Guardians Of The Galaxy – Movie Review
As usual with Marvel movies I have to start this one with saying that I’m not too familiar with the comics and have no specific idea how much of the comics went into this movie. That said… this movie pretty much rocks. Quite literally. I was following the development of this movie from early on. Once first details came out I really liked what they were going for. I hoped for some really creative stuff that hopefully does not involve Earth and shows us some places we haven’t seen yet. I wanted this movie to give the whole Marvel universe a new twist and perspective. Since it (yes it does) takes place in the same universe as The Avengers. Who knows if there will ever be a specific crossover but just the idea is pretty cool. It’s like a completely different world within the Marvel universe.
I don’t want to go into specific plot details since you should really go and see this film. Let’s just say that we mostly follow Peter Quill (Chris Pratt) from Earth, who got abducted as a young kid and grew up to be some sort of scavenger/bounty hunter in space. He’s looking for the ‘Orb’. An artifact a lot of people are looking for apparently. Once he found it, he’s not exactly making friends and ends up with a bounty on his head. A Racoon (Voice: Bradley Cooper) and his Tree-creature like friend (Voice: Vin Diesel) capture Quill, but not without bumping into Gamora (Zoe Saldana), who is trying to get the artifact. They all end up in a space prison where they meet Drax. All of them come together and manage to escape with the help of some great teamwork. When they find out how much the Orb is worth they decide to split the cash. Of course things do not work out as expected and once they discover the power the Orb holds, everything goes against them.
When it comes to the story you could almost say “have you seen one Marvel movie, you have seen them all”. It’s a weak spot in this otherwise great picture. Another thing that’s business as usual is the fact that the villain was pretty weak again. He’s not fleshed out enough to really care about his motivations. He’s just there to be the bad guy. And one scene in space that, for my taste, did go a little too far into “who cares about science” territory. After a kinda hoaky flashback at the start of the movie it soon finds its path and starts to get intertaining. Along with so many other big action summer blocbuster productions this movie is also falling into the trap of lining up one action sequence after another. Over the span of this movie there were enough things to counter these negative impressions though. Especially the way the film establishes its characters. It’s all done bit by bit throughout the movie and no single big exposition dump where everything is explained at once. So the characters stay fresh throughout the film and at the end still have some secrets left for a, highly possible, sequel. As successful as the movie is now, it’s a great statement for visual and character originality. Marvel risked something with this movie. They took fairly unknown comic characters and picked James Gunn, a director that doesn’t have much experience with science fiction fantasy. But what he’s great with is interaction between characters and especially the humor that can be found within these characters. Much like Joss Whedon who did a fairly good job with the Avengers movie.
Now to some technical things. The direction by James Gunn works really well and shows in the more quiet moments when we have some witty character interaction and conversations. Especially the funny stuff! The overall acting is pretty much flawless and enjoyable. The interaction between CG and live action characters is pretty amazing. The motion capture, 3d, design and voice work is fantastic and does a good job bringing us closer to the CG characters. What I’m talking about? Rocket and Groot of course. These two have a great relationship going on and couldn’t be more different on the outside. Together they are almost unstoppable. Aside from the characters this movie lives from the places it shows. We get to see some fantastic environments and planets. Probably some of the most creative stuff to see in a film right now. It’s obvious that the concept artists had fun with this movie and it definitely shows in the result. We also have one of the most beautiful colour palettes going on there. Every place has a different feel, lighting and colour mood. Everything well balanced and thought through from an artistic standpoint. Just gorgeous to look at and a lot of fun.
8.2/10
