Guardians Of The Galaxy Movie Review

Director James Gunn delivers a nice mixture of comedy and action with Marvel Studio’s latest film, Guardians of the Galaxy, and delivers some amazing CGI effects with Rocket Raccoon voiced by Bradley Cooper and Groot voiced by Vin Diesel.

The story is fairly generic as roguish Chris Pratt who plays lead character Peter Quill, who you ask? Star-Lord man. After a brief flashback scene showing how Quill ends up in space, the movie begins with him trying to obtain a mysterious orb only to find he isn’t the only one wanting to get his hands on the item. Soon his path crosses with Gamora (Zoe Saldana), a deadly but honorable assassin; bounty hunter Rocket who provides most the comic relief in the film; and Rocket’s simple sidekick Groot whose single line in the movie is “I am Groot". Entire conversations are included in that single phrase. Rocket and Groot want to claim the bounty on Quill’s head while Gamora is interested in retrieving the orb. Much fighting ensues before all four are arrested and sent to a prison asteroid where they encounter the final member of the team, Drax (Dave Batista) a muscle-bound psychotic seeking to avenge his family by killing Ronan (Lee Pace), the film’s main bad guy. Nothing says teamwork like a prison break, and the group sets out to save the galaxy albeit begrudgingly.

I have never been a huge fan of this incarnation of the Guardians of the Galaxy in the comics, and I can’t honestly say I felt terribly invested in these characters in movie form either. I did find myself laughing more than once through the movie, and the action and special effects keep the pace of the movie going so you don’t get bored. Some key plot points are dropped throughout the movie that I imagine will end up having a greater impact on the Marvel Cinematic Universe down the line (think Avengers 3). So even if you aren’t familiar or interested in these characters, there are other incentives to check this movie out if you are a fan of the overall Marvel Movie picture.

It should be noted that there is an after-credits scene like with most Marvel movies. However it was withheld from all the pre-screenings of the movie, so I can’t tell you how much of an impact it will have with Marvel movies going forward. I would definitely recommend staying until the very end to find out for yourself. Marvel has already announced a Guardians sequel for 2017 and a new animated series, so they must feel pretty confident in these guys and how this movie will do. Of course, they’ve left a few mysteries about these characters unresolved to leave you wondering until the next one.

Grade: B+