Wednesday, December 17, 2014

Guardians of the Galaxy (2014)

Director: James Gunn
Writers:  James Gunn, Nicola Perlman, Dan Abnett, Andy Lanning
Cast:       Chris Pratt, Bradley Cooper, Vin Diesel, Zoe Saldana


A group of intergalactic criminals are forced to work together to stop a fanatical warrior from taking control of Universe. They are led by Peter Quill/Star Lord (Chris Pratt), abducted from Earth in 1988 as a kid, who is fond of dancing to the 70s music he has got in his Sony Walkman. 

What makes GoG a good watch is its sense of humor, mocking fun at the genre itself as well as playing on the fact that Quill thinks that things he knew in 88 are super cool. There are plenty of references to Kevin Bacon as a hero and the character models himself on Han Solo. The first 20-30 minutes are pretty boring with lots of exposition scenes that just look like it, explaining who the characters are and their motivations. By the end of it we know that they need to get a ball before the big villain gets to it and destroy some shitty planet called Xander. I don't know if it is the case that I consciously look for expositions to call out on them, but they are irksome in GoG. There  is one scene where one character turns off the artificial gravity which saves them from getting shot, and then there is the Saldana character saying:' He just turned the artificial gravity off everywhere except where we are standing'. We can fucking see that and if that is aimed for kids, they can see that he connected some wires and that is all they need. Apart from the expositions I also didn't care much for the action scenes since most of it is CGI and I couldn't care less about them. Watching it one a big screen might have made it better. The film is at its best when the characters are having banter. It might have worked better if they mixed the humor with bat shit crazy instead of melodrama in some scenes. There is a cameo from Benicio Del Toro whom I suspect will play a bigger role in the sequels. I will take a wait and watch approach when they come in.

Overall it is good watch but I might have liked it more if I had seen it at the cinemas. I saw 'Godzilla' on a big screen and I guess I enjoyed it more than I should have. But then again, the coolest thing about that film was the flair jumping scene which was more about the director's skills than CGI. 

Rating: 3/5  

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