Guardians of the Galaxy Movie Review

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So what makes a good action movie and does Guardians of the Galaxy have the ingredients?

You have action by the loads – check
Funny lines and snappy dialogue – check
Underdogs fighting against overwhelming odds or a very powerful opponent – check
Swashbuckling – check
A little romance, yet it doesn’t overwhelm the plot – check

So you have an ensemble movie, set in space, with a plot not unlike a half dozen others, where a young Terra man gets brought up to be a space scavenger, but really ends up doing incredible things to save the world or in this case, the universe Along the way, he picks up more oddball characters and side kicks plus the inevitable romantic connection, which comes in the form of a green and very feisty Zoe Saldana, who prefers to kick than kiss him. True romance doesn’t run smooth …

The gold standard for the devil may care, swashbuckling, dashing anti-hero is Hans Solo, played to perfection by the young Harrison Ford. Buck Rogers was a distant second, and you need a person who has that effortless ability to carry off this combination well for the movie to hang together. Then the other characters all fit in.
Using Stars Wars as the analogy, you have the Chewbacca in the form of Groot, the Ent-like character who has less lines than old Arnie did in the first terminator, which suits Vin Diesel well..  He plays a tree like creature with interesting powers. He in turn is the trusty companion and side kick of and a talking raccoon, which probably has the highest IQ of the group. There is also a vengeance element, played by a very menacing, and muscular ex MMA sort, that likes to take things literally and call Zoe the ‘whore’..
The feisty Princess type comes in the form of Zoe, and we also the powerful Darth Vader villain sort, which is well fleshed out by the Accuser. This Accuser, is one mean guy with lots of power, an ego to match who is bent on doom and destruction.

So technically it should succeed and bring it the crowds. It does succeed to a certain extent, and it’s funny, action packed but…

So what’s the BUT…

Chris Pratt tries his best to strut, talk and fight his way to stardom- literally, but he is not Hans Solo, and somehow I feel I have seen or heard parts of the movie elsewhere before. Even so, it’s still a very enjoyable 2 hour distraction, with plenty of funny scenes, and action to keep us distracted, but it won’t make it into the same revered category as Star Wars or Indiana Jones, two movies it borrows heavily from. Neither will it have the nostalgia of The Last Starfighter, as most viewers will not have read the comic. However to be honest I am glad the plot moves along well, with good pacing and chemistry between the actors, and more importantly you don’t need to have done homework and read the comic to follow the plot.

For me, the highlight was the accompanying music, and the first scene when we first encounter the adult Starlord, and the music he plays as he recovers the Orb. I for one, will be buying the soundtrack first, and possible the BR disc, especially since this movie was processed in Dolby Atmos.


The movie is recommended and I look forward to the disc too.

Story 3/5
Action 4/5
Chicks who look good – ok ok

Watch it and buy the BR disc for the surround.
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 I have no financial interest or other interests in any of the items / events I write about.

Comments

  1. Unknown5 May 2015 at 00:12

    It’s entertaining, funny, and has the best music ever. Even though it wasn’t shot in native 3d, the post 3d is very well done and worth it.

    ReplyDelete

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