Guardians of the Galaxy

We're promised a sequel at the end of Guardians of the Galaxy, and I am personally all for it.  As fun as the film is (and it can be very fun), there still seems to be a lot of room for improvement.  I want to know more about this movie's world, and I want the characters to get more development, which will hopefully happen in further movies.  For now, this is a well-meaning and frequently funny space opera that feels like the kick-off to much better things.

If anything, this movie proves that Marvel Comics' film division is willing to take risks.  The original comic stories that introduced these characters are fairly obscure, even amongst those who read them.  It also has a laid back and bizarre tone, mixing epic space battles with deadpan one liners.  The mix of comedy and Sci-Fi brings to mind such 80s cult classics like Buckaroo Banzai or The Ice Pirates, although obviously this film has been granted the kind of budget that those earlier movies would have murdered for.  To further the risk factor, the film's director and co-writer is James Gunn - a filmmaker who hasn't exactly tackled a project quite this big before, and whose only experience in the cutthroat summer blockbuster game has been writing the scripts to the two live action Scooby-Doo films. (Not exactly a glowing endorsement.) Maybe it is Gunn's relative inexperience with a big movie like this (even an intentionally quirky one) that leads to the film's major problems involving character development and pacing.  Still, the action, fun lead characters, and genuinely funny dialogue manages to hold everything together.

The film starts out in a strange way, with a grieving boy at his mother's deathbed as she is about to be taken by cancer.  He runs out of the hospital in tears, when he is promptly abducted by aliens.  Flash forward some 26 years later, and that boy has grown up to be Peter Quill (Chris Pratt), who has obviously left his life on Earth behind since that day, and now explores the stars as a "Junker", which is more or less a professional thief.  On a far off desert planet, Peter's latest job involves stealing a valuable orb locked away in some ancient tomb.  As soon as the orb is in his possession, it seems that every alien bounty hunter and warlord comes out of the woodwork to take it from him.  Chief amongst them is the alien terrorist Ronan (Lee Pace), who wants to use the orb's power so that he can destroy the people who killed his parents.  Turns out Ronan is working for the mysterious villain Thanos (Josh Brolin), who wants the power for his own desires of universal domination.  There's also a being known as The Collector (Benicio Del Toro), who wants the orb for his collection of alien oddities and weapons.

It is not long after that Peter is arrested and has the orb taken from him.  It's right about this time that he learns of just how powerful and valuable the orb really is, so he has to form an uneasy alliance with some of his fellow prisoners, many of whom were trying to kill him for possessing the orb earlier.  These include Gamora (Zoe Saldana), who is the adopted daughter of Thanos and was planning on betraying her father before being caught, the powerful Drax the Destroyer (professional wrestler Dave Bautista) who seeks vengeance against Ronan, a genetically engineered raccoon named Rocket (voice by Bradley Cooper), who talks like a 1940s tough guy, and the gentle plant-like creature named Groot (voice by Vin Diesel) who can say an awful lot, despite only being able to speak one simple phrase over and over. ("I am Groot".)

This is a large cast for any movie, and no, the movie doesn't do as good of a job as it should balancing them out, or establishing their relationships with each other.  In particular, the potential romance that seems to bloom between Peter Quill and the alien amazon Gamora seems particularly forced, especially during a scene where one of them must make a potentially tragic sacrifice for the other, which seems to come out of left field and just doesn't work.  Even if the characters aren't as fleshed out as they should be, they are still fascinating.  Most of the characters who make up the Guardians of the Galaxy could probably carry their own film, and the movie does have some fun playing on the differences between this odd mix of heroes.  The plot may be light, even for a comic book movie, and is often riddled with holes.  But it's the characters and the performances that carry this through.

In his first live action leading role (not counting the voice over job he did in The Lego Movie earlier this year), Chris Pratt brings to mind a kinder and less world-weary Han Solo in his portrayal of Peter Quill.  With his love of 1970s pop music (which the soundtrack is comprised entirely of), quick wit, and weakness for alien babes, he brings a certain gentle swashbuckling charm to the character that immediately wins us over.  Zoe Saldana, who seems to have become Hollywood's go-to girl for playing alien hotties after Avatar and now this, is effective in her action scenes, and hopefully will get to build her chemistry with Pratt in future entries.  The big surprises in the cast, however, are Dave Bautista's Drax, who gets some of the funniest lines, and an unrecognizable Bradley Cooper, whose vocal performance as Rocket seems to be a mix of a movie gangster and a Looney Tunes character.  Outside of the lead heroes, none of the performances get much of a chance to register, particularly the villains.  Ronan, in particular, is yet another uninspired bad guy.  And it's kind of sad to see big talents like Glenn Close and John C. Reilly set in forgettable roles that barely register as cameos.

Guardians of the Galaxy manages to be fun, despite a somewhat weak script that is heavy on plot exposition.  The characters are fortunately gifted with a sense of humor when they're not forced to explain the plot, and a lot of the things they say are truly funny.  This is ultimately why I'm anticipating the sequel, and why I have hopes for the film as a franchise.  Now that all the introductions and explanations are out of the way, the filmmakers can get really creative and crazy with the sequels.  This is an effective set up, which introduces us to some very off beat and interesting heroes.  On that level, the film is a success.  It also works on a spectacle level, with some wonderful special effects, and an action climax that manages to be truly impressive in scope.

This may have been a risky venture for Marvel's film division, but I believe the gamble has paid off.  As far as summer comic movies go, I'd rather have X-Men: Days of Future Past, but this is still a likable effort, and hopefully the start of something truly weird and wonderful.

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