Ummm...maybe I missed something?

Rating: 5/10 (9 March 2015)

I wanted to like this movie...I really did! I'd seen enough ads, enjoy space opera (e.g., The Fifth Element), and have a decent tolerance for questionable plot points if the action, fun, and humor are there. So I went into it prepared to suspend disbelief and have a good time.
There were (potentially) a lot of things to like. I mean, come on: a talking raccoon with a bad attitude and a penchant for blowing things up? Sounds like fun. Zoe Saldana doing ballistic fight scenes in tight leatherette and green makeup? Sure, why not? Crazed intergalactic psychopaths whose desire to destroy the civilized galaxy for reasons too convoluted to grasp provides the center for an over-the-top plot that makes Star Wars look like Pulitzer material? I can live with that.
The thing is...it didn't come together for me. Maybe I needed to know the comics. However, I enjoyed "Serenity" without being familiar with the Firefly TV series (of which I became a big fan afterward - too late, alas), and no movie should rely solely on an audience that knows the back story in order to enjoy it.
No, I think it was a combination of things. First of all, the special effects were uneven. In some places, the animation was great - Rocket and Groot were pretty consistently convincing, for instance. However, there were lots of moments when sets or effects seemed, frankly, kind of chintzy. There were times when it felt like this was part of the humor of the movie - "See? This is space opera, and we're not taking ourselves too seriously here." - but there were other times when it just seemed like the movie makers just weren't worried about production quality and went cheap. That was disappointing. And it seemed like they filmed the whole thing on videotape.
And then there was the acting, which I also found inconsistent. John C. Reilly is one of those guys who can really turn it in...but he mailed it in. And why did Glenn Close agree to play Nova Prime? I assume she thought it would be fun...to collect the paycheck. No demands on her acting chops there! As for Chris Pratt and Zoe Saldana, it seemed like there were moments when they were really into it, and others when it felt like they were just passing through the scene, spouting lines. It seemed like there was no agreement among the actors and director about when to play it straight, and when to play for laughs. There were times when the acting felt incredibly self-conscious, and that killed the fun for me. If you want to make jokes, go ahead. If you want to look into the camera and wink at the audience to let them know that, yeah, we know this is just a movie, but we're having fun - great! I can live with that too. But establish the tone and maintain it throughout - don't jump back and forth. In the end, the attempts at developing the characters' emotional lives didn't add a whole lot of depth either, particularly when half of it occurs in a drunken info-dump.
Bottom line? I'm glad I rented it rather than paying full price at the multiplex, and even then I had trouble sticking with it to the end. It had potential: if the people who made it took the production values and acting more to heart, it could have been a whole lot better.