Guardians of the Galaxy (2014)
Director:
James Gunn
Cast: Chris
Pratt, Zoe Saldana, Dave Bautista, Bradley Cooper, Vin Diesel, Michael Rooker, Benicio
del Toro, John C. Reilly, Glenn Close
I understand why Disney and Marvel Studios saw this film as a
risky venture, I mean, here’s a Marvel Comic that not many people know about,
you see, Guardians of the Galaxy is not a household name like say the X-Men or
Spiderman. In actuality, Guardians of the Galaxy has been an on again, off
again title in Marvel Comics roster for years. It would get printed, last for a
run and then get cancelled. I remember when I first came into contact with the
Guardians of the Galaxy comics, it was when Marvel re-launched the comic in
1990. In that version of the group, the lineup of characters were totally
different, from that 1990’s version of Guardians of the Galaxy, only the
character of Yondu Udonta (played by Michael Rooker) made it onto this new
film. And wow, what an awesome comic
book movie this was, for many reasons, all of which I will go into on this
review, just to pump you up so you go see this one in theaters, where it
deserves to be seen.
First issue of Guardians of the Galaxy (1990)
From this line-up, only Yondu made it to the movie
On this film we meet a group of totally disparate characters
who by pure chance (or maybe destiny?) end up working together to stop a madman
named Ronan from destroying an entire planet. You see, he’s one of those mad
conqueror types who wants to destroy everything so he can “cure” society and
start everything out in his own image. In order to achieve this, Ronan has struck
a deal with one of the most powerful beings in the universe: Thanos! The deal is
that Ronan finds one of the ever elusive and incredibly powerful infinity gems
for Thanos, who in turn, as a gesture of gratitude,will destroy an entire
planet for Ronan, so he can then take over it. Problem is that the Infinity Gem
in question is in the hands of The Guardians of the Galaxy! Can Ronan and his
followers take the Infinity Gem from them? And speaking of the Infinity Gems, I’m
ecstatic that the Infinity Gem story line has finally begun. I mean, I read the
Infinity Gauntlet (one of Marvel Comics best stories ever in my book) and it
really is an epic storyline…and to see it come alive, it’s orgasmic. I mean, to
see Thanos sitting on his throne being all magnanimous and evil…wow, I can’t
wait for this whole storyline to explode in Avengers 3, you see, reportedly,
that’s what this new batch of Marvel movies are setting us up for: Avengers 3!
So yeah, be ready to have a nerdgasm in your theater seat.
If there’s one thing that James Gunn infused into this movie
its fun, fun like the kind of fun you’d have watching a movie from the 80’s where
characters always say everything joking around, nothing is deadly serious,
unless it has to be? I love that about it! These characters are misfits, they
aren’t picture perfect examples of what humans should be, they are what we are,
jokers, imperfect yet with lots of soul, they are in lots of ways characters
that we can identify with. I mean, can you identify with Superman? No, you can’t
because he’s this perfect being, but with the Guardians, it’s like they went to
high school with you or something. The film has an amazing cast, the core
characters are awesome, but then you get all these other great actors filling
the gaps like Benicio del Toro, Michael Rooker, John C. Reily, Glenn Close,
this film is very well rounded out in terms of characters and performances.
This is easily James Gunn’s best film, and boy has James
Gunn come a long way baby. I mean, the guy started his cinematic career writing
the screenplay for a film called Tromeo and Juliet (1996) for Troma Films. He
went on to direct two Scooby Doo films which were moderately successful, then
he went on to direct Slither (2006), a sci-fi horror hybrid (and bonafide box
office flop) about alien slugs that turn people into zombies, by the way, I had
a blast with Slither. Yet now, here he is, directing a big budget, ultra
successful comic book movie for Disney and Marvel. My how the worm has turned!
Best part is how audiences have quickly embraced it, I mean, word of mouth on
this film is so positive that it shot straight to the number one spot, and I
don’t think it will go down soon! This movie is so fun I’ve seen it twice in
one weekend!
