REVIEW -- Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy (2014)

Many film-goers were skeptical that Marvel could attempt a successful film adaptation of one of their most "out there" properties and attempt to introduce a mass audience to the "Cosmic Realm" of the Marvel Universe - a corner of the Marvel Comics Universe that has NEVER been adapted into film until now. Director James Gunn is up for the challenge with this latest entry in Phase 2 of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Guardians of the Galaxy. Did this gamble pay off for Marvel? Read on to find out.

Cast: 

Chris Pratt as Peter Quill / Star-Lord
Zoe Saldana as Gamora
Dave Bautista as Drax the Destroyer
Vin Diesel as Groot
Bradley Cooper as Rocket
Lee Pace as Ronan the Accuser
Michael Rooker as Yondu
Karen Gillan as Nebula
Djimon Hounsou as Korath
John C. Reilly as Rhomann Dey
Benicio del Toro as Taneleer Tivan / Collector

Additionally, Josh Brolin provides performance capture and the voice of Thanos. Alexis Denisof reprises his role as Thanos's vizier, "The Other", from The Avengers. Ophelia Lovibond plays Carina, the Collector's aide, Peter Serafinowicz plays Denarian Saal, a Nova Corps officer, Gregg Henry plays Quill's grandfather, and Laura Haddock plays Meredith Quill, Peter Quill's mother. Stephen Blackehart, Emmett J. Scanlan, Marama Corlett, Alexis Rodney, Melia Kreiling, and Spencer Wilding had unspecified supporting roles. Fred the Dog appears as Cosmo. Cameos in the film include: James Gunn as a Sakaaran; Stan Lee as a Xandarian Ladies’ Man; Lloyd Kaufman; Nathan Fillion as an inmate; Rob Zombie as the voice of the Ravager Navigator; and composer Tyler Bates as a Ravager pilot.

The Plot: (FULL Spoilers)

In 1988, following his mother's death, a young Peter Quill is abducted from Earth by the Ravagers, a group of space pirates led by Yondu. Twenty-six years later on the planet Morag, Quill steals a sphere-like artifact only to be intercepted by Korath, a subordinate to the fanatical Kree Ronan. Although Quill escapes with the artifact, Yondu discovers his theft and issues a bounty for his capture while Ronan sends the assassin Gamora after the orb.

When Quill attempts to sell the orb on the Nova Corps homeworld Xandar, Gamora ambushes him and steals it. A fight ensues, drawing in a pair of bounty hunters; the genetically-engineered raccoon Rocket, and the tree-like humanoid Groot. The Nova Corps arrives and arrests the group, imprisoning them in the Kyln. A powerful inmate, Drax, attempts to kill Gamora due to her association with Ronan, who killed his family. Quill dissuades him by saying that Gamora can bring Ronan to him. Gamora reveals that she has betrayed Ronan, unwilling to let him use the orb's power to destroy entire planets such as Xandar. Learning that Gamora has a buyer for the orb, Rocket, Quill, Groot, and Gamora work together to escape the Kyln.

Elsewhere, Ronan meets with the titan Thanos to discuss his daughter Gamora's betrayal and the loss of the orb. Now accompanied by Drax, Quill's group escapes the Kyln in his ship—the Milano—and flee to Knowhere, a remote criminal outpost in space built in the giant severed-head of a celestial being. Drunk and seeking vengeance, Drax secretly sends a message to Ronan revealing the group's location, while the rest of them meet with Gamora's contact, Taneleer Tivan. Tivan opens the orb, revealing an Infinity Stone, an item of immeasurable power that destroys all but the most powerful beings who wield it. Suddenly, Tivan's tormented assistant grabs the stone, triggering an explosion that engulfs his collection.

Ronan arrives and easily defeats Drax, while the others flee by ship, pursued by Ronan's followers and Gamora's sister Nebula. Nebula destroys Gamora's ship, leaving her floating in space, and Ronan's forces leave Knowhere with the sphere. Quill contacts Yondu before following Gamora into space, giving her his helmet to survive; Yondu arrives and retrieves the pair. Rocket, Drax, and Groot threaten to attack Yondu's ship to rescue them, but Quill negotiates a truce by convincing Yondu that they can recover the orb. The group agrees that facing Ronan means certain death, but that they must stop him from using the Infinity Stone to destroy the galaxy. On Ronan's ship, the Dark Aster, Ronan embeds the stone in his warhammer, taking its power for himself. He contacts Thanos, threatening that after the destruction of Xandar, he will kill Thanos; hateful of her adopted father, Nebula allies with Ronan.

On Xandar, the Dark Aster is confronted by Yondu's fleet, the Nova Corps, and Quill's group, which breaches theDark Aster. Ronan uses his upgraded warhammer to destroy the Nova Corps fleet. Gamora defeats Nebula and unlocks Ronan's chambers, but the group finds themselves outmatched by his power until Rocket flies the Milanothrough the Dark Aster and crashes into Ronan. The damaged Dark Aster crash lands on Xandar, with Groot sacrificing himself to shield the group. Ronan emerges from the wreck and prepares to destroy Xandar, but Quill distracts him by dancing, allowing Drax to destroy Ronan's warhammer. Quill grabs the freed stone, and with Gamora, Drax, and Rocket sharing its burden, they use it to defeat Ronan.

In the aftermath, Quill tricks Yondu into taking a container supposedly containing the recovered stone, then gives the real stone to the Novas. As the Ravagers leave Xandar, they remark that it turned out well that they did not deliver Quill to his father following his abduction. Quill's group, now known as the Guardians of the Galaxy, have their criminal records expunged, and Quill learns that he is only half-human, his father being part of an ancient, unknown species. Quill finally opens the last present he received from his mother, which contains a cassette tape filled with her favorite songs. The Guardians leave in the rebuilt Milano accompanied by a twig recovered from Groot, which is already beginning to grow.

