Marvel
has done it again. If the Avengers weren’t enough, we now have another band of
lovable anti-heroes/heroine to look forward to, but this time they don’t come
with superpowers, unless you consider sarcasm to be one.
When a powerful orb, stolen by Peter Quill aka Star-Lord played brilliantly by Chris Pratt, becomes the center of a galactic search and destroy mission, our band of misfits comes together through various events culminating in a planet saving scenario. Bradley Cooper’s Rocket Racoon along with Vin Diesel’s Groot are bounty hunters that initially want to capture Peter Quill but then join him along with Gamora played by Zoe Saldana who is on a mission of her own and Dave Bautista’s Drax out there to avenge his family’s murder. As they travel across the galaxy initially trying to sell the orb and later protecting it from the planet destroying Ronan (Lee Pace), the entire team merges, finally, ending on a note of high hope and a sequel.
James Gunn presents us with a film that incorporates the right amount of basically everything. There is drama and mystery right from the start as we are given hints about Peter Quill being half alien (not a spoiler), the action is literally out of this world and doesn’t look all that bad in 3D, but the two aspects that really stand out in the film are the music and the comic moments that lighten up the scenes every now and then adding to the personas of the characters as we get familiarized with them.
If you don’t know by now, Guardians of the Galaxy comes with one of the best soundtracks ever and the fact that Gunn makes the music such an integral part of the film is what makes everything tick in the end. The soundtrack is not just to add background support, but it takes on a character of its own, so much so that we are given a clear signal that there is going to be a sequel through music. There have been many films where music plays an important aspect of the story, but I was amazed at the brilliance of how an action, science-fiction film was able to use the music to its benefit. On top of that, the film also succeeds because of the comic moments that are spread along throughout just at the right moments, till the very end, quite similar to the Avengers that too used the wit to its advantage.
However, the film isn’t without faults. Some of the action sequences are a bit dark, but that can always be due to the print in the cinema and I shall have a better idea when the DVD comes out. Furthermore, even though with a running time of two hours, the movie does drag a little in between, making up for it towards the end with its climatic, but somewhat overly-cinematic fight sequence. There are however a number of similarities between Guardians of the Galaxy and a couple of blockbusters from the past that have defined many a generations, but that didn’t bother me one bit and even though it seemed familiar, the film had its own uniqueness and special features that keeps it apart from the mentioned predecessors.
Guardians of the Galaxy packs itself with so many wonderful characters, both main and supporting, that one can’t wait to enter their world again, but what I really want is to have a listen to is the complete Awesome Mix Vol. 2, at the earliest.
Rating 4/5
