directed by James Gunn
written by James Gunn and Nicole Perlman
I'll be honest; I thought that Guardians of the Galaxy would mark the end of Marvel Studios' winning streak at the box-office that began with 2008's Iron Man and which has continued unabated ever since. Sure, some of their movies have been more successful than others, but they had never failed to land a movie at #1 on opening weekend. Given that GOTG was based on a relatively obscure and recent comic book property and therefore didn't enjoy the goodwill that enabled characters like Spider-man and Captain America to connect with audiences, and given that the first few images released by Marvel over a year ago didn't suggest much more than a generic sci-fi adventure in world that has already had fifty years of Star Trek, Star Wars and legions of other science fiction copycats, it was easy to dismiss the film.
While I suppose it was no real surprise that Marvel proved me wrong, considering that they seem to have gotten the art of successfully launching franchises down to a science, what really surprised me was just how much I enjoyed this movie. The trailer had impressed me, but nothing I had seen really prepared me for the enjoyment that the movie eventually delivered.
The story begins on earth, in 1988, where young Peter Quill (Wyatt Oleff) watches his mother succumb to cancer just after she tells him she loves him and gives him a farewell present. Distraught, he runs out of the hospital and into an empty field, only to be zapped up into a mysterious spaceship. Twenty-six years later, the adult Quill (Chris Pratt), who now calls himself "Star-Lord" travels across space stealing and fencing artifacts and dancing to 70s and 80s tunes while doing it. His latest heist, of a mysterious orb, sees him cross paths with the heavily armed Korath (Djimon Hounsou), a minion of the Kree warrior Ronan (Lee Pace), who plans to use the orb to destroy planet of Xandar. Ronan dispatches one of his top assassins, Gamora (Zoe Saldana) to retrieve the orb from Quill, while Yondu (Michael Rooker), leader of the Ravagers, or the bounty hunters who kidnapped Quill in the first place, is mad as hell at him for breaking their agreement and getting the orb on his own, and in short order puts out a hefty bounty on his head, which in turn brings him within the crosshairs of bounty hunters Rocket (voice of Bradley Cooper) a talking cyber-raccoon, and Groot (Vin Diesel), a walking, talking tree that only says "I am Groot." Things get crazy when Gamora, Rocket and Groot converge on Quill, in a confrontation that manages to land all of them, including the orb in Quill's possession, in prison. While there, they agree that they need each other to break out and to cash in on the score that the orb promises to deliver. To break out, they recruit a tattooed, overly literal homicidal maniac named Drax (Dave Bautista) who has it in for Ronan for killing his family. Soon, they come to realize that there is a lot more to the orb than a payday, and the fate of the galaxy itself may be at stake.
This is, to my mind at least, the best action-comedy I've seen since 1998's The Mask of Zorro, and the best sci-fi action comedy I've seen since...well...forever.
The single best part of this movie is how it feels like Marvel's first "clean slate" since the very first Iron Man. It is possible to walk into this movie without having seen anything that Marvel has produced before it and still enjoy it thoroughly. Yes, there are Easter Eggs, and references to other Marvel properties, but none of them requires any knowledge of previous Marvel films to understand what's going on. If anything, they're a little shout-out to the inevitable throngs of Marvel nerds in the audience, who will be rewarded for their loyalty even as the average viewer soaks in the fun while missing all of the winks and nods.
Besides, it's easy for the Marvel references to get lost in the shuffle of the numerous sci-fi references with which director Gunn peppers this film.
To my mind this film is, at the same time, a love letter to the science fiction films of the 1980s and a breath of fresh air much needed by a genre whose standard bearers are either riddled with cliche (e.g. Avatar), or are the merest shadows of the what their forbears were (Star Trek: Into Darkness, and every one of the Star Wars prequels), with a lot of them putting premium in flashy, slick visual effects, often at the expense of good old-fashioned storytelling. The movie is just so much giddy fun, and it isn't afraid to poke fun at sci-fi story tropes over and over again. Pratt is clearly having a blast as Quill/Star-lord, and his energy and comic timing are infectious. In the hands of a less capable actor, Peter Quill could just as easily have been Han Solo lite, but Pratt's talent elevates Quill past that, at least when it really matters. Sci-fi veteran Saldana, who now has three major sci-fi franchises in her resume, truly kicks ass as Gamora, and to audiences rolling their eyes at the thought that she's only there for the leading man to land in the sack, I'm happy to say there's no lip-locking here and that the only action Gamora gets is the girl-on-girl kind, when she goes toe-to-toe with her equally badass sister Nebula (Karen Gillan) a cybernetic psychopath also working for Ronan, one whom we may well see in future GOTG installments. Dave Bautista, as a man incapable of grasping linguistic nuance, is an unexpected treat, though considering he's already practically a stand-up comedian by virtue of his lengthy tenure as a professional wrestler I suppose there should have been some indication of what he could bring to the role besides his rather imposing physicality.
