A Genuinely Enjoyable Movie

Rating: 8/10 (20 January 2016)

This isn't about brands for me. I don't care about Marvel universe that much, and I don't read comics anymore. I loathe studio wars, and "expanding cinematic universe" is a phrase that nowadays makes me almost puke. I don't care about that stuff. But I do care about good movies, and after just seeing Guardians of the Galaxy for the fourth time, I wanted to share my thoughts on this film, because there might still be a few people on the fence.
First off: you don't have to read any comics to get this movie. You don't have to watch 400 other movies in order to enjoy it. You can jump right in, just like I did.
Guardians of the Galaxy is the closest thing to Star Wars (the originals and Force Awakens) without actually being Star Wars. Space is merely a setting, as the core of this story lies in the characters, surprisingly fresh sense of humor and good old-fashioned adventure. All of the characters are great fun. Not just average movie-fun, but genuinely fun. It's amazing how enjoyable the core group is to watch. It does remind you of the old adventure movies which knew exactly how seriously they should take themselves.
How seriously does this film take itself? There is a talking raccoon. There is a walking tree. It's crazy, but just the right kind of crazy. It's not like the movie is cynically trying to get your attention with "look at me! aren't I random?" crap, because it actually seems like the people involved really cared about what they were doing. This was proved true when I got a little choked up in the end, when Dave Bautista was petting the head of a CGI raccoon (voiced well by Bradley Cooper). When you see it, you know what I'm talking about.
It's a really hard balance and tone to strike here. We have these crazy characters that make you smile and laugh - and the few more dramatic moments manage to strike you hard. The best thing about all this is that they're not hammering these emotions to your head. It feels natural. It feels natural in this world which is just a weird fantasy land with no real weight to it. That's an accomplishment.
All the actors are clearly having fun. Chris Pratt is good, Zoe Saldana as well, and Michael Rooker is a real treat. Bradley Cooper and Vin Diesel lend their voices to some of the best CGI characters to date, and it works.
The story itself is just...just a reason to make our heroes go from point A to B. It's not great. I didn't care about it, and thankfully I didn't even have to. There's a McGuffin, a bad guy and your usual formulaic crap. The story itself is the weakest point of this movie, and I must say that the ending was rather bad. Luckily, the focus is very closely on our heroes almost the whole time, and you can easily forgive the poor story. Even some little bits that were obviously setting up other movies didn't bother me, because director James Gunn managed to blend it all in nicely.
Talking about James Gunn, he was the right man for this job. I'm tempted to check out other movies he has done, because Guardians of the Galaxy feels almost like a B-movie in just the right way. There are plenty of scenes and gags which are so stupid that they become good. He even manages to make some of the clichés fun, letting the audience know that he knows how they feel. It's like the director is playing with you, but not on the opposing team. He is clearly having fun, and the soundtrack is just another proof of it. Plenty of oldies, David Bowie's Moonage Daydream being my favorite. Oh, and the blu-ray has Gunn's commentary track on it, and it's a pretty good one.
To summarize: It's a fun movie with a childish heart that manages to wake up that kid inside you. And if you are indeed a kid, the happier you'll be when you see this weird flick. It's not tangled by the strings of Marvel's "cinematic universe" at all, it manages to be its own movie. Some movies just please people and manage to make them happy, and this is one of them. Not a cinematic masterpiece, and somewhat formulaic under the surface, but certainly a genuine crowd-pleaser with some of that movie magic that's hard to come by anymore.