Not the best Marvel film ever, but still a decent superhero film

Rating: 7/10 (3 August 2014)

Guardians of the Galaxy is a fun, entertaining, spectacular sci-fi action comedy adventure. However, despite the rave reviews from the critics and mainstream audience, I just don't think the film actually lives up to the hype and expectations to be a great one. Let me explain why.
The story is mainly about a band of interstellar thieves, thugs and assassins - Star lord, Gamora, Rocket, Groot and Drax, got caught up in a huge galactic threat when one of them retrieved a highly-desired mysterious orb from a desolated planet. These individuals eventually decided to work together as a team and become heroes along the way to stop the threat.
Before this, the Guardians Of The Galaxy consists of characters not known by many, even among the Marvel fan base. It's officially the first Marvel film that ventures into space, introducing the general audience to the expansive intergalactic worlds in the Marvel Cinematic Universe...with an entirely new team and not the previously established Avengers. It brings the audience to a whole new unseen world, featuring a multitude of alien species with distinctive personalities and abilities, with addition of exciting spaceship battles and chases as well.
The visuals are spectacular and the action scenes were great. Many of the 1960s/1970s pop classics that forms the soundtrack blends in quite nicely with the film. Each Guardian have their own kick-ass, cool or funny character moments in the film. The action scenes between Drax and Ronan or Korath, Gamora and Nebula, Star Lord and the Sakaaran army are really well done. But, among the Guardians, it is actually a giant walking tree and a talking raccoon that stole the spotlight compared with the others! When Groot extends his arm and pierces through a few Sakaaran army soldiers and repeatedly slams them against the walls is both shocking and awesome.The 'We are Groot' scene or Rocket's expression when Drax tries to comfort him by gently petting his head are beautifully done and emotional at the same time.
All the Marvel films, since Iron Man, did a great job of making fun at itself by injecting decent amount of humour and witty lines into the story, keeping the audience laughing along the way. This worked out fine...the engaging sense of humour actually helps to balance out the drama and action to make the films fun and entertaining to watch. But this time, they went overboard with it. Guardians of the Galaxy is so overly playful with itself that it has gotten too self-absorbed with its humour. It felt cartoony at times and lacks the seriousness it needs to be an epic film. It's been shown that billions of lives are at stake and even the galaxy is under serious threat. How do you even care what's at stake when the film doesn't take itself seriously when it should? (Moreover, some of the jokes presented in the film didn't work for me at all)
The film has too many new characters and most of them only make brief appearances...there's a lot of new unfamiliar places or locations which are previously unheard of without proper explanation. There's no character depth for each of the Guardians, you don't feel like you know them much by the end of the film as their backstories were only briefly touched upon. Gamora, also known as the galaxy's deadliest assassin or the Deadliest Woman in the Galaxy, trained by Thanos, gets easily beaten by others? The romance of Gamora with Star lord feels forced as well. I was also slightly disappointed that Thanos only make a brief cameo appearance...I expected more of his involvement in the film. It didn't create any strong lasting impression for the characters, much like Captain America: The First Avenger and Iron Man did for their main characters. The pacing doesn't flow well as the story never slows down and there's too many things to cover in the film.
There's so many small fine details that the general audience (those who are unfamiliar with the Marvel Universe) most likely won't know or understand: No one knows who Tivan/The Collector actually is or the Yaka arrow that Yondu carries around with him...the film didn't clearly explains what the infinity stones represents (mind, power, reality, space, soul, time), no mention of the Infinity Gauntlet, who is the giant figure that uses the Power stone, etc. Most of these details should be explained in this film instead of relying on the next sequel to do the job.
Like all the previous Marvel films (except Thor, who has Loki), Guardians of the Galaxy lacks a memorable and compelling villain for the story. There's a lack of character development for Ronan The Accuser. Ronan's lieutenants, Korath and Nebula (also Thanos' adopted daughter), bring nothing to the table...we don't know them much at all. For those who are expecting a great epic teamwork battle in the finale will be disappointed. Why would a villain who hates an entire race and planet, tries to avenge his father's and ancestor's deaths could be easily distracted? 'What are you doing?' I find myself having the same response as Ronan, questioning the director's decision for making Star lord pulling such a ridiculous act on screen. Come on, you have a villain who's in possession of the Power stone and this is what you can do with the character?
Like I mentioned earlier in the review, the film was fun and entertaining, but it was too much that nothing feels serious anymore. It's certainly not the best Marvel film ever. In my opinion, X-Men: Days of Future Past still remains as the best Marvel film of the year.
Rating: 7.5/10
Note: The post-credit scene was quite disappointing and not worth the wait. They supposed to add something that raises the expectations for future films but they didn't. That sucks.