The thing about this film is that
it never stops, it’s always fun and exciting, the way big budget summer movies
should be. James Gunn grew up with these big action films from the 80’s, you
know, the kind that put a smile in your face, the kind that had that sense of
adventure about ‘em. Guardians of the Galaxy brought to mind the fun I had with
the old Star Wars movies or with the Indiana Jones films. You know, that
lighthearted spirit of adventure, characters going through these incredible
situations, but in the end, you know everything is going to be alright anyways?
Even the films musical score will remind you of that time when studios used to
put these rousing, adventurous musical scores on films, thank god they brought
that back for this movie. Guardians of the Galaxy may be a cutting edge state
of the art filmmaking, but it’s got some good old fashion sensibilities about
it and I liked that. I mean, here’s a film that has this awesome 70’s soundtrack
all through out, we get characters kicking ass and taking names as David Bowie’s
‘Moonage Daydream’ plays in the background you know what I mean? How old school
is this movie, well, they actually built sets…which is something amazing. So
few sci-fi films today do that, cause you know, now everything around the actor
is fake. But not here! The sets are beautiful to look at, of course there’s
tons of computer generated images, but there’s a nice balance here between the
practical and the cgi.
Finally, this is a film tailor
made for geeks, Guardians of the Galaxy is filled to the brim with lots of
little inside jokes and easter eggs hidden all throughout the movie! Keep your
eyes peeled for surprise cameos. Lloyd Kaufman (head of Troma Films) plays a
prisoner! Howard the Duck cameos! Hell yeah, I said Howard the Duck! Rob Zombie
lends his voice talents for a character. Nathan Fillion plays a giant monster. Yes
my friends, this film is filled to the brim with pop cultural references,
everything from Alf to Footloose (1984) gets mentioned. Visually, this movie is
very rich, so you’ll want to look at every nook and cranny on this movie, there’s
lots of details and colors up on screen, another asset the film has, visual
richness and an amazing color palette. So yes my friends, this is the film to
watch. I enjoyed it more than many other Marvel films, like say for example
Thor: Dark World (2013). Here’s the thing, Guardians of the Galaxy might have
been a risky film for Disney, but watching it, you wouldn’t know it because it
seems they gave this film their all, they really made a good movie. They spent
many millions on a series of characters that no one knew anything about and it worked like gang busters. This movie feels bigger than films like Iron Man 3 (2013)
or even the X-Men movies. Guardians of the Galaxy is epic my friends,
Disney/Marvel Studios have the millions to give us the kind of big bombastic
movies we want to see, let’s hope they keep making them this good.
Rating: 5 out of 5
5 comments:
Well said! You hit the nail on the head when you pointed out how GUARDIANS is a throwback to the sci-fi action films of the '80s that some of us grew up watching and loving. In some respects, Gunn's film is a cinematic love letter to the films of that decade.
I loved this film as well. It is just flat out entertaining and so much fun to watch. And, being the comic book geek that he is, Gunn has buried all sorts of Easter Eggs in the backgrounds of scenes - perfect for freeze-framing once it comes out on Blu-Ray/DVD.
It's the wonderful mix of practical and the cgi that makes this film so beautiful Fransisco.
Totally agree J.D., a love letter to the 80's, it had a Star Wars feel to it, but the old star Wars, the first ones, the fun ones.
It's this kind of film that gives me hope for the modern box office, in that taking risks with ultra high budgets can still produce some successful and memorable movies. The humor makes it so much more personal. I feel like since studios have to cater to international markets they may feel that comedy doesn't translate so well to international audiences, so they downplay it or sometimes remove it altogether, but I feel like comedy was really integral in this movies and it made it so much more organic.
Totally agree Party Slashers, the comedy is part of what made this one so successful, can't wait for the sequel! I feel an introduction to the character known as NOVA is on the way...
Post a Comment