Star Wars meets the Avengers.

Rating: 10/10 (26 May 2015)

Having never even heard of the Guardians of the Galaxy before let alone read any of their comics, I had no idea what I was going to see when I sat down to watch this movie, now I can say that Guardians of the Galaxy is an outstanding comic book movie with its great characters, awesome action scenes, hilarious dialog, kick-ass soundtrack and some potent emotional moments.
The film opens with an emotional punch to the gut where a young boy named Peter Quill watches his mother pass away from cancer. Overcome by grief, Quill runs out of the hospital, sobbing when all of a sudden, a group of space pirates appear and abduct Peter. We then cut to 26 years where Quill takes an orb from a planet and is pursued by an outranked agent of the evil Kree warlord Ronan. Upon learning about Quill's theft, Yondu Udonta puts a price on Quill's head while Ronan sends his personal assassin, Gamora to retrieve the orb. Following a scuffle on the planet Xandar with a talking raccoon named Rocket and a walking tree named Groot, the four find themselves in prison where they meet an alien named Drax The Destroyer. Now, the group must learn to stand together and save the universe from Ronan.
Unlike other comic book films that approach this kind of situation with a sense of pressure, the characters in Guardians of the Galaxy don't seem to care immediately about the whole saving the world aspect that seems to form the bedrock for other superhero movies, but's that not to say that they don't care about what is happening or what's at risk, it's just the movie focuses more attention on the eccentric atmosphere that it has created and setting up the characters by having them not be heroes at first but common criminals who have lost something or everything only to pull together as a team in the end, not to mention the script by James Gunn and Nicole Perlman is absolutely wonderful and allows each one of the Guardians to have enough time on screen for the audience to get to know them and to sympathize with them as well as incorporating humor into the movie and there were many times throughout the movie were I was wasn't laughing my ass off at some kind of joke or one-liner that a character said with Starlord and Rocket getting the best laughs from me. Also, the comedy is used in reflecting the Earth culture of Starlord which often presents itself in comical fashion where the other characters have no understanding of what it means which makes it even more funny, but even with all the comedy, the movie still does have a fair amount of emotional scenes that keep it grounded with the gut-wrenching opening scene of Peter's mother dying and Groot sacrificing himself are some of the best emotional scenes I've seen in any comic book movie.
As for the effects side of things, the movie has some of the best visual effects out of any modern day sci-fi movie, The CGI looks incredibly realistic while the art direction flourishes in every CGI environment created as well as the action which seems be just around the corner throughout the course of the film and it keeps you on the edge of your seat with the final battle on Xandar and the prison escape are the stand-out action sequences in this movie. The music is also fantastic and had songs like "Hooked on A Feeling" or "Cherrybomb" not been there then the movie wouldn't have been as good. The songs bring an air of cheerfulness to the movie and thus make it more fun while allowing us a closer look at Peter Quill's character and where he came from.
When it comes to the acting, each actor plays their part to perfection. Chris Pratt is awesome as Peter Quill/Starlord, playing the Han Solo of Marvel as well as being an absolute bad-ass at everything he does, but at same time, being a likable character and incredibly hilarious. The scene of Quill dancing to Redbone's "Come and Get your Love" is one of the best character introductions I've ever seen in any movie. Zoe Saldana as Gamora is one of the best female action heroes in film, she kicks serious ass in the action scenes, is funny when it is called for, and she looks incredibly hot in the film. Dave Bautista is also awesome as Drax the Destroyer with him always taking things too accurate and thus his actions and exchanges with the other Guardians make for some of the most comical moments in the movie, however it's Bradley Cooper as Rocket and Vin Diesel as Groot who steal the show in my opinion. Bradley completely nails the voice of this character and Rocket is hysterical, bad-ass, and really carries the emotional scenes well. He's the Marvel version of Ash Williams, but much more sarcastic and funny. Groot may just be the coolest talking tree in all of film and each time he says "I am Groot", which one might think would get annoying, becomes even funnier every time he says it, but when it comes to the emotional moments, he really shines. I've heard a lot of people didn't like Ronan the Accuser, however I see him as a very menacing villain and Lee Price does a great job playing a tyrannical space dictator. Michael Rooker is awesome as Yondu, Karen Gillian is fantastic as Nebula, Glenn Close and John C. Riley are both great in their roles and Bencio del Toro is wonderful in the role of the Collector.
I really don't have any issues with this movie. It's funny, it's engaging, it's emotional, it's got great action, great characters, great effects and a killer soundtrack. Do yourself a favor and go watch Guardians of the Galaxy, it's a total blast.