Movie Review: “Guardians of the Galaxy”

Guardians of the Galaxy is a 2014 American science-fiction comedy film. The film is based on the Marvel Comics superhero of the same name, and is the tenth installment in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. It was directed by James Gunn, who is other-wise known for his writing efforts and for directing Slither. Guardians features an ensemble cast composed of Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana, Dave Bautista, Vin Diesel, Bradley Cooper, and various others. 

Along with Lucy, this was one of the two films that I saw in theaters. Lucy meant as the appetizer, I had been looking forward to Guardians for months and months. I expected for it to be a lot of fun, and while I didn’t know much about the characters, I was intrigued with most of them. And while Iron Man 3 started the Phase Two to an unpleasant start, Thor: The Dark World and Captain America: Winter Soldier damn-near confirmed it to be even better than the last.

    In Guardians of the Galaxy, Peter Quill is caught and arrested after a run-in with a talking tree, a green lady, and an anthropomorphic raccoon. These characters are soon introduced (some multiple times as Groot, Gamora, and Rocket Raccoon. Once in-prison, they meet Drax the Destroyer, and together, these extraterrestrial misfits make their escape and are on the run with an orb that holds various powers.

    The film definitely incorporates more emotion that some viewers might have expected from the trailers. Especially towards the beginning, and it definitely comes off being more heart-warming than tear-jerking by the end of it. However, the heart isn’t really what brings this movie to the table. This movie is, without a doubt, the funnest superhero movie that I have ever seen. 

    The characters bring with them one hilarious joke after the next, and it will keep you laughing with a billion-and-one quotable lines after. I know, because I spent the next hour or so afterward exchanging lines with a friend. The characters are colorful, and each of them is loveable. Gamora definitely has the least explosive character, but for what it’s worth, she does do her role well-enough in a more serious spectrum. Meanwhile, Starlord is as hilarious as expected and Rocket Raccoon is awesome, but perhaps surprisingly, Groot and Drax also have quite a few hilarious moments themselves. 

    The film never seems to decline in charm and entertainment-value from the beginning to the end which has proven difficult for a lot of other movies like it. I mean, it is just extremely entertaining. The humor is more adult-oriented and trollish than expected and it made me actually wonder that, if Deadpool wasn’t owned by Fox, maybe Marvel could actually pull something off without an R-rating. 

    The special-effects are terrifically done. Obviously, Rocket and Groot look terrific, but the rest of the world feels oddly flushed out and like they could find about twelve different movies out of it alone. Also, the score for the movie, which was stressed heavily in the trailers, is filled with eighties classics that help set the mood for the movie very well.

    It is the kind-of film that might not have worked without the humor, but thankfully, it does have the humor, so we don’t have to think about that. Irreverent and confident, the character intermingle with a buoyant light about them. Every time that you hear somebody talk about the Marvel Cinematic Universe and what could happen, this is something like what I imagined.

    In conclusion, this film cements a theory as fact, Marvel is currently indestructible. They took a mess of characters that very few had heard of, and made a movie that wasn’t simply a box-office hit, but one that was extremely entertaining. I used to think that superhero films were redundant, and in the traditional sense, maybe they are. 

    These aren’t superhero movies though. This is a science-fiction comedy and an amazing one. I do believe that Marvel has every right to their slogan, “You’re Welcome”. 

    Thanks for reading..

Rating: – 3.5 out of 5.0