Guardians of the Galaxy (2014) ****/*****
Up until Marvel came around and changed the game, the approach to making a modern superhero movie seemed to be to strip the material of all the pulp, humor, and color that appeared on the original comic book page, strip down the mythology to only its most grounded, realistic elements, and then to fuse the few fantastical concepts left over to a reality that looked as thoroughly like our own as possible. The theory seemed to be that the bright colors and broad adventure of comic books lost their appeal and became inherently cheesy after getting translated to live action. A quip was made in the first big superhero success story, the original X-Men film, about how ridiculous it would be if they wore bright colored superhero costumes rather than dark, leather, battle suits. Christopher Nolan’s grounding of the Batman character in a world that looked more like the gritty crime dramas of the 70s than any comic book ever printed made more money than basically any other series ever. The strategy was a winner.
During the period between the releases of the original Iron Man and The Avengers, Marvel once again changed the game though. They proved that bright colors could work on the big screen, as long as they weren’t exaggerated to the point of being disorienting, that humor could fit perfectly into superhero properties, as long as the scripts you write are actually funny, and that big, broad adventure was something that never really went out of style in the first place, so any urge to suppress it was a silly one. Marvel figured out how to make the biggest, best, and most beloved superhero movies of all time, and they did so by sticking closer to the stories’ comic book origins than any movie had before. Which brings us to Guardians of the Galaxy.
Guardians of the Galaxy represents a full embracing of Marvel’s strategy, and a pushing of it to its logical extremes. In a way, it feels like a bit of an experiment in seeing what exactly the studio can get away with in the world of mainstream filmmaking. Not only does this movie feature B-level Marvel characters that mainstream audiences aren’t familiar with, it also tells a story that takes place in outer space and that is completely ungrounded in any sort of reality, and, to hell with being gritty or dark, it contains so much humor that good chunks of it are downright silly. Ten years ago a studio would have been considered to be off their rockers if they made a big budget summer movie that looked anything like this, but not only has Marvel gone through with their plan, they’ve gone through with it and they’re going to experience huge success because of the risk taken. Guardians of the Galaxy is pure fun, and it proves that we aren’t yet anywhere near the breaking point of comic book movie fatigue that some pundits have been predicting. In fact, the film proves just how limitless the depths of material the last 50 years of comic book publishing provide for studios looking for inspiration for summer fare, in any genre, hitting any tone.
Guardians of the Galaxy starts off as the story of a young boy named Peter Quill (eventually played by Chris Pratt), who is stolen off of Earth by a spacecraft full of scoundrels on the same night his mother dies of cancer. The story then picks up decades later, with Quill now being fully-grown and an intergalactic scoundrel himself. In a sequence that plays over the opening credits, he engages himself in stealing a mysterious orb that ends up being full of mysterious power and happens to be sought after by a handful of would-be universe conquerors. Quill doesn’t know any of that though. He’s just a chump thief looking for a payday, and his efforts lead to a price being put on his head.
Among those looking to do him harm are a foul-mouthed raccoon named Rocket (Bradley Cooper), a plant-based simpleton named Groot (Vin Diesel), and a genetically engineered assassin named Gamora (Zoe Saldana). Contentious as their first interactions are, all of these criminals and mercenaries eventually come together to make the superhero team whose name appears in the title of the film. Well, them and a revenge-obsessed brute named Drax (Dave Bautista), who they meet after they all get thrown in jail. Sound like a good group of would-be heroes to serve as the galaxy’s last chance for survival to you? Yeah, not to me either, but that’s exactly what they’re tasked with doing once a militant extremist named Ronan (Lee Pace) gets his hands on the mysterious orb and makes his intentions to commit genocide known. For a movie with a soundtrack full of 70s pop songs, Guardians of the Galaxy manages to bring some pretty huge stakes to the table.
And speaking of that soundtrack, the music may just be the star of the movie. Not only is the series of pop songs that have been cultivated to serve as the mix tape Quill’s mom gave him before she died an inspired mix of tracks that can’t help but make you get up and get excited (it’s likely the best mix of 70s pop songs since the Boogie Nights soundtrack), but the orchestral score that serves as the rest of the film’s accompaniment is also probably the most evocative and memorable that has been attached to a Marvel movie to date. Something magical happens when the right song is paired with the right scene in a movie, where both end up getting altered and deepened for the pairing, and this film is full of at least a handful of such magical pairings.
Which really gets to the heart of why Guardians of the Galaxy works. It’s an adventure film that establishes a light-hearted tone right from the title card and then proceeds to run off of a personality so pure and infectious that you can’t help but get behind it. It’s got a handful of problems though. For one, the entire first act is a clunky gauntlet of establishing scenes that are always introducing us to new characters, new locations, new conflicts, and new motivations, and it becomes repetitious and overwhelming. Seeing as the interplay between the team members is so delightfully entertaining once they do get together, it’s hard to complain about how they got there though. Similarly, the stakes of the story and the conflicts between the characters get so thoroughly established that the second half of the film is able to charge full speed ahead toward its climax without any pause, so the fact that the work to get to that point wasn’t integrated as smoothly or organically into the script as it could have been is going to be something that most people don’t even remember by the time the end credits roll and they’ve spent the last forty minutes smiling.
