Guardians of the galaxy film review

Rating: 9/10 (12 September 2018)

Guardians of the Galaxy was a big chance for the Marvel Cinematic Universe. I grew up reading comic books; I started collecting them when they were only 15 cents. My aunt and I would walk three blocks to a drugstore; it was hard to find comic books when I was five years old. One thing the Marvel Cinematic Universe has done and done well is keeping the same main running theme that Marvel comics always had running through all their books. It is ok to be different. Whether it was the teenage troubles of Spiderman, racial tensions expressed in the X-men, or the Loneliness and Vulnerability of the Hulk all of them shared one thing in common in some way they are outsiders. The Guardians of the Galaxy reinforces that theme stronger than any of the other Marvel films. It tells us it is ok to be different with a strong message of together we stand and divided we fall thrown in for good measure.
Guardians of the Galaxy plot-wise is a pretty average superhero genre film with a very undeveloped and underwhelming villain. He only serves as a conflict that forces our heroes to cooperate. It would be a pretty average film if not for the well-developed characters and the relationships between them. When the film starts, we are introduced to the films central hero Peter Jason Quill aka Starlord when he is a boy. His mother is dying, and Peter doesn't dare to face it when he flees the hospital, and he is collected by an alien craft. Next, we pick up with an older Starlord in a scene that vaguely resembles the first sequence of Raiders of the Lost Ark. Starlord is on a desolate planet moving his way through rabbit creatures in a dark, dreary cave to collect an artifact. What it does differently is put our protagonist dancing his way to his goal while listening to "Come and get your love" on his Sony Walkman. Starlord has betrayed his pirate clan the Ravagers by stealing the artifact for himself. The leader of the Ravagers Yondu vows to kills Starlord for his disobedience.
I did a lot of thinking about the characters in this film and their oddities. One by one we are introduced to each of the characters that will form the Guardians of the Galaxy. Starlord is an emotionally distance selfish rogue when we first meet up with him. His powers are smooth talking, seduction, technical gadgets, piloting, and music. Yes, that's right, music may be the single most important part of this character. Starlord is also the stereotypical dumb witted dude character at times for humor. Each of the guardians has oddities that play off each other for great comic effect. Their differences are ultimately what makes them shine. Gamora is the most dangerous woman in the galaxy. She is the adopted daughter, not by her choice, of Thanos the archvillain of the Marvel Cinematic Universe who wishes to impose his form of justice on the universe. Her powers are the mastery of all types of combat. She is an assassin, but she hides a very vulnerable side. When we first meet Gamora, she is working for the villain of the film Ronan the Accursar. Ronan sends the daughters of Thanos Gamora and Nebula to retrieve the artifact that Starlord stole. Ronan has promised to retrieve the artifact for Thanos in return for the destruction of the race of people called the Xandarians. Rocket Raccoon is a talking raccoon that is a master of ranged weapons and explosives; he is also a very good pilot. Rocket has the essence of a raccoon, clever and mischievous. He also has the qualities of other small mammals like ferrets as he is drawn to collecting things and has a love for money. Bradley Cooper gives Rocket a warmth and humor that brings the character to life. Humor is a big part of Rocket's personality. What does a raccoon need to keep it safe? A tree of course. The character Groot is a large tree creature that is paired up with Rocket when we are introduced to them. I think Groot keeps the guardians together and holds the Guardians together in their darkest moment in this film. He always seems to save the day by manipulating his body to get the job done. He has a very similar relationship to Rocket that Chewbacca has to Han Solo. Groot can only say "I am Groot" so there are hilarious one character conversations between Rocket and Groot where Rocket is filling in the blanks with his dialogue. Rocket and Groot are motivated by greed; they are bounty hunters when we meet them trying to collect a bounty on Starlord. Our heroes are so selfish and dim-witted that they battle over the artifact in public on the heavy police planet Xandar and get arrested. In a space prison, they meet the last of the Guardians Drax the Destroyer. It's interesting because I have read comics with Drax in them. In those days Drax wore a purple cape, was able to fly and was able to blast energy from his hands. I like the changes Marvel made with the character. Drax is a brute; he has super strength and endurance. He is deadly with the dual knives that he carries. He