Review of Guardians of the Galaxy (2014) by Anzaan A — 19 Nov 2017

Starring - Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana, Bradley Cooper, Dave Bautista, Vin Diesel.

If you've seen the trailers for Guardians of the Galaxy, you'd be within your rights to think Marvel Studio execs have been hitting the bottle hard or taking LSD.

The film revolves around a group of dysfunctional but goodhearted criminals - think Robin Hood's Merry Men of the future - comprising human thief Peter Quill aka Star-Lord (Pratt), green assassin Gamora (Saldana), talking raccoon Rocket (Cooper), knife-wielding Drax the Destroyer (Bautista), and walking tree Groot (Diesel).

Like the Avengers, the Guardians get off to a false start but soon unite over a common cause, namely, the galaxy being obliterated by genocidal maniac, Ronan - not Keating - the Accuser.

Ah yes, the old, let's-exterminate-everyone-for-the-mistakes-of-their-forefathers ploy.

But unlike Avengers Assemble, Guardians of the Galaxy oozes offbeat originality and frankly, it's the most unique and delightful film Marvel has created to date.

It's a hell of an achievement given the extensive movie library the company is building up and when you consider the characters aren't household names like 'big three' Iron Man, Thor and Captain America, but Marvel seems well aware of that fact with the final production risky to say the least.

The film opens in 1988, which is when Quill is abducted from Earth, and 26 years later we see he's become a crooked intergalactic outlaw with a taste for all things shiny, valuable and not his.

Given the distinct decade in which he was taken, his cassette player and mixtape of 70s and 80s tracks are laced throughout the film, which creates a quirky yet grounded quality in the midst of all of the dazzling interstellar warfare that takes place along the way.

In addition to the soundtrack, jokes and comedy have never been more of a feature in a Marvel film - perhaps Iron Man 3 was the closest - as gags are thrown into the unlikeliest of scenarios to lessen the tension, and I would imagine, to really differentiate itself from Avengers Assemble, Star Wars and Star Trek, which by comparison are left looking very sombre.

That said, if you were going to compare Pratt's Quill to someone, the character is quite reminiscent of Chris Pine's Captain James Kirk - smart, womanising, reckless leaders, who eventually find their feet.

The editing is supreme and makes each bit of dialogue super-sharp and tight, so when the infamous five are bickering or talking generally, the repartee all feels really clean and natural without being awkward or forced.

Thor can be stubborn, Iron Man can be arrogant and Captain America is considered too stiff, but all of the Guardians bring even more wildly different qualities to the table and offer some diversity that doesn't ever grate or bore, which wouldn't have been possible without such excellent casting.

Meanwhile, the film is very much in the here and now, with Quill's backstory the only one that truly gets a look-in, which creates a sense of intrigue about his colleagues who only have their pasts hinted at, meaning sequel fodder.

There's just no way of knowing where you're going and tonally the movie delivers a piece of everything and it's done big and without hesitation.

Guardians may have been a gamble, but I'm Grooting for it to Rocket to the top.

T could be called so, is kickstarted by the theft of a magical plot device that evil people want. This also happens in The Avengers and Man of Steel, and it's not getting any more creative. The evil people fight the good guys, there's explosions and snarky humor everywhere, and it never rises above the level of an excuse plot. Characters get beaten close to death so the movie can have a sad moment before they get revived - all the protagonists are invincible. There's one particularly shameful scene where a character gets cast out into space and another character risks death to save them. But surprise! Somehow, a fleet of spaceships somewhere managed to find their exact location and arrive to save both within a minute! See, friendship saves the day again!

The dialog is just as useless as the plot: the characters either make juvenile jokes, exposit once again that they need to bring the magical plot device somewhere in order to prevent genocide by the evil guy (in case the audience forgot), have ham-fisted discussions about the value of friendship and overcoming adversity with all the subtlety of a bull in a china shop, or explain completely obvious things. The worst of this is when a character steps out into a visibly darkened corridor and comments on how dark it is.

I saw this movie because it was compared to one of my favorites: The Fifth Element. This comparison is worthless because while The Fifth Element was a movie, The Guardians of the Galaxy is a product. Every bombastic special effect and every cardboard cutout character reek of a movie trying to sell itself and its tie-in action figures and comic books to 12-year old kids. The humor is juvenile, the plot and characters are shallow and facile, explosions and fighting are shoehorned in at every turn... there is no natural characterization, no genuine emotion, and no signs of intelligence. This movie is junk food cinema at its worst. We deserve better.

10/10.