The action sequences leave a lot to be desired as well. We get a number of lengthy chase sequences throughout the film, but the way they’re shot is so that any sense of spatial relations between the players are lost in favor of a sense of complete disorientation for the audience. We also get a number of lengthy fight scenes, but they were so chopped up in the editing room that it’s the edits themselves that take center stage over any of the strikes or counters. You get the feeling that a lack of something was being covered up, and that the film would have probably benefitted greatly if it was given more time for fight choreography and fight rehearsals. If you have a good fight laid out and a couple of well-rehearsed and highly-skilled combatants to bring it to life, suddenly you can move your camera back enough to show off all of the action, and suddenly it’s no longer necessary to shoot things from so many angles and to throw in so many edits in order to create the illusion of constant motion.
Again though, the action’s limitations are mitigated because of how fun all of the characters are and how much you come to like them over the course of the film. Not only do their constant quips hit so often that you’re usually laughing instead of picking apart things like action photography, but you also become so invested in the protagonists as people that the outcomes of the action scenarios take on much more importance than the process of getting to them. The whole movie is like that — any time you think you have a complaint about something, another aspect of the film is so good that it completely makes up for it. When Pace’s Ronan proves to be nothing more than a glowering, generic villain, it doesn’t matter, because Michael Rooker’s Yondu is so charming that you spend most of your time hoping he gets even more screen time in the inevitable sequel. While Karen Gillan’s Nebula proves to be a character who exists for little reason other than to provide a big fight scene for Saldana, John C. Reilly’s throwaway cop character somehow manages to inject the film with way more heart and humor than his limited involvement would lead you to believe is possible.
As far as the principal cast goes, they’re good to the last actor, predictably. Anyone who’s familiar with Pratt’s work on Parks and Recreation already knew that he was going to be perfect playing the cocky and oblivious Star Lord. Anyone who saw what Saldana did in Avatar knew that she was going to have no trouble pulling off the soulful warrior. Cooper shut up any complaints anyone might have had about his range or talent with his role in The Silver Linings Playbook. Diesel’s work in The Iron Giant proved that he was the perfect choice to voice a lumbering, mostly silent simpleton. Even fans of Dave Bautista’s run as a bad guy in WWE could have predicted that he would be able to handle the deadpan delivery of Drax the Destroyer, and handle it he does — in fact, he may get the bulk of the laughs throughout the film. What was less obvious is whether or not this group of actors would have the chemistry necessary to gel as a group, and the answer to that is that they absolutely do. They are at home together almost immediately, even with a couple of them not actually being present during the shooting of the scenes and only doing voice work, to the point where watching them interact becomes pure joy. The Guardians of the Galaxy are so legitimately and consistently funny together that their movie becomes unlike any superhero film we’ve seen to date.
At times Guardians of the Galaxy comes off as being absolutely audacious in how not like the typical comic book movie it’s willing to be. It’s got a streak of nihilism that runs through it that most studio heads would find off-putting. It pushes the boundaries of the language that can be included in an all-ages movie. It features protagonists that are cocky jerks, grumbling curmudgeons, and rage-drunk boobs. There are no lantern-jawed hero figures here. But it’s that level of personality that makes the film so enjoyable, and it’s what’s going to insure that it remains memorable as the years pass. Guardians of the Galaxy is all about the thrill of adventure, the glee of gratuitous violence, and the joy of hanging out with smart-mouthed friends who aren’t afraid to throw shade on any situation, no matter how serious. It’s just about the perfect thing to watch in an air-conditioned movie theater during the summer, even if, in execution, it’s pretty far from being perfect. Who wants perfection when you’re watching a movie about a bunch of scruffy underdogs anyway?
As great as the original Star Wars trilogy is, there’s a part of every fan who walked away from those films feeling a little bit disappointed. That’s because stuff like the cantina scene in A New Hope promised a huge, eclectic galaxy that was bursting with life and imagination, and then every subsequent Star Wars movie proved to be about the same few characters doing the same sorts of things in the same few locations. Guardians of the Galaxy represents a keeping of the promise A New Hope made sci-fi fans so many years ago. It takes us to different corners of a bustling universe, it shows us different classes of different beings going about their day to day existences, it includes huge civilizations going to war, and it somehow makes an entire cast of Han Solo archetypes palatable as a team, without any white bread, whiny Luke Skywalkers getting thrown into the mix. It’s a movie that represents pure imagination, the building of a whole new universe full of whole new worlds, and, when you think about it, that may just be the most lofty accomplishment the medium of cinema can ever hope to achieve. The Marvel train keeps chugging along, showing no signs of slowing down any time soon.
