It Might Make its Money Back

Rating: 8/10 (31 August 2014)

If only the Star Wars prequels were even a tenth of how good this kinda, sorta, updated Star Wars flick.
I was way off on my prediction for this Guardians of the Galaxy film. I thought with the stream of Sci-Fi wannabes from sometimes acclaimed novels and a relatively unknown live cast, this was going to bomb and bomb hard. Unfortunately for me and fortunately for the movie, I couldn't have been more off. (In my defense and demise, I predicted this 6 months prior to opening. Sheesh! That's way too early to predict any box office number.)
I didn't think the movie would necessarily suck, or would be barely watchable, but I'm just not into Sci-Fi and because of which, it took me 30 days to the day of release to finally see this. Poor choice #2 on my part. (Almost 4 months for The Matrix – and I wish I had seen that one sooner, as well.)
While not perfect, way too many predictable lines and twists and slightly longer than it needed to be, the movie worked extremely well overall. Though the highlights were the literal laugh-out-loud humor, killer soundtrack and very good and inventive effects, the best aspect for me were the fantastic and memorable characters.
How they worked on their own, their depth and the comradery between them was simply divine. Too often characters, and especially ego- driven actors portraying them, ruin what could be a fun adventure flick with depth. Everyone's chemistry was spot-on and I couldn't help but love everyone individually and definitely together. Heck, even The Avengers dragged too long on the conflicts within.
What was also nice about the bond of our heroes was the reasons of being together. Not a single weak part to everyone's story line – everything worked splendidly as a whole. To have this many characters – five main and exclusive characters – all feeding off each other while maintaining their own direction isn't easy and should be praised when it does occur.
I went into this movie with ZERO expectations. I neither really wanted to see it nor did I think it would be bad. What I got was one pleasant surprise after another. For example, the opening nearly had me in tears – and not from laughter.
The movie opens with our future hero and "Han Solo's nephew," Peter "Star Lord" Quill's mother passing and that's immediately followed by his space abduction and eventually 20+ years later. Now, a full blown Han Solo renegade, he's trying to steal a sphere, Raiders of the Lost-like and the adventure begins with him being chased, him meeting the rest of the title characters and the rise of heroism.
To be honest, the story is not the newest or freshest out there, but it works beautifully here. Even the negative of occasionally predictable scenes, as mentioned above, was necessary for a movie like this to have. It's enormously unique on its own, but needed to tone it back to be more accessible to the general audiences while giving homage to the greats like this before it.
The emotional scenes also worked, as in the beginning – that was tough! not to get upset then – and a couple more later. Also, the laughs were plentiful even with the ones absolutely not geared towards me. I appreciated that they spread out the humor so not to just please one audience type. Further, the sometimes ingenious ways of solving problems were fantastic as was the loyalty amongst our crew – something I love to see in movies like this. Yes, I know it's more realistic to show more conflict than they did here, but I'm certainly not going into a movie like this and trying to find too much realism. And finally, I am HOOKED, as most people are on that dang good soundtrack.
I look forward to more follow-ups and cross-over's. I am super glad my prediction didn't come true and happy for a genuine blockbuster in one of the most lackluster box-office summers in many, MANY years.
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Final thoughts: I might need to watch it again – ha, I'm definitely buying this on Blu when it arrives, and I might be wrong, but far too many people survived way too long in space and exposed. I kept saying "NO" out loud as if I were Grumpy Cat when I saw one fly through space with only a secured helmet on. His hair was flowing with the transition and his hands were ungloved, even. Again, I might be mistaken, but this and a few other minor anti-physic-issues I couldn't get past.
Did this downgrade the movie in any way? Another "NO." As much as I didn't like to see such obvious mistakes, it's still a space- adventure-comedy. Heck, even the very-fun Gravity had its share of issues, and that was supposed to be realistic.