Movie Review: Guardians Of The Galaxy (2014)
As the latest installment in Phase 2 of Marvel’s cinematic universe, there’s a lot of pressure on Guardians of the Galaxy to succeed. It does bear Marvel’s hopes for the more cosmic side of its comic back-catalogue and to prove that they can launch a new franchise without relying on cameos from Iron Man, Captain America, Thor, or any of the other Avengers. Couple this with a character roster that even comic book fans might find obscure and the whole endeavour seems a risky proposition.
Thankfully, director James Gunn has ably managed the risk and delivered a fun space adventure and, hopefully, the start of a new franchise.
Gunn shares most the pressure with Chris Pratt, playing Peter Quill (or as he’d like others to call him, “Star-Lord”). Pratt carries the film with his goofily charming demeanour, dancing his way across alien worlds to the sounds of the 70’s and 80’s, smirking and cracking wise in the face of danger whilst showing the requisite resolve once the going gets tough.
Quill is a Ravager, a band of galactic scavengers and bounty hunters, having been abducted from Earth as a child back in 1988. Deciding to go it alone on a particular job, rather than work with his boss Yondu (Michael Rooker) as usual, Quill comes into possession of a spherical MacGuffin that will drive the rest of the plot and set-up his encounters with the rest of the cast. If you have been paying attention during the other Marvel movies at all, then you should have a good idea of what this MacGuffin is.
Once he tries to sell the trinket, however, Quill crosses paths with other “Guardians”: Zoe Saldana’s Gamora, an assassin, henchwoman of Thanos, and comrade of Lee Pace’s Ronan the Accuser; Rocket and Groot, two opportunistic bounty hunters after the bounty on Quill’s head; and somewhat later, Drax The Destroyer, a deadly, if tragic, nutcase with a somewhat literal mindset, tearing the galaxy apart for vengeance.
Yeah, this should cause us no problems whatsoever.
As each of them realizes they need the others in order to achieve their own ends, if only for a short time, alliances are formed and deals are made, but after working with each other, a grudging respect is built and they do come together somewhat as a team.
In their journey, they encounter arrests, prison breaks, explosions, space battles, fist fights, and falling outs. As the Guardians realize the importance of what they have and how they must do whatever it takes to prevent Ronan and his sidekick, Nebula, getting the MacGuffin and presenting it to their master, Thanos.
Those expecting another Avengers might want to lower their expectations a little (nothing can kill a good movie more than unrealistic expectations). Guardians may build on Marvel’s past successes, but it’s still an origin movie, not just of one character but of a whole team, and one which is told in an entirely new and unfamiliar world. As such, there’s a lot of set-up and exposition to take care of whilst also servicing the plot, along with fitting in the action quota required of a summer blockbuster. That Guardians does so well is a testament to the choice of Gunn as director (and writer Nicole Perlman), but it does mean that some of the Guardians themselves don’t get as much screen time in their first outing as I’d have liked.
Being the audience’s viewpoint character on this crazy, colourful world, Quill gets plenty of screen time. Chris Pratt manages the mix of humour and heroics well, impressively bulking up for the role, but the rest of the Guardians can only be sketched, even if they are done so in confident, bold strokes. Zoe Saldana delivers a solid performance as Gamora, handling her action scenes well and building chemistry with Pratt for later installments, although she can be reduced to just screaming at him or the others for sections of the film.
Despite only a passing familiarity with the comic’s characters, I can’t say I agreed initially with the choice of Bradley Cooper for the role of Rocket Raccoon. I had expected more of an older, gruffer, Clint Eastwood-style voice, but Cooper’s work here is fine, even if he’s not quite the heart of the team that Gunn has professed he should be in interviews. That role falls squarely to Groot who, although pretty unrecognizable as Vin Diesel, manages to convey as much nuance as is required out of pretty much the only thing he gets to say throughout the movie: “I am Groot”.
Rocket and his Rocket Launcher?
Groot’s actions get the team into and out of many tricky situations, providing a lot of the humour in the film along the way. The burden of providing laughs is shared well with the other Guardians. Like Rocket, Groot no doubt has an entire back-story that can’t be detailed in this movie, but with Rocket, at least some of it is referred to verbally and visually. It’s not so easy when you only have a 3 word vocabulary. We don’t even get to know how these two ended up together, but hopefully later installments will rectify this.
Dave Bautista’s Drax comes to the party a little late, but makes an impression, even if he is not quite as powerful as his comic counterpart. While he retains his antagonistic relationship with Thanos, the set up is slightly different, but the filmmakers have added a new twist to the character that helps lighten him.
All of the Guardians get just enough screen time, but this does leave plenty of room for to-ing and fro-ing around the galaxy, as well as freeing up some time with the film’s villains. Gunn’s done a sterling job here. Brolin is brief, but perfect as Thanos. While he may be the driving force behind the plot, Ronan The Accuser is the main antagonist. Lee Pace makes the character, that could have come off as ridiculous, extremely threatening, even with his hood, hammer and facepaint. Likewise, Karen Gillan’s tortured Nebula gets to hint at a tortured back story and gets to play a very different and threatening character than she did as Amy Pond in Doctor Who.
In between the Guardians and the villains, Michael Rooker also deserves mention, weaving in and out through the film in a great performance as Quill’s former mentor and seeming “space cowboy”, Yondu.
So, is Guardians of the Galaxy the second coming? Marvel’s Star Wars?
The answer is “Not quite”. I didn’t find myself completely swept away by the film, but it is a very entertaining, exciting and enjoyable space adventure. Not many of those are seen these days, especially ones that can be as touching and genuinely funny as Guardians is.
Unfortunately, there was no post-credits sting at the press screening I attended. So, if you want to know more about that, you’ll have to go see the film!
Check out our other review for Guardians Of The Galaxy: