Out of this World

Rating: 9/10 (7 August 2014)

2014 has been a huge years for 'movies that have surprised me'. The Lego Movie and How to Train Your Dragon 2 are right up there in my top favorite movies this year pushing the envelope in charming story telling, animation, and mastering 3D on the big screen. On the other hand, Captain America 2: Winter Soldier and X-men: Days of Future Past have quickly become two of my favorite super-hero blockbusters that combine fan-gushing paranormal action with an expert level of engaging story telling. Somehow combining all my favorite traits (and more) from these class act hits, Guardians of the Galaxy (GotG) manages to take relatively unknown Marvel characters and creates an excitingly bold, confident, fast-paced space adventure that truly makes it feel 'out of this world' (nailed it).
The story revolves around Peter Quill (aka Star Lord, Chris Pratt), a Terran (Earthling) adult who got captured by an alien mercenary gang lead by the scummy interstellar bandit Yondu (Michael Rooker). After stealing a mysterious artifact known as the "orb", Quill almost immediately gets himself into deep sh** with the wrong crowd of the Galaxy and is lead into a manhunt by the terrifying Kree, Ronan the Accuser (Lee Pace); who simply is a pawn working under Marvel's final big baddie and effectively the Emperor Palpatine of this universe, Thanos (Josh Brolin).
Out of extraordinary circumstances and misfortune, Quill teams up with the green-skinned sexy assassin and adopted daughter of Thanos, Gamora (Zoe Saldana), the deadly literal maniac Drax (Dave Bautista), the sarcastic anthropomorphic raccoon Rocket, and the lovable sentient tree Groot. And while the galaxy and worlds within it are largely at stake, this movie is less about that and more of how these 5 irreverent rag tag team of goons band together, form bonds with one another, and try to be something they never dreamed of being: heroes.
Guardians also boasts incredibly well acted performances by everyone in the cast. In fact, instead of gushing long paragraphs of word-porn of how much I enjoyed it I'll sum it up like this. The heroes have spot on comedic timing, know when to pull on the audience's heart strings, and are Groot. The villains are ruthless, cold, command a sense of terror, and are also Groot. Most of all, Rocket and Groot are the most fun odd-ball duo that has come along since Han Solo and Chewbacca and are (you guessed it) mother fu***** GROOT! One of the best things about Guardians is that it doesn't require you to know anything about the Marvel movies that came before it; although it certainly doesn't hurt. Recently, I made a point that in order to see GoTG I had to watch every single Marvel movie that came before it . Earlier this summer, I also finished up the 'just good enough' first season of the Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Again, there is no barrier to entry to go see Guardians but if you are like me and have watched your fair of share of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), then you will be rewarded with some subtle nods and Easter Eggs (particularly for those who watched Thor: Dark World and S.H.I.E.L.D). Even the final post credit scene is entirely geared towards comic readers, which will leave the general audience going "wut" – - an ingenious move to have everyone immediately go home and Google a bunch of stuff about the MCU.
Ushering in the Cosmic era could have been a huge mistake for Marvel Studios but James Gunn has done such a good job that he's gotten a sea of internet ejaculation for all his talented work, so much that he's gotten some crowds to hate on Joss Whedon and the Russo brothers (although grow up people there can be more than one good director in the world). It's incredible how Gunn somehow captured the magic of the original Star Wars films and created something so wondrous, eccentrically zany, and flat out fun that by the end of the movie, you are inception-ed to think "Take my money, I want to see that again".
Now for the visuals, that mouth-watering, juicy eye candy CG that is only made better by the 3D IMAX experience. To an extent, it was suspected that this space romp would be packed with laser-beam dog fighting, big action set pieces, cosmic wonder, and so on, but that doesn't make it any less impressive. The CG on characters like Groot/Rocket are seamless, the special FX and lighting are top notch, and you can clearly see the vision of the original concept art brought to life. The cosmic cherry on top is the attention to detail on some great character design and costumes (i.e Nebula, Karen Gillan).
So what better way to end this review than to talk about what could be the best part, the kicker that makes this whole thing come together. That soundtrack. Oh that perfect playlist of 80′s pop songs that establishes such great character moments and gives Guardians it's charismatic charm. So awesome that it's basically a Jedi's Lightsaber , the whip of Indiana Jones, the shield of Captain America, the blowing into an old Nintendo cartridge. It's a total game changer. It just goes to show that a good soundtrack can make anything exponentially better.
As soon as I saw the opening title card with Star-Lord grooving to "Come get Your Love", I knew that this movie was going to be special. Guardians of the Galaxy may have started out as being a 'risk', but luckily, instead, turned into one of the most flippant and charming films that has got the entire world "Hooked on a Feeling" (see what I did there?).