Guardians of the Galaxy (Review)

I know it’s coming a little late, but I figured it was time for me to write up my review of Marvel Studio’s Guardians of the Galaxy starring Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana, David Batista and the voices of Vin Diesel and Bradley Cooper.

Overall, I would say that the movie was completely enjoyable. The story was intriguing, the dialogue was hilarious, and Chris Pratt’s portrayal of Star-Lord was spot on. Marvel went the direction that was really necessary with a movie like this one. James Gunn made sure that the film itself embraced the silliness of the premise, pushing the witty banter and consistently funny interactions between the many characters that appear on screen. After all, the team of main characters include a loquacious rodent and a vocabulary-stunted, talking tree. For the film to go any direction but silly and fun would have ended rather badly.

However, I don’t think the film was all good. There were a couple of rather glaring problems that were further highlighted by the film’s complete dedication to silliness. First, the characters that make up the main team do not get the development that is rightly deserved. Comic book fans would get some of the background, but the majority of audiences that saw the movie were not familiar with the comics. As is normally the case. We get a 30 second introduction to Gamora, which also serves as the introduction to Ronan. A main character and the primary villain in 30 seconds? Much to quick Mr. Gunn. Furthermore, there is a lack of explanation on Drax and his back story, which is so great and heartbreaking and phenomenal that it deserved some exploration. It seems to me that these moments of character development that could have made the characters and premise more real and relatable often take the backseat to that witty banter and funny dialogue that dominated the film.

Finally, on a related note, in the same way that the character development suffers at the hands of the humor, so too does the plot of the film. There is a great plot that that we understand, but only to the point that we must. There is a lack of exploration in the characters, thus a lack of exploration in the plot itself. Stripping the movie of some of those one-liners might have freed up space for some of this exploration.

Not that I didn’t like the humor. I did. I laughed. But there seems to be something missing from the overall experience of this film.

I would still suggest that everyone go see it, and enjoy it. After all, it is fun and enjoyable, all the same.

I give this movie a 4/5. Still a must-see.