Fresh Feeling

Rating: 8/10 (8 August 2014)

Marvel's latest entry into the MCU is what would appear from the overly explosive trailers to be a film given a sky-high budget to set off expensive fireworks for two hours and leave the story-line/character development at the door, raking in a shed-load of profit in the mean time to fill in for the Avengers. Certain assumed knowledge such as this gives audience members a particular mindset as to what to expect, forces them to buy more popcorn to help them through it but ultimately leaves them pleasantly surprised when that once-in-a-blue-moon blockbuster takes a turn for the better.
GOTG is one of those blockbusters, and while there are explosions galore, this thankfully proves to be one of the film's assets rather than a downfall. The main factor that separates it from other Marvel films is that it could easily be viewed as a comedy as well as a sci-fi action drama or even part-thriller; with both visual and verbal gags running constantly throughout, a feel-good soundtrack blasts viewers back to the 80s in a ballsy picture that isn't afraid to not take itself too seriously.
With that said, the movie's greatest strength also proved a major weakness with the dialogue, although hilarious at times, turning cringe- worthy and often boring when time had to be taken out to explain what was actually going on (since the whipper-snapper one-liners didn't quite milk it). It didn't help either when certain scenes were 'rescued' by overly-extensive action sequences that seemed to drag on, often making the film appear rather desperate to make it through the 2-hour run time.
All in all however, GOTG was a welcome relief from the same-old superhero movies Marvel seems to be churning out quarterly. Breaking new grounds in the field of comedy (and with pretty decent characters to portray it), it left us Hooked on a Feeling for number 2.