BELSER MOVIE REVIEWS: “GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY”(Spoiler-Free).
What's up, peoples? It's your boi " The Belser", back once again to give you guys and gals here at Comicbookmovie.com a taste of this genius....lol. Now, I will admit I was very skeptical about this one when I first heard it was being made into a movie. I was thinking “they can do this one but they haven’t touched BLACK PANTHER yet”? REALLY? Let's face it: less than a decade ago, most of these characters were third stringers at BEST. They've been lingering around since the 60s and 70s until some great writers and artists( JIM STARLIN, ANDY LANNING AND DAN ABRETT in particular) did something with them. But I did read the comics and as the previews and TV spots came out, I got more and more excited about it. I just finished watching this flick and I TOTALLY dug it.
HERE’S THE STORY:
After a brief sequence showing a young Peter Quill being abducted from Earth, we see Peter Quill aka Star-Lord, a now immature adult played by Chris Pratt, steal a mysterious orb only to be ambushed by the forces of Ronan The Accuser, a fanatical Kree overlord. When Peter escapes with the orb, Ronan sends his assassin Gamora (Zoe Saldana) after the orb and Yondu (Peter’s boss and surrogate father) issues a bounty for his capture too. Yondu’s bounty is answered by bounty hunters Rocket (a shit-talking raccoon) and Groot (his giant tree-looking partner). After a fight on the planet Xandar, all four get arrested and sent to a space prison called the Klyn. There, they hook up with Drax (Dave Bautista) another inmate obsessed with getting Ronan, who killed his family. Rocket, Quill, Groot, Drax and Gamora work together to escape the Kyln. The partnership is initially for money but when they discover the orb's power can be used to destroy entire planets, they come together to stop Ronan before it’s too late.
ACTING:
Chris Pratt does a really good job as Peter Quill/Star-Lord. He comes across as a HAN SOLO type in that he’s a self-serving thief and ladies’ man that finally finds a cause worth fighting for. I’m a fan of Pratt mainly for his comedic roles, in particular as the lovable idiot Andy Dwyer from PARKS AND RECREATION on NBC. Plus, he’s usually really chubby on that show . Thankfully, he lost some weight and got jacked for this movie. Zoe Saldana as Gamora is pretty good and bad-ass but, in the comics, she’s supposed to be the “deadliest woman in the universe” and didn’t feel that vibe from Zoe. Dave Bautista does a great job as Drax The Destoryer. I was pleasantly surprised by his performance. Especially his straight man comic timing. The biggest surprise was Bradley Cooper as Rocket Raccoon. He KILLED that shit! Rocket is, hands down, the FUNNIEST character in the movie. He had me ROLLIN’! That plus he even has a few intense and tender moments that really round out the performance, even through the CGI and motion capture. Next up is Rocket’s right hand man Groot, voiced by Vin Diesel. Not a big spoiler but all Groot says in the movie is "I AM GROOT " but when he says it, he actually mean other things. Like in Star Wars, when Chewbacca growls and only Han Solo can understand him, it’s like that between Rocket and Groot. Groot is probably the sweetest portrayal in the movie and it reminded me a lot of THE IRON GIANT (also voiced by Vin Diesel). I foresee a ton of "I AM GROOT" memes on Facebook and Twitter. Watch!! Lee Pace does a cool job as Ronan but I think he could’ve utilized more. He's quite sinister and calculating. The real kicker is the full-on reveal of THANOS, who was teased at the end of the Avengers and played by Josh Bolin. He looked and sounded AWESOME. In another Star Wars analogy, Ronan is like DARTH VADER ( the main villain/head foot soldier) while Thanos is EMPEROR PALPATINE ( the real threat, laying in the shadows).
WRITING:
One of the big things that sets this movie apart from the other Marvel movies is the humor. It sets out to be funny and actually is in quite a few areas. There are even a few pop culture references. At one point, Peter Quill describes Kevin Bacon’s FOOTLOOSE as a ‘legendary Earth tale’ and considers John Stamos (Uncle Jesse from FULL HOUSE) an “outlaw”…LOL. Other than that, it’s a pretty typical ‘space opera”.
SPECIAL EFFECTS and MAKEUP:
The CGI elements in the movie are sick. Especially with all the space ship battles, laser gun fights, explosions, nebulas and displays of cosmic energy. Hell, a good number of the main cast is painted from head to toe (Gamora and Drax are green, Ronan‘s blue, Thanos is purple, etc.).
SOUNDTRACK:
Another aspect that makes this movie stand out is the use of pop and hard rock songs from the 60’s and 70’s. They used the music in a "Quentin Tarantino-ish" way to help tell the story. The most notable being “Hooked on A Feeling” by Blue Swede that was used in all the trailers. They also threw in some Motown that really surprised me like The JACKSON FIVE and MARVIN GAYE. Somebody at Marvel must really like Marvin Gaye because they used his music in CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE WINTER SOLDIER too.
GRIEVANCES:
One of the major aspects of this movie I was most looking forward to was the introduction of THE NOVA CORPS, the peacekeeping military/police force of the planet Xandar (Almost like the GREEN LANTERN CORPS but for Marvel). While the uniforms and spaceships did look cool, I felt they were a bit underutilized. Glenn Close and John C. Reilly as Nova Prime and Rhomann Dey respectively are not in the movie as much you would think. Plus, my biggest peeve was that, in the movie, they don’t FLY. Yeah, they have cool looking star ships but they are supposed to be able to fly under their own power. They really missed an opportunity with that, I think.
OVERALL:
It was very much a unique and enjoyable Marvel movie. If you like STAR WARS and STAR TREK and stuff of that nature, you’ll dig this flick. Worth the money and I would watch it again. MARVEL DOES IT AGAIN. This movie GETS the Belser Seal of Approval.
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