carries darkness in his soul from the murder of his wife and daughter. Drax is played by the ex-professional wrestler Dave Bautista. Professional wrestlers and athletes don't always do well on the big screen, but by the way Drax is written Dave Bautista does a marvelous job. Drax does not understand the complexities of language; he can't comprehend metaphors which creates humorous situations in the film. Drax is very straight-faced and serious even when he is trying to be funny. The Guardians must put aside their selfish differences to escape from the prison. Each of them must utilize the strengths of their oddities to make their plan work. They take the artifact to a villain in the Marvel Comics Universe named the Collector. He identifies the artifact as an infinity stone. There are only five infinity stones in the universe; they can't even be held by a mortal without deathly consequence. Through an act of selfishness Ronan locates our heroes. The stone is lost to Ronan because the Guardians are not co-operating. The Guardians are not prepared for Ronan's attack. The Guardians are forced to use mining vessels as weapons against Ronan's army of Necrophages. They are not working well together and are separated from each other. Nebula and Gamora have a long feud fueled and fanned by their evil father, Thanos. Nebula is able to best Gamora, who has the infinity stone, in starship to starship combat. Gamora is left floating in space to die. This is where the turning point in the movie is. The conflict in this movie is both internal and external. The main conflict being the heroes' inability to get along. Starlord and Gamora have been wrestling with romantic tension from the first time they met. Starlord leaves his ship and gives Gamora his face breather so she will live but he will die. Gamora and Starlord are rescued by the Ravagers. When Starlord makes the sacrifice for something, he loves things start to change for our heroes. They are able to convince the Ravagers to join them to stop Ronan. We then see one of the most impressive scenes in the film as the Guardians finally come together recognizing they are all outcasts and need each other. They hatch a complicated plan to stop Ronan who now is using the infinity stone to bolster his powers. I am not going into detail because you need to see it for yourself. This movie was created to be entertaining. It is very successful in its goal. The movie is a special effects extravaganza with great characterization showcasing its troubled misfit characters. Though out the film we are shown over and over that these characters are very odd. They are losers, they are misfits, they are freaks, and no one else wants them, they are alone until they find each other. Each character is odd in their unique way. Each character's oddity rubs against the other characters. It is only at the point that they accept reality and realize they have a lot in common that things start to get better for them. It is through their uniqueness and differences that they shine. Each character has a tragic story that has left them alone at some point in their lives.
Guardians of the Galaxy isn't free of flaws. It borrows from a lot of films. It is a mix match of Star Wars and the Goonies. I can see the character Han Solo in Starlord and Rocket Raccoon. Rocket does the same thing as Han Solo does with Chewbacca when he has one-sided conversations with Groot. Gamora reminds me a lot of the Princess Leia of the Empire Strikes Back. There is a scene between Starlord and Gamora that reminds me of the restrained sexual tension between Han Solo and Princess Leia in the Empire Strikes Back. Drax is a direct play at humor that goes all the way back to Abbott and Costello. The use of differences in dialect set up deadpan jokes frequently. The actors are chosen for their roles because they are playing characters that strongly suit their personality traits. Bradley Cooper impresses me the most by creating a loveable angst filled trash talking Rocket Raccoon. Chris Pratt plays Chris Pratt in all the movies I see him in, and he does it very well. Zoe Saldana is beautiful and has a lovely voice. Her looks and demeanor are direct ironies to the nature of the character she plays to set her up as being odd. Dave Bautista fits the physical presence of Drax, Drax is an unemotional deadpan character that often sets up humor. Vin Diesel plays Groot who only says, "I am Groot." I get the same feeling watching this as I do when I watch a film like the Goonies which is a story about a group of misfit kids going on an adventure. You can make an argument that Star Wars is the same movie as well. Star Wars is about a group of misfits who can't get along that is set against an unstoppable force. You could draw the line that in Star Wars our heroes get trapped in a trash compactor and in the Guardians of the Galaxy our heroes get put in prison. There are many scenes and parallels between the first three Star Wars films and the Guardians of the Galaxy.