I Am Groot

Rating: 10/10 (4 August 2014)

As perhaps one of the few in the screening I went to who was familiar with the source material (yes even with the original 1969 incarnation) this film had a lot to live up to for me especially with all the positive buzz surrounding it, but thankfully it did not disappoint.
Guardians Of The Galaxy delivers on almost every level and it's great to see a studio being brave and confident enough to have allowed James Gunn to make this relatively unknown property, other studios could really learn something from the success this film will undoubtedly enjoy – firstly stop making dramatic changes from the source material that your film is based on (there's a reason it's popular to begin with). Secondly if your film is good enough build brand awareness like Marvel did with this as the marketing for this film as it was simply faultless. Thirdly superhero movies can be fun without being silly as this film proves, so we don't always need dark and broody.
The main thing that Gunn got just right with this was the tone and balance, yes it's mostly fun (without really being an out and out comedy) but it also gives you just about enough information about each character so that you will root for them but not so much that it ever slows things down or becomes too pretentious. For example the first two scenes which feature the same character (at different ages) couldn't be more different in tone but somehow it still feels right and a natural progression.
Chris Pratt anchors the film as Peter Quill offers great charisma and the progression from wannabe to hero always feels right, after this you feel that major stardom beckons. Zoe Saldana is always great and her Gamora works perfectly well although I feel the character is played as more of a foil for the others so it's a generous performance. Rocket is so well animated that there was never a moment that I thought about him being CGI, he's brilliantly voiced by Bradley Cooper, so he is in many ways pretty much the character on screen I'd always imagined he also has some great lines. Groot almost steals the film and although Vin Diesel does well with the limited lines it's the animators that really succeed here by giving Groot such humanistic facial expressions making him the heart and soul of the film. Dave Bautista was perhaps the biggest surprise for me, his Drax was not only very fitting in terms of being a revenge driven powerhouse but he also has some of the funniest lines and offers some subtlety, it will be interesting to see what Bautista does next.
The villains fare less well although this is not uncommon for a superhero movie because the main purpose of the film was to put together the team so although Lee Pace, Karen Gillan and Djimon Hounsou are perfectly fine, they look great but they're not really fleshed out and are fairly generic. The plot is fairly straightforward as with many Marvel movies but that's not really the point here because there's a real tonal shift which means you may notice it less. It really is a beautiful looking film too so kudos to the artists, costumes and makeup are impressive too.
The film succeeds because like Peter Quill it has a lot of swagger, it's always fun without ever becoming too goofy, it's accessible without spoon feeding the audience and therefore it's just a whole lot of fun.