A lot of this is taken from excerpts of a conversation I had with a friend nearly immediately post Guardians of the Galaxy movie, which mostly sums up a lot of feelings I have towards it.
Guardians (which is definitely in reference to Marvel's latest Guardians of the Galaxy NOT Rise of the Guardians) was certainly an entertaining movie, albeit at moments cheesy and a little gimmicky and very much written for the inner immature Peter Quill in all of us, but it did come out with some nice surprises that I wasn't expecting at all.
My biggest surprise came from the voice cast. Both Bradley Cooper and Vin Diesel exceeded expectations but it was Cooper who blew me away the most. Rocket wasn't even a favourite GOTG character for me, yet I held him to the highest of standards and didn't expect Cooper to nail the Rocket I know. I went in believing that I'd be plagued with images of Bradley Cooper's face every time I heard his voice but that happened exactly zero times. I heard and saw Rocket throughout 100% of the movie and I am incredibly impressed. Rocket ended up being my second favourite character, right after Groot (who also happened to be voiced by an interesting cast choice that took what seemed like a silly role and actually turned it into everyone's favourite character). But not just Vin Diesel gets credit for everyone's Groot love, the animation behind Groot is simply astounding.
The only reason Guardians isn't listed as a top Marvel movie for me is because it didn't make me cry as much as some of the other Marvel movies (read: either Captain America movies). But whatever magic they put in Groot had me sobbing like a baby. Groot is a great example of something powerful that Guardians managed to achieve with its story telling. Everyone watched nearly the same movie and gave the same reaction at every given moment. Honestly I've only ever seen that much audience involvement while watching a movie one other time. People were out of their seats laughing, and I for once wasn't the only one reacting in a more vocal manner.
Funny is where this movie shines, definitely, with it's leading man being Chris Pratt, I can't see this movie being anything but, I had a few qualms about a couple jokes, there are a few moments where the line gets drawn incredibly close to being sexist, something I don't want to let Marvel get too close to, lest they think they can start getting away with it. But for the most part I was laughing and smiling for nearly the full two hours. Which racks up to being a good movie that was definitely worth my money.
Money that was incredibly well spent on music licensing, special effects, and costuming. It's not just the story and the actors that can make or break a movie, it's every other aspect of it as well which Guardians excelled at. Based on the trailers I thought the soundtrack and music was going to be a little bit gimmicky but it actually turned out to be my favourite part because it worked out so well. I thought my favourite aspect about the movie was going to be the special effects, but the music ended up winning out with the special effects coming into a close second, because as someone who is perpetually afraid of space, space has never looked so beautiful and colourful and fun before. It truly encompasses the space that Peter Quill himself had fallen in love with, why he chooses to be in space as opposed to home on Earth. Sure he has some sentimental value for it, but SPACE. Then thirdly, my favourite, non plot element of the movie were the costumes. I thought I might rag on them from being different than their source material, but everything worked out so well. The red outfits, heck, even the prision outfits looked rocking. Mad props to the costuming department.
The plot was pretty decent. It sets up all the characters neatly so non-Marvel fans have a good footing at what's happening. I think it might be easy to get lost in some of the universe jargon though-- a friend of mine mixes up her Krees and her Skrulls, but that's usually the case with sci-fi. All the characters are extremely charismatic and surprisingly, everyone can walk out with a different favourite, because they're all sort of accessible with their outcast behavior just hoping to fit in. I think it's a little misleading on whether there's a romantic subplot or not, even at this point I'm not entirely sure what they want either and they're testing the waters so Guardians 2 can go either way. But since it's not explicit, I'll take it. What was extremely nice was to see it include moments of the MCU that fans have seen before, now expanded, after waiting multiple movies to see more. Explanations of the Infinity Stones (which was my favourite part plot wise) and seeing more of Thanos was positively exhilarating.
Overall the best way I can sum up Guardians of the Galaxy, is entertaining. It's fun and great for laughs. It's not as emotionally challenging as some other Marvel movies and there might be a couple cheap shots to garner a laugh, but not for one moment during it's 121 minute run does it ever lose its audience's attention and people will be quoting the film for months to come.
