When Guardians of the Galaxy was announced back in 2012, I wasn’t quite sure if people outside the comic book community would as accepting and excited of the idea as I was. But now it seems we live in an age where a studio can turn any comic book into a film as long as the people behind it have the right sense of direction. That is certainly true with Guardians of the Galaxy. It’s a film that shows us what should be acceptable for a comic book movie and the result is a film chock full of humor, heart, action, and dynamic characters. While some of Marvel’s most cliché tropes attempt to drag the film down, writer/director James Gunn is always one step ahead and delivers a new addition in the Marvel Cinematic Universe that is successful enough to stand alone.
In 1988, a young Peter Quill is abducted from Earth after his mother dies of cancer. 26 years later, Quill, now self-dubbing himself as the Legendary Star-Lord, retrieves a mysterious orb coveted by Ronan the Accuser, who wants the orb in exchange for the help from Thanos to wipe out Xandar. Ronan sends Gamora after Quill to retrieve the orb. Meanwhile, a bounty has been placed on Quill’s head which draws the attention of Rocket Raccoon and Groot, who are looking to collect. When all parties eventually collide, they are arrested, thrown in prison, and meet Drax the Destroyer, who wants to kill Ronan to avenge the death of his family. Though each of them has their own agenda, they must put aside their differences and work together after they discover the orb has the power to destroy billions of innocent lives.
That all sounds a bit plot-heavy and that is certainly the case for the first act of the film. But when our heroes are finally thrown together and they make their grand escape from prison that is when the film begins to fire off all cylinders. The characters start to click together. The pacing of the film becomes even tighter. The story becomes more focused now that plot and characters have been established. Even while the film is setting itself up in the beginning, it’s all still enjoyable because Gunn has crafted a universe that is so colorful and detailed and full of many possibilities.
The great thing about a character-driven film like this is that you will be hard-pressed to find the best of the five main characters. Coming off the success of The LEGO Movie, Chris Pratt firmly cements his place as leading man material. He makes the audience get behind his character and believe in his transition from a selfish, cocky pretty boy into a brave, selfless leader with ease. Zoe Saldana brings much-needed humanity into her role as Gamora. It also helps that she has a great backstory. Dave Bautista’s Drax could have easily been the weak link among the cast, but avoids such a pitfall thanks to the character’s humor and ability to have the audience sympathize with him. The obvious scene-stealers are of course Rocket Raccoon and Groot. Vin Diesel is able to make Groot a believable character despite repeating a single line of dialogue throughout the film because of his knack for conveying emotion with just three words. Though this is his first voice acting credit to date, Bradley Cooper comes off as a pro as the voice of Rocket. He is a character bursting at the seams with anger, humor, attitude, and a whole lot of wit. These two CG characters are the unlikely heart of the film.
However, Guardians continues Marvel’s unfortunate and frustrating trend of one-dimensional villains in their movies. Though Lee Pace gives it his all as Ronan the Accuser, his best efforts aren’t enough to save a villain who is totally devoid of personality and motivation, which is a huge disappointment considering what a great character Ronan is in the comics. Here, he is just wants to destroy Xandar for pretty flimsy reasons and then randomly develops a god-complex when he obtains great power. Korath the Pursuer is easily the most forgettable villain of the bunch. He appears in the beginning for a couple minutes, shows up for another minute sometime after that, and disappears until the film’s climax. The only one that comes close to being a halfway decent villain is Nebula. Her struggle of living in her sister’s shadow and seeking her father’s approval could have been an interesting character arc. The problem is that she doesn’t have much screentime to flesh all that out. I’m personally sick and frustrated with seeing poorly-developed villains because I know Marvel is capable of creating great villains out of Loki and the Winter Soldier. What I find even more frustrating is that some people are fine with the villains having personalities that are thinner than paper. If they can do better, we should be encouraging them to do better instead of settling for less.
The film also repeats various plot points of previous Marvel entries that I can’t discuss due to spoilers. Like other people, I’ve become annoyed with Marvel’s use of humor in their films. Not because it’s not funny (though that was the case with Thor: The Dark World), it’s because the overreliance on humor can drain the film of all drama and tension. When your movie has high-stakes drama, it’s important to make sure people care about characters and plot. Thankfully, Gunn proves capable of properly balancing both comedy and drama so one doesn’t overshadow the other. We care about the heroes not because they can all say funny things. We care because their personalities are full of heart and soul people can relate to.
Since seeing the film last night, the word I keep hearing people describe this film as is “risky.” You can point that on the characters being strange and weird. The thing is all fiction is a bit strange and weird. It’s called suspension of disbelief. Sure, some things may be easier to swallow than others, but that shouldn’t hinder our capacity of enjoyment. If anything, Guardians shows us how tame our films have become because audiences don’t want to take that risk at the movies anymore. We should never punish films for their creativity and imagination. We should also never reward films that are repetitive and devoid of inspiration.
The bottom line is Guardians of the Galaxy is arguably Marvel’s most fresh and original film since Iron Man. When all the dull, uncreative films stare down on films like Guardians, it stares right back at them with a gleeful smirk. It knows exactly what it wants to be and it doesn’t let anything get in the way of having its fun. If this is the last great film of an already fantastic summer, then there is no reason to complain. When Peter Quill states that they have been given a chance to “give a shit,” it becomes clear that James Gunn and co. also took those words to heart. If this film kicks off the trend of more imaginative projects such as these, then the galaxy will be better off for it.
Final rating: 8.5 out of 10.