Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy is the tenth film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and probably the biggest risk Marvel ever took. Based on the Comic book of the same name, nobody really knew anything about this property. So, did Marvel succeed in making a successful movie about unknown characters?
As someone who had never heard of any of these characters, I’m happy to say that Guardians of the Galaxy is one of Marvel’s best movies ever!
The plot is very simple, all the Guardians and the bad guys are looking for this Orb with a power to destroy entire civilizations. Even with such a simple plot, everything just worked in this movie, so let’s start with the cast. The five main Guardians, Star Lord, Gamora, Drax, Groot, and Rocket were amazing fleshed out characters, each with their own motivation. You understand their actions, and where fully behind them. Chris Pratt as Star Lord has so much charisma, you just can’t dislike this guy, he gets the most character development, and is one of my favorite Marvel heroes now. And I have to talk about the two CGI characters, Groot & Rocket Raccoon. Both of them came to life thanks to their amazing voice actors: Vin Diesel & Bradley Cooper. You look past the CGI, and see two amazing characters, both funny, and heartwarming.
The movie isn’t just acted well. It also looks amazing! This really is a mix of Star Trek meets Star Wars in the best possible way. The space battles, the scenery, the comedy, the planets and environments, this was a great looking movie, and just a feel good movie. Last but not least, this movie benefits from it’s amazing 70’s soundtrack. With hits like Come and Get Your Love, Ain’t No Mountain High Enough, and Hooked on a Feeling, this is one soundtrack you can’t get out of your head!
Unfortunately, as with a lot of Marvel Movies (except Loki) the villain was underdeveloped and pretty uninteresting. Ronan the Accuser had some cool scenes sure, but all in all, he didn’t do that much. His motivations are just typical bad guy nonsense, like revenge and power thanks to the Orb. It would have been better if the villain had better motivations, something different than these clichéd bad guys, or was just as funny and comedy centered as the rest of the movie. I like great villains just as much as everybody else, but I didn’t really care that the villain wasn’t that well developed in this movie, to me this is a great example of a heroes only movie and to me it worked. But I do want a better villain for Guardians 2!
There are also some moments in this movie that sort of work, but also sort of don’t work. For example, a dance off ‘distraction’ in the films climax. First it was pretty funny actually, but if you think about it afterwards it was also kind of stupid. Moments like that are in this movie, and you have to decide for yourself if you like or dislike those moments.
Guardians of the Galaxy is one of Marvel’s biggest surprises, and its currently in my top three Marvel Studios movies. If you’re a fan of Sci-Fi, Comedy, Action, or just a fun time, I can’t recommend this movie enough. Guardians of the Galaxy succeeded in one great thing, and that was having a blast!
Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy gets a 9/10.