If only the post credits scene could carry that same euphoria and momentum.
Guardians (which is definitely in reference to Marvel's latest Guardians of the Galaxy NOT Rise of the Guardians) was certainly an entertaining movie, albeit at moments cheesy and a little gimmicky and very much written for the inner immature Peter Quill in all of us, but it did come out with some nice surprises that I wasn't expecting at all.
My biggest surprise came from the voice cast. Both Bradley Cooper and Vin Diesel exceeded expectations but it was Cooper who blew me away the most. Rocket wasn't even a favourite GOTG character for me, yet I held him to the highest of standards and didn't expect Cooper to nail the Rocket I know. I went in believing that I'd be plagued with images of Bradley Cooper's face every time I heard his voice but that happened exactly zero times. I heard and saw Rocket throughout 100% of the movie and I am incredibly impressed. Rocket ended up being my second favourite character, right after Groot (who also happened to be voiced by an interesting cast choice that took what seemed like a silly role and actually turned it into everyone's favourite character). But not just Vin Diesel gets credit for everyone's Groot love, the animation behind Groot is simply astounding.
The only reason Guardians isn't listed as a top Marvel movie for me is because it didn't make me cry as much as some of the other Marvel movies (read: either Captain America movies). But whatever magic they put in Groot had me sobbing like a baby. Groot is a great example of something powerful that Guardians managed to achieve with its story telling. Everyone watched nearly the same movie and gave the same reaction at every given moment. Honestly I've only ever seen that much audience involvement while watching a movie one other time. People were out of their seats laughing, and I for once wasn't the only one reacting in a more vocal manner.
Funny is where this movie shines, definitely, with it's leading man being Chris Pratt, I can't see this movie being anything but, I had a few qualms about a couple jokes, there are a few moments where the line gets drawn incredibly close to being sexist, something I don't want to let Marvel get too close to, lest they think they can start getting away with it. But for the most part I was laughing and smiling for nearly the full two hours. Which racks up to being a good movie that was definitely worth my money.
Money that was incredibly well spent on music licensing, special effects, and costuming. It's not just the story and the actors that can make or break a movie, it's every other aspect of it as well which Guardians excelled at. Based on the trailers I thought the soundtrack and music was going to be a little bit gimmicky but it actually turned out to be my favourite part because it worked out so well. I thought my favourite aspect about the movie was going to be the special effects, but the music ended up winning out with the special effects coming into a close second, because as someone who is perpetually afraid of space, space has never looked so beautiful and colourful and fun before. It truly encompasses the space that Peter Quill himself had fallen in love with, why he chooses to be in space as opposed to home on Earth. Sure he has some sentimental value for it, but SPACE. Then thirdly, my favourite, non plot element of the movie were the costumes. I thought I might rag on them from being different than their source material, but everything worked out so well. The red outfits, heck, even the prision outfits looked rocking. Mad props to the costuming department.
The plot was pretty decent. It sets up all the characters neatly so non-Marvel fans have a good footing at what's happening. I think it might be easy to get lost in some of the universe jargon though-- a friend of mine mixes up her Krees and her Skrulls, but that's usually the case with sci-fi. All the characters are extremely charismatic and surprisingly, everyone can walk out with a different favourite, because they're all sort of accessible with their outcast behavior just hoping to fit in. I think it's a little misleading on whether there's a romantic subplot or not, even at this point I'm not entirely sure what they want either and they're testing the waters so Guardians 2 can go either way. But since it's not explicit, I'll take it. What was extremely nice was to see it include moments of the MCU that fans have seen before, now expanded, after waiting multiple movies to see more. Explanations of the Infinity Stones (which was my favourite part plot wise) and seeing more of Thanos was positively exhilarating.
Overall the best way I can sum up Guardians of the Galaxy, is entertaining. It's fun and great for laughs. It's not as emotionally challenging as some other Marvel movies and there might be a couple cheap shots to garner a laugh, but not for one moment during it's 121 minute run does it ever lose its audience's attention and people will be quoting the film for months to come.
If only the post credits scene could carry that same euphoria and momentum.
