★★★1/2
The Marvel Universes’ newest blockbuster to be, “Guardians
of the Galaxy,” directed and co-written by James Gunn, starts firing on all
cylinders right off the bat. Not a shoot ‘em up, blow ‘em up adrenaline junkie
rush, rather an emotional rush—foreshadowing events for later in the film.
However, from that moment on, the movie is hilarious, pretty much a non-stop
adrenaline rush til the final credits. I laughed wholeheartedly and am planning
on a return visit to the theater to see it one more time within the week.
Peter Quill (Chris Pratt…and Wyatt Oleff in the beginning
sequence) is a young boy of the 80’s in the throws of personal agony. His
mother is dying of cancer, and the only way he knows how to cope is to lose
himself in the world of “awesome mix”-tapes from his mother. On her deathbed,
she gives him one last gift (which he refuses to open) and wants to hold his
hand to say good-bye. Rather than take her hand, he cannot cope with the pain
and loss of both of his parents, so runs away. Not only runs away, but is
abducted by a traveling group of mercenary-thieves led by Yondu (Michael
Rooker). [Yes…All of this within the first 10 minutes of the film.]
Flash-forward to today, and we see a very tech-savvy Peter
in the midst of acting out a sequence much like an Indiana Jones film, but
with a lot more galactic gadgetry. He steals a silver orb from a dead planet,
and just as he is about to leave, is confronted by Korath (Djimon Hounsou) and
emissary of Ronan The Accuser (Lee Pace) who desires the orb for himself as a means of
taking over the galaxy and destroying anything that may get in his path. No
plot spoilers here…
Peter barely gets off the dead planet, and makes his way to
Xandar to trade his trinket [no we still don’t know what this REALLY is] for
cash (units) when he is confronted by a lethal, green beauty, Gamora (Zoe Saldona) who
also wants the orb for her own nefarious purposes—and 4 billion units. As she
attempts to take the orb, Peter and she are confronted by Rocket (voiced by
Bradley Cooper) and Groot (Voiced by Vin Diesel) who want to abduct Peter and
turn him into Yondu for 40 thousand units. Much shenanigans ensue and the lot
finds themselves in prison. And it is here we are finally introduced to the last Guardian, Drax (Dave Bautista), who desires to kill Gamora since she works
for the psychotic Kree, Ronan, who is in cahoots with Thanos (Josh Brolin), to
destroy the universe.
No more plot lines….now let’s get down to brass tacks. The
plot I have summarized for you is only about 12% of what occurs within the film. If you think
this is insane, just watch. While overly convoluted, the screenplay never seems to lose itself and all of the main points are well addressed and answered by the end of
the film—yet, a few new caveats are well planted to lead us into the sequel.
Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana, Dave Bautista and Bradley Cooper are a great team. They work so well together, and get so into character, they you almost completely forget who they are as individuals. I think that Chris' ability to infect every line he delivers with a great amount of facial sarcasm and joy is what truly sells the film. Between his facial expressions and Bradley Coopers quick-tongued barbs, there is not a scene of the film where I wasn't laughing, crying, or both.
The entire plot, while loosely based off of the Marvel stories by Dan Abnett and Andy Landing, is a completely new twist on who each of these characters are and from whence they came. The writing team of James Gunn (Scooby-Doo, Super) and Nicole Perlman have re-envisioned the entire Guardians universe so that they have complete freedom to inline the script with the other Marvel movies already completed and in the pipeline. And while they do try to remain true to a few points of the comics, the entire Star Lord premise for this film is given a new evolution.
The editing team of Hughes Winborne, Fred Raskin and Craig Wood was amazing. The movie seemed to flow seamlessly through each sequence--even with all of the green screen. Additionally, I LOVE the soundtrack. The music is almost a 6th main character...it makes the movie what it is. A film that does not take itself seriously (much like the Guardians themselves), and yet...works! As I stated at the beginning, this will be another summer blockbuster for the Marvel Universe. Go...Have Fun...Laugh hard. AND remain through BOTH of the credit Easter Egg sequences...
No comments:
Post a Comment