The Best in the Galaxy

Rating: 10/10 (13 October 2018)

When you think of an intergalactic movie, you will probably think of Star Wars because it is one of the longest running and most successful franchises in the movie industry. However, Guardians of the Galaxy directed by James Gunn, encompasses a mix of the action and adventure from Star Wars with the humor of a comedy to become an iconic household name. The Marvel movie was released on July 21, 2014. The movie stars Chris Pratt as Peter Quill, also known as Star Lord, Zoe Saldana as Gamora, Dave Bautista as Drax the Destroyer, Vin Diesel as the voice of Groot, Bradley Cooper as the voice of Rocket, Lee Pace as Ronan the Accuser, and Benicio del Toro as Taneleer Tivan or the Collector. The movie takes place in various places around the galaxy, both in space and on planets. James Gunn's Guardians of the Galaxy goes far beyond the average cosmic adventure by successfully blending intense action packed scenes with impressive graphics, hilarious comedy, and heartfelt moments. The movie was also made with an amazing mix of 70's classics and a powerful message that you can do more together than you can alone that made it one of the best blockbuster movies of the year.
This movie adds the latest team of heroes to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the Guardians of the Galaxy. The movie begins with an opening scene taking place on earth in 1988. The character's name is Peter Quill and he is with his family because his mother is in the hospital about to die. He's outside his mother's room listening to music from his cassette tape labeled Awesome Mix Vol. 1. When his mother is about to die, she calls Quill over to her bed and wants to give him a present. But, he won't accept it so his uncle takes it and puts it in his backpack. When she dies, Quill runs out of the hospital, onto a grassy field. Then a spaceship filled with space pirates who call themselves the Ravagers come and kidnap him. In the next scene, it's 26 years later and Quill is grown up, and on a planet called Morag. He steals an orb, but is later caught and thrown in a prison called the Kyln after a fight with the assassin Gamora and bounty hunters Groot and Rocket on the planet called Xandar. While in prison, these four meet an inmate named Drax and together they find a way to escape. They try to sell the orb to the the Collector, a man who collects the rarest things of the galaxy, and he reveals it to be an infinity stone, an ancient item of great destructive power. Ronan appears and steals the orb. He uses the infinity stone inside the orb to infuse his hammer with power. With that power, Ronan planned to destroy Xandar, but Quill's crew steals the stone back and uses it to destroy Ronan and save the planet from destruction. In the aftermath, Quill gives the real stone to the Nova Corps, the police force of the Nova Empire for safe keeping. For their heroic actions, Quill's crew becomes known as the Guardians of the Galaxy. Finally, Quill opens his gift from his mother given to him all those years ago, and it's revealed to be a cassette tape of his mother's favorite songs labeled Awesome Mix Vol. 2.
In a user review on IMDb, one reviewer wrote that the Guardians of the Galaxy was bad because there is a bad soundtrack. The songs choices made sense, they complimented what was going on in the movie perfectly. When there was a happy and playful scene, there was a song in the soundtrack that was playful and when there was a sad song the soundtrack played a more morbid song. They even made you feel more comfortable, as Gunn put it, "the music was a way to invite you in and make you feel a little more comfortable, because it's something we're familiar with in the face of all this oddness." He was right; the 70's classics brought a piece of Earth to the vast galaxy which helped connect the audience to the movie better. The soundtrack was also nominated for a Grammy for best compilation soundtrack for visual media, so the reviewer is not correct in saying the soundtrack was bad if it was recognized for such a prestigious award. One reviewer wrote that the movie was only non stop action and that it "failed to trigger any deeper emotion inside me," but there are actually a lot of slower moments in the movie that balance out the fiery action scenes. One example is the scene where Quill's mother dies. Another example was when Groot decided to put his life in danger even when he knew he was going to die in order to save the rest of Quill's crew from the impact of Ronan's crashing ship. Before he sacrifices himself, Groot says "We are Groot," his first sentence ever that wasn't "I am Groot." Rocket thinks Groot is dead, but luckily he finds a twig left that can be nursed into a new Groot. Rocket isn't the emotional guy in the movie, but he's starts breaking down over the death of his friend. These slower and more heartfelt scenes are needed to make a good movie, great and this movie successfully showcases a variety of emotions that made it great. Another reviewer wrote that the CGI characters and animation were poorly made, but there were very detailed characters and animation. For example, Rocket and Groot were extremely detailed. You could see the individual furs on Rocket and the indentations on Groot's body almost as if you were looking at a tree in real life. When you look at them you wouldn't be able to tell they weren't real other than the fact genetically modified raccoons and walking trees don't exist. The movie was also nominated for numerous awards for visual effects and and makeup and hairstyling, including two oscars two BAFTA awards, four Saturn awards, and winning the best makeup Saturn award which proves how well all the designs were for the movie.
Of all the reasons Guardians of the Galaxy was so good, the biggest reason was because of the message it projected. It projected an important message of working together is better than doing everything alone and it also emitted a close sense of family. I thought their message was something everyone could use in their everyday lives and that it would help improve and relieve the stresses of life. You can see the characters show this life lesson in many of the scenes. An example of this is the prison break. None of the guardians could have broken out of the prison and as fast as they did without the help of the others, well except for Quill who was told to get a useless prosthetic leg as a joke. But, even Quill had an important part, he provided the ship they would use to escape. They all had important individual roles that made their task a lot easier. Instead of Gamora having to find an arm band to control the facility, hold off all of the guards, obtain the prison's power source, secure the watchtower, use the power source and arm band to shut off the artificial gravity, and find a ship to escape it, she only had to obtain a guard's arm band. The process of escaping was much more efficient when they all worked together. You can see the value the guardians place on family because by the end of the movie, they are all willing to die for each other. When Quill steals the stone from Ronan, he is immediately affected by the stone's power and is about to die from it. Then Gamora reaches out and grabs his hand sharing the load of the stone, then Drax and Rocket do the same knowing it might destroy all of them. But, they couldn't let Quill die so they did it anyway.
Another reason Guardians of the Galaxy was so good was because of the hilarious comedy woven throughout the movie. The comedy provided a lightheartedness to the movie that made it very enjoyable to watch and the implementing of comedic moments was so successful, that more comedy was added to some of Marvel's future films, such as Thor: Ragnorak. One example of the movie's funny humor is when the guardians are trying to escape prison. Quill calls Drax a walking thesaurus and Drax says "do not ever call me a thesaurus." Then Quill says it's a metaphor, but Rocket says, "metaphors are just gonna go over his head." Drax responds by saying, "nothing goes over my head, my reflexes are too fast. I would catch it." Gamora is thinking, "I am gonna die surrounded by the the biggest idiots in the galaxy." It's so funny that Drax takes everything so literally and responds so bluntly to it. Another funny scene was during the credits when Baby Groot was dancing to "I Want You Back," but when Drax turned to look at him, he immediately freezes and later continues once Drax looks away. A third funny scene is when Quill challenges Ronan to a dance off right at the moment he is winding up to destroy Xandar so he would be distracted as Rocket and Drax prepare to shoot a projectile at his hammer to free the stone. There are many of these hilarious scenes that helped the movie to stay light and fun. Also, most action movies don't have any comic relief, but this movie does which made it very memorable because rarely does an action movie balance both action and humor perfectly.
In conclusion, "Guardians of the Galaxy" was rightfully the biggest movie of the year due to its outstanding performance in expressing various emotions, beautiful graphics, a top selling soundtrack, and for presenting an inspiring message. The director was very successful in making this a must watch movie for everyone. If the sequels to this movie are anywhere as good as this one, we are looking at many more to come and if you haven't seen this movie, watch it now.