GOTG Review

Guardians of the Galaxy Review:

Rise of The Guardians

BY IAN TAN

The moment Guardians of the Galaxy was announced by Marvel to be turned into a feature film, audiences were puzzled. Why would Marvel venture into something so vastly different from their previous works? Even Stan Lee thought it was a risky move to have the film be made. Now that the film is out, however, all these worries and concerns regarding the movie can finally be put to rest, because Guardians of the Galaxy is the best Marvel film to date. Well, in my opinion at least.

The film opens in 70s era Earth, in which we meet Peter Quil (“Who?”) also known as Star-Lord. Flash-forward 20 years later and we see him searching after a McGuffin* known as the “Orb”. This orb however, is quite the celebrity as pretty much everyone in the galaxy is after it. Soon enough, we are introduced to our anti-heroes Gamora, Rocket, Drax The Destroyer and Groot (a.k.a. Vin Diesel the tree) who – due to a common objective of keeping the orb away from evil forces’ control – join forces to become what is arguably the most dysfunctional band of misfits-turned-heroes ever put to screen. Much of the banter and arguments that stem from this make for some of the film’s funniest moments, making Guardians easily the funniest Marvel film so far. That’s right; it’s even funnier than The Avengers was.

The performances here are great. Everyone from Chris Pratt to Zoe Saldana to Bradley Cooper voicing a raccoon are great additions to the Marvel superhero roster and make for memorable and likable characters all round. Also, Guardians makes great use of every single character in the team without leaving any characters feeling underused (Hawkeye in The Avengers) or have the movie feel bombarded with an over-abundance of characters and motivations (everyone in The Amazing Spiderman 2).

From a story standpoint, the movie doesn’t really offer anything really new or enticing for a film of this genre. A simple summary of the story, without spoiling anything, would sound like this: Good guy finds thinga-majiggy that so happens to be the most powerful thing in the universe > Bad guys get hold of it and want to destroy the universe because revenge is everything > group of heroes must unite to defeat villain and his plans. Nothing super original. Fortunately though, director and screenwriter James Gunn takes all these familiar story tropes and makes each of them engaging and tremendously fun due to his sporadically funny script and well fleshed out characters.

Visually, Guardians of the Galaxy is stunning. Space vistas, planetary locales and spaceship designs are all intricately and beautifully designed. I’d even go as far as to say that the use of space and the galaxy as a setting in this film rivals even Star Wars, and gave me a good dose of science-fiction fantasy nostalgia. Music lovers of the 70’s will also be pleased as Guardians features a number of popular tunes from that era sprinkled throughout it. As the film is very “space-y” in nature, an IMAX viewing definitely helps encapsulate audiences in the splendidly colourful and spectacular world of space James Gunn and the filmmakers have created. This movie makes the best use of the IMAX canvas more so than any other IMAX release I have seen all year. This one is really worth your extra couple of bucks.

With an enormously likable cast of heroes, brilliant production design and an amazing sense of summer blockbuster fun and escapism, Guardians of the Galaxy fires on all cylinders (save some minor nit-picks like some forced expositional dialogue) and ranks as my favourite summer movie of the year, beating Dawn of the Planet of The Apes. I’m not saying that the latter pales in comparison, it’s just that Guardians of the Galaxy reminded me of the same sense of joy and cinematic wonder I had as a kid watching sci-fi fantasy films like Treasure Planet and Star Wars. Films like these are the reason why we go to the theatre – to escape reality and be enveloped in a world so different, and far more wondrous than our own. From the very first shot to the last, Guardians of the Galaxy put a big smile on my face and has been the most fun experience I have had in a theatre in a long while.

Guardians of the Galaxy is 2014’s definitive summer blockbuster and I could not recommend you more to see it.

 Final Rating
Guardians of the Galaxy gets 9 stars out of 10 - Pretty damn amazing.

*A McGuffin is a plot device/object used in films in which the plot revolves around said object to achieve a certain goal or target.

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