In which I revisit a previously explored topic with fresh eyes and an open mind.
On what is already the worst day of his young life – when his frail,
sickly mother dies after a protracted
battle with cancer – young Peter Quill is
abducted by alien mercenaries lead by the
coldly sentimental
Yondu. But rather than being turned over to
the man who hired them to abduct him in the first place
(option #1) or eating
him (option #2), they adopt him and train him in the life of ravaging: thieving
for
hire.
Twenty-six years later, Peter – who now goes by the moniker “Star
Lord” – is entrusted with retrieving a mysterious orb from a dead planet
for a high-end merchant, which he immediately tries to sell by himself.
Outraged, Yondu puts a price on Quill’s head, which bounty hunters Rocket
(an anthropomorphic raccoon) and Groot (a sapient tree) aim to collect.
Meanwhile, the green-skinned Gamora (daughter of the meta-antagonist
Thanos) seeks to steal the orb for herself, causing all four of them to be
imprisoned with Drax the Destroyer (a gray-skinned brawler whose family was
murdered by Ronan the Accuser, Gamora’s boss).
Their plan is simple: team up, sell the orb, split the cash and go their separate ways. But when
they
discover what the orb really is – one of the fabled infinity stones forged
in the crucible of the Big Bang
– they realize that must safeguard it from
Yondu, Ronan and Thanos, or risk the destruction of the
entire Galaxy.
Guardians of the Galaxy‘s success is just as
perplexing as it is estimable. Before the film’s release, the comic that
it’s based on was an obscurity among even hard-core Marvel fans.
Despite Marvel’s galactic stories being richly populated, the
“Cosmic Avengers'” inherent disconnect from their terrestrial-based
compatriots left them without the same built-in fan base that
IronMan and
The Incredible Hulk brought with them to theaters. Star Lord
simply lacked the inherent brand recognition of
Captain America.
But despite being unashamedly steeped in enigmatic obscurities, the
glib characters, operatic setting and slick narrative are
immediately familiar to audiences that grew up with
Star Wars,
Star Trek and
Firefly. Despite being a genetically modified
raccoon and his “personal houseplant / muscle,” Rocket and Groot are
immediately recognizable as this film’s Han and Chewie.
Star Lord plays out like an immature take on Malcolm Reynolds, while
Gamora is like a rough amalgamation of Jayne and River Tam. Even Drax
embodies the
“one man armies” that defined action films in the 1980s.
Despite their impossibly tangled and storied pasts, each character fits
into a very specific genre archetype, which the film’s own marketing was quick
to highlight: “a thief, two thugs, an assassin and a maniac.”
The film likewise highlights Marvel’s uncanny knack for choosing the
right talent for the tasks that
they need to
complete, even when contrary to precedent and even logic. The film is
helmed by James
Gunn, whose biggest accomplishments to date were penning the
two live-action Scooby-Doo movies
and directing the moderately well-received Slither. While he had
briefly touched on science fiction
films in his career, it was nothing even
remotely analogous to the scope and depth of this obscure
little
franchise that could.
They chose the fat guy from
Parks and Recreations to headline the film, Vin Diesel to
voice a space age Ent who can only say “I” and “am” and “Groot” (and only in
that exact order) and Bradley Cooper – one of the most recognizable actors
working today – as the voice of a CG raccoon. The casting choice that
should have failed most spectacularly is Dave Bautista, given the fate of other
wrestlers-cum-actors before him.
But, as always seems to be the case with Marvel, every decision that they
made, no matter how questionable, turned out to be the correct one. James
Gunn has proven to be an incredibly talented writer-director who is able to
perfectly blend action and comedy with subtle hints of drama. The entire
cast, down to genre favorites Zoe Saldana and Karen Gillan, perfectly embody
the characters that they portray.
Even Vin Diesel, with only three (and, later, five) words at his
disposal, is able to uniquely intone each one to convey his intended
meaning. This inexplicably functional film was able to turn “we are
Groot” into the transcendent message of an otherwise tongue-and-cheek action
/sci-fi film and made a simple-minded brawler petting a grieving raccoon into
the most touching scene from any film this
year.
That being said, Guardians of the Galaxy is not without its flaws.
Despite its sizable run-time (clocking in at just over two hours), the
film felt occasionally rushed between action scenes. In particular, the
non-combat scenes in Knowhere felt like they could have used some additional
time to breathe and develop. We see Rocket and Drax’s drunken
confrontation, and the dramatic rant that follows, but not the build-up to it.
Rocket makes such a big deal about being called a rodent (or, conversely,
vermin) that I would have liked to see the one time that it causes him to snap
in-camera, not as a cut-away from Quill putting the moves on Gamora.
The climactic showdown between Ronan and the Guardians was
unnecessarily set-up by The Collector
in his drawn-out exposition about the
Infinity Stones. While the scene was certainly necessary for both
this
film’s and Infinity Wars Part 1 and Part 2‘s plots, it over-explained the hands-holding
climax that
would have been fine on its own.
Similarly, the ending – where (spoiler alert) Star Lord turned out to only be
half-human, whose alien physiology innately allowed him to resist the Stone’s
destructive influence long enough to allow him to defeat Ronan – was a shade
too Dues Ex Machina for my tastes. I understand that it’s something that
originates from the comics and will invariably come into play in Guardians of the Galaxy sequels, but it simply did not work
for this particular film, at least in the way that it was presented as an
after-the-fact explanation as things were wrapping up.
While neither my favorite film of the year nor even my favorite
Marvel film of the year (both honors are currently held by
Captain America: The Winter Soldier),
Guardians of the Galaxy is certainly the most memorable film
to come out in 2014. It’s an exquisite action / sci-fi film that
everybody can enjoy, even those who are adamantly set against comic book and
superhero-based films.
Rating: 9/10
Buy on BluRay: Yes
So which was your favorite Guardian of the Galaxy? Share your thoughts in the comment section below.
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