For once, this is an original Marvel movie.
Marvel is rolling in money right now, what with tons of sequels to almost every avengers member, and honestly I've been getting fed up with Marvel and all their sequels. So, it was a really pleasant surprise to see Guardians of the Galaxy.
Most Marvel movies are pretty dark and serious, except for the cheesy line or pun every once in a while to lighten the mood. But Guardians of the Galaxy is different. Almost completely comedy, this is the happiest I've been with a Marvel movie in a long time. Chris Pratt plays Peter Quill (or Star Lord as he calls himself) a kind of self centered, but still loveable and funny hero. Pratt is great in this movie. He does a great job playing "the outsider" if you will. He delivers his lines well and he gives a great performance. He's funny and likable and he isn't perfect. He has flaws and makes mistakes and that's part of why he's such a human and relatable character.
Next I'll talk about Dave Bautista (I'm just going to call him Batista in this review). Batista plays Drax, a prisoner who is out for revenge. You may think "oh great, this character is boring already." But he surprisingly isn't boring. You'd think that with such an overused character he would be cliched and boring but he isn't. I didn't think Batsita would be any good in this movie but I was wrong. He actually has some of the best lines in the movie, especially since for some reason he has a strangely large vocabulary. There's lot's of clever wordplay involving Batista's character and it's really entertaining to watch him and Pratt's character argue and talk about his strange vocabulary. Drax was one of my favorite characters in the movie and Batista did surprisingly well with him.
Zoe Saldana is hot despite being green with marks on her face. Oh and her acting was ok too. 'Nuff said.
Bradley Cooper does the voice of Rocket and I could hardly tell it was him. He does a great job playing the loud mouth little animal with a lot of heart and strength. Rocket is definitely one of the high points of the movie, being cute and yet foul mouthed and brutal, and still a likable character.
Vin Diesel does the voice of Groot, a talking tree that basically just says "I am Groot" throughout the movie. Honestly this is just about the best acting I've seen from Vin Diesel, partly just because he's not mumbling and I can actually understand what he says. Oh, and Groot kicks ass too.
I liked most of the performances in the movie and I mostly liked the movie overall, but I still had some problems with it. One thing is the movie starts off on a really sad note and doesn't pick back up on it until the very end. This was a bit jarring, especially since audiences were expecting a comedy and we see this very very sad scene right at the beginning. It's just a little startling and the transition from that to the peppy and funny opening credits is a little bit off-putting and strange. But the movie soon goes to that funny area you expect it to and everything smooths out. I also felt a few of the jokes fell flat, but I think part of that is because I've seen some of the scenes so many times in the trailers. One other thing. Some parts of the story are kind of cheesy and have that "cliche marvel movie" feeling, but it's best to just laugh at that kind of stuff. I don't think the filmmakers expected you to take all the action scenes completely seriously because in a way the action scenes are a less obvious parody of previous Marvel movies.
Overall, I really enjoyed Guardians of the Galaxy. It's entertaining, funny and it has some great action scenes, without jerking the camera around too much. Special effects are great, characters and acting are great and the story is fun, despite having that typical Marvel cheese factor at times. This is a fun movie. Adults will like it because of the classic 70's and 80's songs that our protagonist plays throughout the movie and because of the sometimes adult humor that may go over some of the kids' heads, and kids will like this movie for everything else. So, if you have nothing else to do this weekend, I suggest you go out and see Guardians of the Galaxy. You'll have a blast.
4.3/5
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