Of course, much of the talking will be done about the computer-generated characters voiced by A-list movie stars Bradley Cooper and Vin Diesel, namely, Rocket Raccoon and Groot, respectively. The good news is that neither of them is slumming it for a paycheck; Cooper packs his diminutive onscreen avatar with just as much character and spunk as he has any of his live action portrayals, and Rocket, as strange as this may sound, actually gets some of the more poignant moments in the film. As for Diesel, the towering walking tree that is Groot actually provides him to exact sweet revenge on his critics who have accused him of wooden acting. With a three-word vocabulary, Diesel manages to imbue the character with so much nuance that he actually manages to outshine a lot of the live-action performances in the film.
Acting veterans like Glenn Close and John C. Reilly got some fairly meaty but small roles as Nova Prime and Nova Corpsman Dey, though I sense that some of their scenes may have ended up on the cutting room floor. Given that Xandar, the planet they're from, figures prominently in the cosmic Marvel universe I hope to see them again in future installments.
Getting notably short shrift, however, are Pace's Ronan and Gillan's Nebula, who get the chance to look badass and to hurt people in the film but precious little else. It's not quite as bad as the utterly bland Malekith from last year's Thor: The Dark World, but there's still quite a bit of wasted potential here. Nebula, in particular, could be a potentially iconic villain in the vein of Loki, and I honestly hope to see more of her in the future. Thanos, the big league Marvel bad guy of whom fans got a peek during the post-credits scene of The Avengers, makes an appearance here, voiced by Josh Brolin , but he's little more than a tease of things to come. So maybe the movie falls a little short in the bad guy department, but for some reason it doesn't feel like that big a loss. It is, first and foremost, about the journey of the Guardians, and it is a doozy.
There are other details I absolutely dug as well, like the meticulously realized galaxy the titular Guardians (who got their name in a moment of sneering contempt) bounced around in, which included a planet that was actually once the head of a giant celestial being. Sure the physics of it probably don't make any sense, but the thought of beings so big that their heads can be miniature planets recalls the sense of wonder that Jack Kirby evoked with his wonderfully weird art back in the 1960s. And yes, fans of the cosmic Marvel Universe can rejoice at the thought that one of Kirby's iconic Celestials does make an appearance on the screen. The visual effects put to work here are incredibly imaginative.
On the other hand, however, I was disappointed by the lack of variety of alien species walking around. Apart from Rocket and Groot, the rest of the alien population seemed limited to humans and people whose skin were pastel colors, like Gamora's green, Ronan's and Nebula's blue, and the pink that a lot of the minor characters sported. I guess that was where Marvel's budget constraints kicked in, but for my part, I would have wanted to see the kind of unhinged weirdness that Guillermo del Toro poured into films like Pan's Labyrinth or Hellboy: the Golden Army. We're talking about a whole other galaxy, after all, surely there's more to people looking different than just skin color? Maybe Gunn will let his hair down in the inevitable sequel and give us some real visual craziness.
Missteps aside, however, I am a big fan of what Gunn has done here. Guardians of the Galaxy may have a lot of Marvel's virtually patented blend of action and humor, but it is a significant departure from the superhero film that has become their wheelhouse. Marvel have allowed Gunn to present to the audience an honest-to-goodness space opera, and by golly, has he delivered. In fact, I'd go so far as to say that the rather cheeky cameo from a somewhat infamous Marvel character right at the end of the credits is as much a salute to this film's real creative influence as it is some good-natured ribbing.
I'm looking forward to blasting off with this film's inevitable sequel in two or three years!
9/10
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