Movie Review: Guardians of the Galaxy

Be prepared to be high on believin' because Guardians exceeds the hype
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What can be said about Guardians of the Galaxy?

When the original trailer was released, it basically summed up most of our reactions:

'Who?'

But after Marvels most obscure film to date, and possibly one of their most obscure super hero teams to ever hit mainstream media everyone will know who the Guardians of the Galaxy are.

And for good reason! This movie was absolutely amazing. It was everything I wanted it to be and so much more.


The basic synopsis of the movie is thus:

A group of misfits come across a powerful artifact and must protect it from falling into the hands of a genocidal fanatic. What follows is an adventure of intergalactic proportions complete with deep, lovable characters, a humorous yet powerful story, special effects that will blow your eyes as well as your mind, and a soundtrack so awesome that the songs will ring in your head for hours to come.

Guardians of the Galaxy is quite possibly Marvel's greatest film to date, surpassing Captain America 2: The Winter Soldier and The Avengers. It has everything you'd expect to be in a super hero movie, but I feel like Marvel really nailed their formula down perfectly this time. The origins of each character are told quickly but with detail, allowing you to get to know the character instantly without too much exposition or (god forbid) flashbacks everywhere. You quickly come to know Star-Lord (Chris Pratt) as a wise cracking, womanizing, head-up his ass rogue. You get to know Rocket as a fearless, loyal, tragic bounty hunter. You get to know Gamora as a skilled, intelligent assassins who is just as lonely as she is deadly. It goes on.

What I love the most about the movie besides it's stellar set  pieces is how well the characters are portrayed. Each one feels unique and each one will have their moments in the spotlight, never once hogging it for too long (I'm looking at you Iron Man in Avengers). For a super hero team up movie, not once did it feel like there was a severe imbalance in terms of character screen time. In most cases you'll see each guardian on screen with the rest of the team or with other guardians. It's done so well that I get excited just thinking about it.

Now, I've mentioned the set pieces and boy do they deliver. Epic space sequences with eye popping color along with clean, futuristic cities all the way down to grungy ship interiors and dark, oppressive villain lairs. It has everything that would make both comic fan and movie goer cry tears of joy. Marvel truly brought their cinematic universe to the stars, ensuring that the ever vast vacuum of space was populated and filled with history so that the viewer can truly believe that these places exist.

Now I've mentioned the special effects and my god are they amazing. Besides the set pieces, we're treated to detailed action sequences with hundreds of ships on screen at one time. We're given awesome choreographed fight scenes with particle effects flying all over the place. We're given an incredibly detailed Groot who's stretching, growing, and slamming his way into our hearts. You can tell that a majority of Marvels budget for Guardians went entirely into the CGI and boy did it ever pay off. It was definitely a treat to see this movie in Imax.

However, what gets me the most excited is how this film links itself to the rest of the Marvel cinematic universe in that the Infinity Stones and Thanos have finally been given a bit of exposition. Josh Brolins portrayal of Thanos was perfect even though he's not in the film for too long. It makes me excited to see how the future of the Marvel films will handle this particular bad guy because hoo boy does he ever cause trouble.

That was more of a personal observation and a personal pleasure, but there's no doubt that fans of the Marvel films should share my excitement. Guardians has truly shown that Marvel are in full control of their intellectual properties and that they know exactly how to treat them despite how obscure they may be. It makes me have absolute faith in their future project for Phase 3 such as Antman and Doctor Strange. Guardians of the Galaxy is not only the greatest Marvel film to date, but perhaps the most important, right next to The Avengers.

You don't have to be a fan of comics or movies to enjoy Guardians, there's something in it for everybody. Mind blowing action, heartfelt story telling, goofy tongue in cheeck comedy, there's absolutely no reason for you to miss out on Guardians of the Galaxy.

5/5