Review - Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy!

With Rocket Raccoon and my free Guardians mini poster!

As I expected Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy is a Marvel film like no other we have previously seen. For this reason, Guardians is a smash hit. However, let's not be blinded to the fact that this film was not flawless.

First lets look at the cast. Chris Pratt delivers an amazingly impressive job as Peter Quill, aka Star-Lord. He nails his comedic moments and delivers the dramatic needs of the character when necessary. He is certainly a highlight of the film. Dave Bautista surprised everyone with a perfectly portrayed Drax the Destroyer. He brought big hits and the humor needed to the character. His deadpan wit and great timing on some of the film's funnier lines really made you take notice of the character. The one thing that felt missing from the character is a planned endgame for his attack on Ronan the Accuser. Zoe Saldana shined as Gamora but it was the script that hurt her performance in this film. Saldana blended into the Guardians team very well but the character is noted to be known across the galaxy as the galaxy's most deadly assassin but that does not come across in the film. At no point do we see anything that would cause fear across the galaxy. She has some good fight scenes and acrobatics but from what I saw I would not put her as the number one assassin.

The team's CGI duo Rocket Raccoon and Groot stole the film and looked amazing. Bradley Cooper and Vin Diesel brought life to Rocket and Groot respectively in a way that others would have failed at. Cooper's attitude and spunk create a lovable character while Diesel is able to deliver whole lines of dialogue through different inflections of just three words. They were brilliant performances.

Unfortunately, Guardians of the Galaxy suffers the usual Marvel Cinematic Universe curse. The heroes stand out and shine but the villains end up being weak comparatively. Lee Pace does a good job at being the menacing Ronan the Accuser but the script fails to show you the power behind the character. Besides brutally killing off a no named Nova Corps officer at the film's start we do not see any real cause for this character to have such a evil reputation. Djimon Hounsou delivers a strong role as Korath but is in too little of the film to make a difference. Karen Gillan’s Nebula looked absolutely amazing but spends much of the film in the background except for one small fight scene with Gamora. Gillan did a great job and I wish they would have utilized her a little more. Lastly, Josh Brolin makes his villainous appearance as Thanos but once again Thanos holds back his true performance until Avengers 3 most likely.

The story of the film is fairly simple. Good guys have to get the mystical MacGuffin from the bad guys before the whole world is destroyed. The one way that director James Gunn succeeds in such a simple story however is that he does not spend the whole film trying to outwardly explain everything going on. Gunn assumes that his audience is paying attention and everything you need to know is brought out as the story progresses. The one thing this film does well is that it shows the audience that while they have been in awe of Iron Man and Captain America (who are completely in the dark concerning the larger MCU picture) there has been a lot going on out in the galaxy and there have been other heroes fighting as well (who are much more tuned in to what the larger picture could be). James Gunn does a fantastic job at dropping the audience off with an unknown Marvel team and makes them feel at home and comfortable as though we've known the team for some time now. The overall feeling of the film is quite colorful and has an amazing soundtrack. If I could change one thing it would be to create a more "alien" feeling about the alien worlds that the film visits. We see many different species and races of alien but many of them just seem to be humanoids with a different color skin. Giving the aliens some more distinguishing features would have been nice.

One thing that I truly loved in this film is that there is an actual heartfelt moment in at towards the end. Besides Steve Rogers saying "good-bye" to Peggy Carter in Captain America: The First Avenger Marvel has failed to deliver truly touching moments where the emotion of the scene grabs hold of you. Guardians of the Galaxy embraces such a moment and it is performed brilliantly. I was really glad to see this scene in the film. The film has a good amount of intense action moments that Marvel fans have come to know and love. It had comfortable pacing and after films like Iron Man 3 suffering from poor pacing this was a true pleasure. There are plenty of Easter eggs in this film and a lot of fun character cameos. Marvel fans will have a lot of fun trying to search them all out. I won't spoil them but the two credit scenes are definitely highlights of the film. You'll find yourself laughing and cheering throughout both of them.

Overall, this film was amazing. It was a risky undertaking by Marvel but one that has completely paid off for them. Although I point out plenty of faults in the film it still gets a high rating from me because of how much fun I had watching it. The positives outweigh the negatives in this film and it comes out among the best that Marvel has delivered to date. I highly recommend that everyone goes out and see this film. James Gunn has delivered a true Marvel masterpiece to the fans.

Rating: 9 out of 10