Guardians of the Galaxy (2014)

I already talked briefly about this one in my Marvel Cinematic Universe piece saying, among other things, "...The characters are fine, and the story was alright but had some pacing issues". And that pretty representative of my overall feelings about this movie: I don't hate it, but I don't love it either, it's a mixed-bag. Rather than go into all the plot details, I'm just going to pick apart some of the good and bad about this one. 

First off, if you haven't seen it, it has a pretty big cast of characters: The Guardians are comprised of Star-Lord played by Chris Pratt who has a funny line here and there, but overall I think he's just OK in the film. One of the creatures joining him is Groot, who's gimmick is just saying "I am Groot" (a perfect role for someone with as little acting range as Vin Diesel). Along with Groot you have the wise-cracking 'Rocket' Raccoon voiced by Bradley Cooper, and easily my favorite character in the film. Filling out the team you have Gamora played by Zoe Saldana and Dave Bautista as Drax the Destroyer, and they're both decent choices for their respected roles.

 The main villain of the film is Ronan the Accuser and I don't find him to be all that menacing but, I don't think that was actor Lee Pace's fault, I think it was just dull writing. There's also a little bit of Josh Brolin as Thanos but not enough to really comment on. Some of the other supporting characters are played by a decent cast made up of John C. Reilly, Glenn Close, Benicio del Toro, Karen Gillian... and everyone is serviceable in their roles. The only one that stands out in a negative way is Michael Rooker as Yondu Udonta, I prefer to fast-forward past all of his scenes.

Moving on past the characters, the plot revolves around a metal orb that contains one of the Infinity stones. This is a bit of a problem that pops up from time to time in the MCU; Thanos needs all of these Infinity stones for a future movie (Avengers: Infinity War) and sometimes it hurts the plot of the movie you're currently watching. Guardians of the Galaxy may be the worst victim of this. The film takes place in space with a unknown number of cool, epic stories that could be told, but the plot is instead beholden to the Infinity stone thoughline. It doesn't tank the whole film but, it makes what could have been a big, space adventure movie feel very small, and this is probably an even bigger issue if you don't follow the MCU and have no idea that Thanos is trying collect all six stones.

I know I'm ragging on this movie a lot but there are things about it I do like. Like I stated earlier the character of 'Rocket' Raccoon is my favorite in the film, I get a decent numbers of laughs out of the movie and most come from him. While there are some pacing issues here and there, the film contains a number of really fun scenes (the prison break scene being my personal favorite) and top-notch cinematography. There are definitely a few Marvel films I prefer over this one but, if nothing else, it's pretty entertaining.

I give this one a 3 out of 5.

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