Last updated on January 25, 2015
As one not prone to hype (and literally not walking into a movie theater for an entire year for the duration of 2014, barring Exodus), the critical reception and fan popularity of Guardians of the Galaxy didn’t convince me. After all, this is a Marvel movie, and while they’re fairly enjoyable popcorn entertainment, the sudden prolific nature of comic book-based films and their general “sameness” made me rather tired of them after Iron Man 3. I just couldn’t muster up the motivation to, say, watch another movie starring Thor.
So, after watching Guardians of the Galaxy, I can conclude that it remains a pretty stellar outlier in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. I would not, however, call it a great film unto itself. Like most movies in this universe, it shoehorns unwieldly details about an inter-series Infinity Gem arc into the main plot, as if this would muster up enough motivation for me to suddenly care. All in all, the MacGuffin does nothing except excite the film’s hardcore audience of people who care about Thanos being in love with Mistress Death and putting gems in his magical gauntlet. What does work, however, is the actual team of heroes on display here. Since we don’t know much about them, and (like me) most people don’t really know anything about this particular Marvel comic, it’s enthralling to see new characters as the stars of the show. Seriously!
Chris Pratt (Starlord!) makes for a pretty good modern-day Han Solo, and Bradley Cooper’s (and millions of third-world country’s worth of CGI) Rocket Raccoon makes for a pretty good modern-day Han Solo with fur. Groot (and his three/four words) makes for a pretty convincing Chewbacca plant person impression, and Zoe Saldana wears green-face (after blue face for Avatar…well, kinda) to play your resident Leia who actually has fighting skills. I’m not sure where Drax the Destroyer fits in my Star Wars comparison, but his inability to decipher metaphors and wit is always a plus in my comedic book. Plus, nary a super hero from the greater universe suddenly appears for no reason; on some level, Guardians of the Galaxy works as a cohesive stand-alone if they didn’t feel the need to shoehorn Marvel stuff into the movie.
At its greatest, Guardians of the Galaxy hits all the swashbuckling adventure tropes in a space opera that you’d want and expect. The interactions between its main cast – who all hate each other until they suddenly like each other (more on that later) – function brilliant for that dry, understated wit you’d expect. We could compare it to The Avengers, but that sells it short; the amount of subtle dialogue, visual comedy, and all-around great pacing more than do their work. I suppose you could expect no less from the relatively twisted mind of James Gunn, whose previous works elicit similar laughs (if a bit more on the grotesque side – see Slither if you want to know more!).
At the same time, it clearly draws everything in broad strokes to such a degree that, while absolutely anyone watching the film will understand it, it literally has zero character development. They all get together and hate each other, working via pragmatic means. Then they all learn a lesson about interdependent, I guess? And then they all become Super Friends, for little reason other than the contrivance of the plot. None of that seemed realistic at all to me, and the film isn’t even long enough to support that much development of characters. I suppose one could justify it by saying the film, actually, remains aware of how formulaic it is, but pointing out a flaw in your own film for laughs does not suddenly justify the inclusion of that element. You might say Disney/Marvel said “this needs to fit in the movie somewhere”, and the screenwriters decided to play around it instead of following their orders verbatim.
As such, I think most people relate to the idea of “being a misfit”, or losing someone/something, than they do to the actual film itself. It plays upon some base human emotions, dresses them up with just enough vagaries for you to relate, and then the movie suddenly comes together for the vast majority of the audience. That is, of course, what all successful popcorn entertainment should do – it hits a broad audience over the head with pretty obvious themes and doses of pure entertainment, all of which work out great. The soundtrack, especially, allows the film to distance itself from ultra-serious orchestral tones, literally playing upon the nostalgia of most people watching this film for the late 1980s.
And then the Marvel side of the film barges back into the mix with a giant action-stunt spectacular with no stakes, very little consequences, tension, or reason to exist. Yes, the jokes thrown up into the super expensive CGI-laden finale work well, but why bother throwing Ronan (or, as I like to call him, Mirkwood Elf King) into the mix if, after all that stupid expository prattling, he’s thwarted by people doing something they didn’t know they could do and neither could anyone else? See, where the movie falls apart really derives from the tangential (at best) tie-in with the Marvel universe. Thanos did not need to exist in this movie. There are far more elegant ways to do films in the same universe (heck, even the bloated Hobbit films work better), but Marvel seems to think throwing these ancillary details for unexplained stuff gets me to a movie theater. News flash: it does not.
Make a good movie, and I will follow. Guardians of the Galaxy, for what it does, is a good movie. But, at the same time, it’s a super hero movie, so it ends up using the exact, EXACT same plot tropes. It just happens to be a whole lot funnier and entertaining than most of its ilk. All in all, it makes me want to see if the new Stars Wars movie really takes cues from its forebears like Guardians of the Galaxy, or ends up being a completely time-travel obsessed J.J. Abrams joint. I guess time will tell. BUT GUYS A SEQUEL TO THIS HAS ALREADY BEEN ANNOUNCED!!!
