Guardians Of The Galaxy: Review

03 August 2014 Last Updated on 07 April 2015 Written by David Cantu 0 Comments

Brash adventurer Peter Quill (Chris Pratt) finds himself the object of an unrelenting bounty hunt after stealing a mysterious orb coveted by Ronan (Lee Pace), a powerful villain with ambitions that threaten the entire universe. To evade the ever-persistent Ronan, Quill is forced into an uneasy truce with a quartet of disparate misfits–Rocket (Bradley Cooper), a gun-toting raccoon; Groot (Vin Diesel), a tree-like humanoid; the deadly and enigmatic Gamora (Zoe Saldana); and the revenge-driven Drax the Destroyer (Dave Bautista). But when Quill discovers the true power of the orb and the menace it poses to the cosmos, he must do his best to rally his ragtag rivals for a last, desperate stand–with the galaxy’s fate in the balance.

I’m a Marvel movie fan. I love them all. Yes, some are better than others but I dig them all. When Guardians Of The Galaxy (we’ll just go with GOTG from here on out) was announced I know that there was a collective “Huh?” from a whole lot of people. Even I, being a huge comic fan, wasn’t sure why they would pick GOTG to move forward with a feature film. As soon as I heard that James Gunn taking the reins of this film then any sort of doubt that I had was diminished. Then as time progressed I found out who the cast was and saw some concept art and I was truly excited. That finally brings the long journey of the film and opening weekend to a close. Within 5 minutes of the movie my eyes wanted to leak because of the moment that young Peter Quill had with his mother while on her deathbed. When a movie starts off like that and can cause a reaction like that I knew I was in for a ride. Seeing a little kid that is so upset and sad literally get abducted from his family by aliens was another moment that kind of got me…….and all that was even before the title credit! Pratt was the perfect fit for Quill. His sense of humor and smartassery (that should be a real word) fit the character perfectly. He has proved himself to become a stellar leading man with an acting range that goes from silly comedy to heartfelt drama. Saldana showed that she could be a bad ass and look very cool while being very green. Her fight scenes, in my opinion, rivaled those of Black Widow and I can’t to see if them going toe to toe would be a possibility down the road. The scenes between Quill and Gamora were so good just because her hard edged attitude. I honestly wasn’t completely sold on Bautista as Drax. He looked the part big time but as far as acting ability goes the track record for wrestlers being great screen actors is very slim. Although he wasn’t the most solid actor he did a really good job. His portrayal of Drax had me laughing because of the way he takes everything literal and had me feel for his character and the loss of his family. That brings us to the two actors that you never actually saw…..Diesel and Cooper. I never thought that someone (let alone Diesel) could infuse emotion into a tree creature by only saying the words “I AM GROOT”. I don’t want to give too much away but one of the final scenes of the film find Groot in a very emotional moment that even though he only says three words you can see that he means so much more. Cooper really brings Rocket to life and gives him a personality that only he could. Even though Peter Quill is the main character of the film, Rocket is the one that feels like the glue of the group. I would love to see them dig deeper into his story somewhere down the road or maybe even a Rocket and Groot film. Of course we have to talk about the villain of the film. Pace as Ronan was totally creepy. The moment when they show him suiting up and being all blue and stuff was awesome. From the moment that he looses his cool and goes nuts I knew that the shit was about to hit the fan. I think what attributed to his creepiness was the tone of his voice, his black teeth and his eyes. I don’t think I’ve seen an actor give a performance with their eyes like that in a long while. Then there are the NUMEROUS supporting characters in the film that gave it that extra little something. It’s basically like Emeril giving that BAM to one of his dishes (Yeah, I went with the chef analogy. Possibly because I’m hungry). So a big shoutout to Michael Rooker, Karen Gillan, Djimon Hounsou, John C. Reilly, Glenn Close, Benicio Del Toro, Sean Gunn, Peter Serafinowicz, Mikaela Hoover, David Yarovesky and many, many more. The one thing that had me kind of on the fence was Thanos. Don’t get me wrong, he looked amazing! My thing was that with Thanos being who he is I expected Josh Brolin to maybe deepen his voice just a bit more but it really is just a nitpick kind of thing that I’m sure I’ll be writing about later and talking about how I’m eating my words regarding the subject. This film had everything that every sci-fi nerd or comic book geek would ever want. Seeing it in IMAX 3D was the best way to experience this space epic. Yes, I said space epic. That’s the perfect way to describe it! Marvel has created their Star Wars and I could easily see it being expanded upon immensely. The visuals of this scale were amazing to see via IMAX 3D and the mix of colors looked so beautiful. Seeing the Milano fly around the environments had a smile on my face the entire time and I couldn’t get enough of it. The undertone of the film is about empowering the weirdos and misfits and for that I applaud James Gunn for creating a film that many people will be able to identify and connect with because I’m one of those weirdos. This film is definitely going to be one of those that becomes a classic and will be mentioned side by side with the likes of Star Wars, Blade Runner, Dune and The Last Starfighter (just because I love the hell out of that movie) and I will be following everything Gunn does professionally for years to come. Now let’s start the countdown clock for Guardians Of The Galaxy 2!