Guardians of the Galaxy Review

        With everything that Marvel Studios has done, this was the first real test to adapt a relatively obscure team to live action. I remember when the movie was announced, I’d asked my cousin who was a die-hard comic book fan and he had no clue who they were. In one way, it gives the filmmakers leeway to be creative instead of adhering to the comic origins. Another way, this was the first gamble aside from The Avengers.  And did it pay off big time. 

1. Star-Lord and the Raiders of The Orb

        Talk about emotional whiplash in the first minutes. It’s unlike the prior films when they have the standard Marvel fanfare and then the introduction. Here, it’s very mellow with 10cc playing as Peter Quill is in the waiting room, as his mother is dying from cancer. He runs away and gets abducted by the Ravagers. Not to reiterate what I said, but it makes the film that we’re seeing more emotionally driven as we focus on Peter.

        After that, we see just what kind of movie it is that we’ll be watching. We see Peter going after an object that is very reminiscent of Indiana Jones. Albeit he’s dancing along with his Walkman as he makes it more exciting than what it was. That scene gives us a clue as to who he is all grown up. While he’s aged, he still acts like a kid without any maturity. 

        Chris Pratt plays him so well since that is the type of character that he mostly plays. It obviously reminds me of Andy in the show Parks and Recreation. He’s a goofball but he somehow comes out on top. It’s kind of interesting seeing how he was relegated to playing secondary characters in tv and film. Here, this was his first to be the leading man in a relatively obscure team.

        I’ll talk about the Guardians in a moment, since they are the namesake in the film. I’ll at least expand more on Star-Lord’s characterization and how his Walkman comes to play in the story. He’s very protective of his Walkman and I’m pretty sure its appearance sparked a lot of eBay hunters to find and own one. He doesn’t have it just because it’s the only thing that keeps him grounded since it’s the only connective thing he has of Earth and his mother. 

        More so, I think it’s a coping thing for him. We hear the songs play throughout the film diegetically, meaning that everything the characters hear, we the audience hear.  Songs tend to fit with how Peter is feeling, and I think it’s the perfect way to have a soundtrack effectively work within a film that’s mostly alien by nature. For instance, when the group is in Knowhere, Peter and Gamora reflectively talk about their past and he shows her his music. It’s intimate until Gamora misinterprets what Peter was doing. 

2. Guardians

        When you have a five-member team, it’s an impossible task to properly introduce the individual members since they’re relatively new to audiences and hazy for comic book readers. The worst way to go about it is to stop the movie and introduce the characters and then the film continues. Or have a person introduce them without showing us who they are personality wise and what’s their gimmick. The way the film does is a textbook example of how to properly introduce them as the story continues naturally.

        The initial members get arrested as they try to steal the orb and capture the bounty that was placed on Peter. We see who they are with Gamora being a good fighter while seemingly following orders from the main villain Ronan to steal the orb. Meanwhile, we see that Rocket and Groot are laying over on Xander until they see Quill as they try to capture him. From there, we get the line up info from John C. Reilly’s character in the context that they’re being processed for imprisonment. 

        The dynamics between the characters are spot on since they must sell being a bunch of criminals that are going to attempt to escape. What I like is that Peter is the one to kick off the hasty team up since we see that Drax has a vendetta against Gamora. From there, we see just how they operate as a team, hastily attempting an escape as we see the strengths of the other members. 

        I like how after they escape, the trust within the team is still not there. Throughout the film, they still have the orb, and they want to sell it so they can go their separate ways. Since this is a Marvel film, we must get a little tease of what’s to come with the other Infinity Stones. Benicio del Toro’s character breaks down what they have and how it can be destructive such as laying waste to a planet. 

3. James Gunn

        I think this is practically everyone’s first exposure to James Gunn. Little did I know that my first exposure of him was when he was a screenwriter for the live-action Scooby Doo movies from the 2000s. While those films are aimed towards kids, I have no idea how Warner Bros. would allow his script to make it to screen as the films have small innuendos to sex and weed jokes. 

        From what I gathered; he comes from a relatively small independent film company called Troma Entertainment. Not to elucidate further but those movies are strictly not for the regular joes, but for the weird joes that like weird and messed up stuff. Anyways, while this film has some crude jokes, what he does so well is to sell the heart of the team and when it gets emotional. Like, it must have been a daunting task to write characters with depth that are mostly alien. 

4. Legacy 

        As I mentioned before when talking about The Winter Soldier, 2014 was the year for Marvel. No one had any sensible idea that this film would be successful. Some thought that it would be Marvel’s big flop, considering just how it had a record streak of successful to okay films akin to Pixar Animation before their first flop. Guardians of the Galaxy was its own thing since they mostly adhered to its own thing without being tied to what was happening on Earth. 

        Of course, you had the merchandising that was spawned off and Marvel Comics now giving attention to the team and the individual members. It’s interesting to see the spotlight on an obscure team where they are now given more storylines and much more. Corporate synergy is what was happening since their introduction had an effect within the comics sphere and the theme park sphere. 

        I think with how the movie was introduced with its distinctive style; many others attempted to do the same thing. I think the only film that managed to do it well was Deadpool. While he’s been popular with people wearing his shirts and the internet gravitating towards his comedy. His film felt like the next evolutionary step with being more irreverently violent while also being comedic. 

        I can’t talk about Guardians without discussing the Suicide Squad. This was Warner Bros. attempt to copy what Marvel did with disastrous results. I talked about it enough years ago if you want to check it out. It took the worst way to introduce the characters and practically half-assed the soundtrack’s use in the context of the story. Ironically, they got Gunn to make his own Suicide Squad film. 

5. Overall

        Guardians of the Galaxy is one of the best films for Phase 2 of the MCU. On its own its one of the best comic book films and one of the best films of 2014.