on a Feeling" fits well with the scenes, giving us an often goofy carefree dancing Peter Quill.  With regards to the CGI and animation, Rocket and Groot looks amazing.  The spaceships and weaponry could have been more creative in design.  The old celestial Knowhere mining post looked amazing from a distance.  And shouldn't Drax be more green?  I guess they didn't want people thinking he was the same alien race as Gamora.

Overall, I would recommend seeing it.  The screening version that I saw did not have any after credit scenes.  I did love the cute little scene between Groot and Drax at the start of the credits.  The film is as good as Avengers was, but doesn't have the same feel of a space epic like Star Wars which it tried to heavily advertised as being similar to in scope.  I thought Chris Pratt and Zoe Saldana had great chemistry together and would love to see more of that in the second film.  If they don't go against Thanos in the next Guardians film then I would love to see them face off against Annihilus and the Annihilation wave.  However this was definitely a very good first outing for the Guardians.


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