Review of Guardians of the Galaxy (2014) by Grant T — 09 Jul 2017

"I. Am. Groot." - Vin Diesel as Groot.

TRANSLATION: The last time the Marvel Cinematic Universe franchise focused on a new property of introducing a new addition to the team was "Captain America: The First Avenger." After that, was just sequels giving spotlights on the introduced (Iron Man, Thor and Captain America). Now the franchise moved the focus by expanding into the cosmic universe that was briefly seen in "The Avengers" and "Thor: The Dark World." While The Avengers take care of their world (and Thor taking care of the Nine Realms), in the cosmic universe, the "Guardians of the Galaxy" are there.

We first meet Peter Quill (Chris Pratt after "The Lego Movie" and "Delivery Man"), who was abducted in 1988 after the death of his mother - claimed by cancer. He's been living in space for 26 years; and became an outlaw going by the universally forgetful name Star-Lord. His latest hunt focuses on an artifact, but got caught by Korath (Djimon Hounsou after "How to Train Your Dragon 2"), sent by Kree Ronan the Accuser (Lee Pace from The Hobbit trilogy). Fortunately, he escapes with unawareness of what's coming for him.

Now we see Gamora (Zoe Saldana from "Star Trek" and being blue-skinned in "Avatar"), the sister of Nebula (Karen Gillian) and daughter of Thanos (Josh Brolin this time), sent by the same Kree to fetch the artifact. But her path collided with Rocket Raccoon (awesomely voiced by Bradley Cooper) and tree-creature Groot (voiced by Vin Diesel from The Fast and the Furious franchise) when there's a bounty on Quill by Yondu (Michael Rooker), the leader of the Ravagers who'd abducted and trained Quill since then. Now the four paths collided in a fight for the bounty and the artifact, and they got arrested by the Nova Corps.

While residing in Kyln, they meet Drax the Destroyer (wrestler Dave Bautista), with a grudge against Thanos and want to kill Gamora, until Quill gave him a deal before Rocket came up with a successful escape plan for the five of them (originally three, then four). The five escaped prisoners begin their space adventures and cooperation by first tracking down Ronan and Thanos by checking out what the stolen artifact is, while being hunted down by Yondu, and Ronan, Korath and Nebula.

"Guardians of the Galaxy" is pure fun and awesome like "The Avengers" at the same level, but only a bit less (meaning no better). The fun comes from the awesome casting that also consisted John C. Riley from "Wreck-It Ralph," Glenn Close, and Benicio del Toro reprising his role as The Collector from "Thor: The Dark World.".

The fun also comes from the hilarity, the excitement that's similar in "The Avengers," the elegant soundtrack from the 70s and 80s (a similar taste seen in "X-Men: Days of Future Past" for the 70s), and being a visual spectacle. The awesomeness blends in while it's specifically comes from the voice acting of the 100% digital characters and being another MCU treat.

Above all that enhancements to enjoying this greatly fun time, the film's good-hearted with nice heart.

The voice actors were perfect and, again, awesome. Bradley Cooper voicing Rocket Raccoon was something to look forward to when he (Cooper) was in "The A-Team," "Silver Linings Playbook" and "American Hustle," and The Hangover trilogy. Next to him, like his character, was Vin Diesel performing a déjà  vu of voicing a character with limited vocabulary as the humanoid tree creature Groot (I'm talking about his previous voice acting gig in "The Iron Giant" as the titular character).

"Guardians of the Galaxy" is the best yet of Phase 2 (for now until "The Avengers: Age of Ultron" comes out). It's definitely a contender to win Best Visual Effects and maybe a contender for Best Picture by its heart and what it has to offer.

One more compliment. The space adventure in the galaxy far, far away from where The Avengers are is more fun than the space opera saga Star Wars. (A+).

"Thank You." - Chris Pratt as Peter Quill/Star-Lord.