Welcome, welcome to the Comic Bastards group review for Guardians of the Galaxy. A small handful of us wanted to share our opinions and scores with you for Marvel’s first film outside of the realm of the Avenger’s, but before that here’s what the movie is about:
Light years from Earth, 26 years after being abducted Peter Quill finds himself the prime target of a manhunt after discovering an orb wanted by Ronan the Accuser.
Samantha: 5/5
Everything worked for this movie. I thought maybe I couldn’t put into words what worked but then I realized everything did. I think James Gunn put it all together for Marvel when it needed to be put together. I may have never picked that cast, but man they were awesome. Each character was highlighted perfectly. I still can’t pick a favorite which sucks because all I want our some GOTG toys, but not knowing favorite makes it so I have to buy them all! Everyone was funny too. I thought maybe the movie would take on only two characters being funny, while one is stupid, one is smart, and one is reasonable, but no. They all had their moments of kicking some ass then making some comment that left the audience laughing. And with each character having a background story that was relatable and made you feel for them kept even a better hold on us. We all were hoping our team would win.
Even the post-credit scenes were just as fun. I don’t know if anyone will get as excited as my fiancé and I did when Baby Groot graced the screen. I screamed when no one else did. He was adorable and needs to be marketed right now. I would totally buy a Baby Groot plant for my office.
I would recommend this movie to anyone and think that the lightheartedness that came with GOTG will outshine any other Marvel movie. It was pure entertainment.
Nick: 5/5
Guardians of the Galaxy is the most fun I’ve had at a Marvel movie since being pleasantly surprised by the first Iron Man six years back. This is the kind of thing Marvel does really well; fun, swashbuckling, offbeat heroes.
Most of the movie is driven by “the orb,” a MacGuffin if you’ve ever seen one. Everybody wants it, nobody knows exactly what it is, they just know it’s important. The discovery of its import sets up a lot of the quest for what Marvel Phase 2 is building towards, but the downside is we spend very little time with the villains. Lee Pace and Josh Brolin are intimidating, but rarely used, and Karen Gillan is rarely given more than a line here or there. I hope to see some of them come back around for the rest of the Marvel Cosmic phase and continue to kick ass.
Action Hero Chris Pratt on the other hand, is one of the great discoveries of the century. He’s an old school hero in the Indiana Jones mold, quick to take a punch and get beat up, but also crack a joke while he’s down and get everyone to rally behind him. He’s inspiring and hilarious and the movie would be worth the price of admission just for him. Luckily, everyone else was rad, too. Drax cuts a hell of a promo, Zoe Saldana kicks a hell of a lot of ass, Groot is a magical woodland Vin Diesel fairy creature, and Rocket was 10000% better than I expected.
Go see this movie, right now.
Dustin: 5/5
Yeah I bet this is unexpected right? Well here’s a little known fact about me, I love me some space movies. In fact I was a big fan of Marvel’s cosmic line before they crapped it up because Joe Q didn’t like space shit. Yeah it was really good for five years or so and since this team of Guardians spawned from that era in the Marvel U. well color me interested.
What I’ll say about this movie is kind of what I said on the podcast about this movie. It talked like me and my friends. Yeah the jokes come pretty consistently when there isn’t action going on, but isn’t that life? Goofy until you need to be serious? Hell isn’t that growing up!?!
The one thing I will say about it is that the big showdown seemed a bit quick and that’s only after having a few days to think about it. I’m sure when the home release comes out or people have seen it one too many times or they’re just sick of hearing about it… then people will notice that and complain. It could have been tighter there, but it wasn’t weaker because of it.
People of course love Rocket and Groot and they should, but Drax actually won me over in a big way. Really the entire ensemble did a great job. It’s rare that you like the entire cast; can’t say the same about Avengers… which has its work cut out for it.
Director: James Gunn Writers: James Gunn, Nicole Perlman Studio: Marvel Stuidos Run Time: 121 Mins Release Date: 8/1/14