Where no Marvel film has gone before

‘Guardians of the Galaxy’ review

By Jony Roy, Social Media Coordinator

4/5

Since seeing the Guardians of the Galaxy teaser trailer earlier this year, I’ve been excited for the film—and I wasn’t disappointed after seeing the real thing. While the latest instalment in the Marvel Cinematic Universe draws from a much more obscure branch of their source material, it brings something fresh and new to the table.

Marvel Studio’s 10th instalment follows Peter Quill a.k.a. Star-Lord (Chris Pratt), a thief who was taken from Earth as a child and brought up by mercenaries. Through a series of events including a very entertaining prison break, Peter and a group of outlaws join forces. They end up trying to stop Ronan, a terrorist who’s looking to use an object referred to as “the orb” to destroy civilizations.

Pratt does a great job bringing both emotional depth and humour to the film. The rest of the cast is filled with memorable characters such as Gamora (Zoë Saldana), a formidable assassin with a great backstory; Drax (Dave Bautista), a maniac who doesn’t understand any of Peter’s metaphors; and Groot (Vin Diesel), a walking tree who is insanely cute but has no trouble killing tons of bad guys. However, Rocket (Bradley Cooper) is the one who steals the show by not only being a talking raccoon with a gun, but also a mechanical genius with a ton of personality.

From the awesome ‘70s and ‘80s soundtrack featuring songs like “Hooked on a Feeling” by Blue Swede, to the vivid use of colour and CGI, to the whacky set and character designs, it’s clear that Marvel is giving us something different than what we’re used to. We’re no longer dealing with superheroes like Captain America or Iron Man—instead we’re dealing with a group of outlaws who aren’t even saving Earth. What’s also different is that this movie doesn’t take your hand and try to explain sci-fi elements or backstories, instead it leaves you to interpret all that for yourself.

Marvel is known for a great use of both drama and humour in their movies, and this film is no exception. However, it seems to flip between the two at a much faster rate than before. The humour is also a lot more dominant. This makes the film much more entertaining at points, but also sometimes makes it feel a little goofier and less believable than other instalments in this cinematic universe.

While this movie stands out in many respects, the plot can be generic at times. The main baddie of the film, Ronan, is one of those characters who finds a powerful McGuffin and plans to do evil things with it. While I’d say the character is more interesting than Malekith was in Thor: The Dark World, he definitely could have been more fleshed out. It also doesn’t help that another villain with much larger implications for the Marvel Cinematic Universe (a future Avengers film perhaps?) makes an appearance early on in the film.

While Guardians of the Galaxy definitely isn’t perfect, director James Gunn makes up for it in personality. Marvel is giving us something refreshing that doesn’t take itself too seriously and I think that’s exactly what the Marvel universe needs right now.

I definitely recommend you go watch this film in theatres, and make sure to stay for the post-credits scene for a few more laughs!