Just when I was starting to get sick of Marvel movies, they change the game (somewhat, and successfully).

Rating: 6/10 (30 August 2019)

Directed by James Gunn
Screenplay James Gunn, Nicole Perlman
Starring Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana, Dave Bautista, Djimon Hounsou
The Guardians of the Galaxy is a fun ride, if nothing else. Yes, it comes from the Marvel stable, so you can expect it to be full of banter and bickering among its protagonists. Yes, it is setting up a franchise, and/or adding to the overarching story the MCU is setting up, so you know there will be a studio-mandated climax and a cameo from at least one Infinity Stone. Yet it feels fresh because of the risk Marvel has taken by producing this movie with a bunch of relatively unknown comic book characters.
I am a comic geek. Yet I had no idea who these people were. In fact, until the success of the Avengers, I considered even Iron Man and Captain America as second tier heroes in Marvel comics. The trailers didn't help either, as I saw the usual trope of a ragtag team of misfits coming together, led by a well-intentioned man-child, supported by a dumb thug, a faux-feminist tough girl and two animated characters. Yet, this film was enjoyable, and most of it is down to the direction of Gunn and the excellent casting choices.
Chris Pratt, who we know as the chubby, funny well-meaning dumb kid Andy from Parks and Recreation (what a character he was), plays a movie version of the same, but has been given a muscled-up transformation. He brings a playful charisma and proven comedic talent to the role of Peter Quill, simultaneously the straight arrow and the goofy sidekick. Zoe Saldana seems to have made a career out of playing alien characters with paint drawn on them. She plays Gamora, the tough girl protagonist and possible love-interest to Quill. There is a super-intelligent, genetically engineered raccoon named Rocket, voiced by Bradley Cooper, and a genial tree called Groot voiced by Vin Diesel in his best work ever. The find of the movie is Dave Bautista as Drax the Destroyer, who shows off his comedic chops while also suggesting a complex emotional being underneath. The antagonists are unfortunately pale personas. The talented Lee Pace is wasted as Ronan the Accuser, who is actually a pretty complex character in the comics, reduced to villain plot device in this movie. Djimon Hounsou and Josh Brolin play even more thinly drawn characters, although their screen time is much restricted to be of any utility. Glenn Close, John C. Reilly and Benicio del Toro make extended cameos in another instance of Marvel casting great performers and giving them nothing to work with.
Quill is an orphan abducted from the earth by aliens when he was a kid after his mother passed away, and has been raised by his captors, a bunch of space outlaws. The movie has a Firefly-feel to it, yet this space adventure keeps things grounded by involving many settings that we earthlings can comprehend. The brightly lit space days in similar movies are replaced here by multicoloured cities with interesting but humanoid aliens, grimy prisons and kinky-looking spacecrafts. The characters come together in search of an Infinity Stone, and like in most movies involving a McGuffin; just enough time is spent on it to not bore us to death. The character interactions and the soundtracks are what keep us invested in the movie, in spite of the thinly drawn characters. Perhaps they shall address it in the sequels. After all, Marvel never stops with just one film. In James Gunn's, they do have a capable director who is a geek himself, and treats the characters with respect.
VERDICT
A definite popcorn movie. Very enjoyable. Watch it with Americans in their 30s, they will lap the whole thing up.
6.5/10
STRAY OBSERVATIONS
Karen Gillan, who was terrific in Doctor Who as Amy Pond, plays Nebula. Here is to wishing her a successful career in Hollywood. As of now she has done two Jumanji movies, and her best movie so far is Oculus (2013).