"Guardians of the Galaxy" Review

• Release date: August 1st 2014 (U.S.)
• Director: James Gunn
• Writers: James Gunn, Nicole Perlman
• Editors: Craig Wood, Fred Raskin, Hughes Winborne
• Score Composer:  Tyler Bates
• Cinematographer:  Ben Davis
• Budget: $170 million
• Domestic gross: $160 million and counting
• Material: Digital
• Aspect ratio: 2.35 : 1
• Running time: 122 minutes
• Current Tomato Meter: 92%

           Comic book movies are here to stay.  It has now been over a decade since Hollywood began pumping out films based on graphic novels which managed to please both audiences and critics regularly.  The quality is often as high as the budget, and with the help of an enthusiastic foreign patronage, the dollars return in quantities higher than those sent off to die in the film production war.  Fine by me.  I like these movies almost as often as the majority of attendees (X-men: Days of Future Past being part of that “almost” factor), and I am always up for another science fiction movie.  Regardless of the source material, or the sub-genre title given to this particular group of films, every one fits the term sci-fi just fine.  The interstellar vessels explode, the laser guns blast, the anthropomorphic raccoon has a traumatic existential crisis.  When I want an action/adventure delivery system, a movie with that kind of stuff is my preferred mode of transport, and Guardians of the Galaxy is just as good a method as any to get it to me.

            Peter Quill (Chris Pratt) is out to find a mysterious orb which holds something everyone in the universe needs at any cost.  Having no desire to learn its secrets, he absconds with it, now a fugitive from the law, and from his former partners in crime.  During his attempt to sell the orb, he attracts the attention of above-mentioned raccoon, Rocket (Bradley Cooper), Gamora (Zoe Saldana), Drax (Dave Bautista), humanoid/possibly feeble giant tree, Groot (Vin Diesel) and far more threatening bad guys, Ronan the Accuser, and Thanos.  As the anti-heroes slowly realize they are more effective in profiting from the orb’s sale by teaming up, they make their way to another planet, and another… and back again… whatever.

            The story happens, but what keeps us interested is learning the sad, funny, or honorable histories lurking beneath what could be considered archetypical characters.  The whole thing gradually increases in humor, excitement, and visual splendor as it goes along, but for nearly the first quarter of the running time, I was wondering what all the fuss was about.  Most of the jokes fall flat, the writing seems to miss a lot of opportunities, and the action sequences don’t pay off.  When you show up to a movie expecting, if absolutely NOTHING else, to be entertained, all of my $10.50 (and that is cheap compared to coastal cities) better be spent on a two hour long fun-splotion.  Still, I have to admit, by the end of the movie, I could hardly remember a moment that didn’t work.  This one, here… is a genuine summer movie experience.

            Looking perfectly cartoonish in his starring role, TV funnyman, Pratt, surprisingly seems to sit back and let the rest of the cast take the big laughs.  The biggest shock in the bunch is Dave Bautista, the latest pro-wrestler to take a shot at movie stardom plays one of my most favorite characters this year.  Much like Worf, from Star Trek, or Ka D’argo from Farscape, he is the kind of naturally funny warrior whose masculinity is perfectly balanced by a scewed sense of honor and dutiful respect for his allies.  He is a joy to watch, as are the two all-computer-generated fighters, Rocket and Groot, and every image on the screen, from character, to set designs is astonishing. 

            I have not seen a movie look this good, with a fictional world this feverishly detailed and realized, since The Empire Strikes Back.  Writer/director, James Gunn, is brave enough not to choose convenience at every turn in creating this universe.  Many alien figures have been crafted using make-up over the skin of live performers, rather than doctored later by effects teams sitting at computers.  90% of the time, you are looking at the real thing, and it makes an immense difference.  Not to sell the value of CGI short, every task designated to those computer-sitters has been fulfilled in its most beautifully realistic execution.  It may not be the most fun you ever had at the theater, but plenty of care has been taken with this clever piece of work.  I doubt you will be asking for an end to the comic book adaptation trend by the time the credits role.