In a post-credits scene, Tivan sits in his destroyed archive, where he is licked by a cosmonaut dog, and mocked by one of his collections; Howard the Duck.

The Verdict: 

Dancing "Baby" Groot is just TOO adorable...

Going into this EVERYONE knew Bradley Cooper's Rocket and Vin Diesel's Groot were going to be the stars of this and they don't disappoint for a second, but I don't want to discredit anyone in this film. Every single member of this cast brought everything together perfectly - from the precise delivery in terms of deadpan comedy from Dave Bautista's Drax to knowing when to sprinkle just enough 80s pop culture references into this film without running the gags into the ground or showcasing and pulling those newly acquired LucasFilm assets by Disney to great use in terms of spectacular visuals, especially during this film's climactic final battle.

I thought Vin Diesel's Groot was going to wear out his welcome by the end of the film from the fact that Groot can ONLY say "I am Groot", but I was definitely glad to be proven wrong. Bradley Cooper's Rocket will easily be a fan-favorite among movie-goers and I honestly see him be the Marvel Cinematic Universe's equivalent of Wolverine/Logan down the line if he doesn't reach that status by the time Guardians of the Galaxy 2 rolls around. I was amazed to see Zoe Saldana (Gamora) play almost the polar opposite of the typecast heroine she is known for playing in almost every other action film she has been in to date. Every other scene with Peter Quill/Star Lord (Chris Pratt) I was half-expecting her to fall for his romancing techniques and he suckers her in bed, like the typical appearance that many have come to expect out of Saldana in films. Instead, she surprises with a portrayal of a hardened woman who has not allowed her heart to feel affection and compassion for decades. Speaking of Chris Pratt, I will admit there were moments where I could have sworn I was watching an episode of Parks and Recreation, but he warmed up to me as the leader of the Guardians by the film's finale.

That being said, I have to admit this group of misfits coming together as a team was a much more compelling story than the one told in Marvel's Avengers. They didn't have to be "fooled" after the death of one guy who they had little connection with them to focus and fight as a cohesive unit out of the dire circumstances. Instead, the Guardians established a legitimate bond of friendship between them and were willing to die for each other. What made those bonds special was that it wasn't cheesy nor was it between particular members of the team - ALL of them bonded on different level that director James Gunn took the time to carefully weave that process into this narrative. I know that the critics said that Gunn's biggest risk with this film was doing a film entirely about the Guardians period, but I have to disagree. Gunn's biggest risk was banking on this narrative, focused on the compelling nature of these five strangers coming together as friends and transforming into heroes, was the biggest risk to take, especially after audiences have been treated to a similar narrative with Marvel's Avengers.

I have to wonder if The Walking Dead alumni Michael Rooker's Yondu will return in the already announced sequel for 2017. Yondu was established as having strong ties to Star Lord's past and then the talk of Quill's "father" has me wondering who could be his alien father in this continuity. When I first heard of Marvel attempting to make the Guardians of the Galaxy into a live-action feature film, Yondu was the character that stuck out to me the most as I was very familiar with the original Guardians' comic book run, which saw him as a staple member of that team. Unfortunately, Marvel chose to go with the 2008 revamp of this team and I don't see a problem with that as there would have been far too many confusing aspects to try to integrate into this adaptation and using the 2008 iteration keeps things a bit more flexible on their end. Who knows, maybe we might see Yondu as a new member of the Guardians in the 2017 sequel. Director James Gunn already confirmed that both Nova and Adam Warlock (whose cocoon was in the background in The Collector's lair) will appear in the sequel.

Josh Brolin as Thanos in Guardians of the Galaxy

I'm a little iffy about Thanos' new look in this film from how they changed his appearance up from his teaser at the end of Avengers. Is it just me or does Thanos look "younger" than he did in his appearance from Avengers? Was that on purpose or was that due to Marvel switching actors from the time between the post-credits teaser during Avengers and this film?

Hmm... either way, that adds to my theory that I will come back to later in this review...

I doubt Ronan the Accuser is dead... Lee Pace put on an excellent performance as this villain and Marvel Studios would be crazy to pass up on a potential Kree/Skrull Invasion storyline for Phase 3 or 4 of Marvel Cinematic Universe. That being said, Ronan's "death" brings up my biggest gripe with this film and with the Marvel Cinematic Universe as whole to this point. Marvel needs to STOP making their villains disposable, with Loki being the only recurring villain to date. You can toss Thanos onto that list after his brief appearance in this film, along with Brock Rumlow (who survived the ordeal at the end of Captain America: The Winter Soldier), Justin Hammer (who was merely arrested instead of killed off at the end of Iron Man 2) and Bucky Barnes/The Winter Soldier, but there's other notable villains in these last few films that Marvel didn't have to simply kill off in their first appearances in this Universe.

To say that Karen Gillian's Nebula had a seemingly "minor"
role in this film, she made it work for her...

(Sighs) At least Nebula got away. She should be a major thorn in the side of both Thanos and Guardians of the Galaxy in the near future once Thanos (or Nebula herself) gets all of the Infinity Stones. Speaking of the Stones, I doubt this is the last that we have seen of The Collector either as he has to rebuild his base of operations and assemble a new collection of rare artifacts and lifeforms.

For those keeping count, we currently know the whereabouts of 4 out of 6 Stones:

• Baron von Strucker of HYDRA has Loki's scepter that houses one of the Stones in an undisclosed location - This is still debatable if it's really one of the Stones at all
• The Collector has the Aether that was recovered after events of Thor: The Dark World
• The Tesseract is safeguarded in Asgard  - Notice that the Infinity Gauntlet is locked away in Odin's vault; shown in the original Thor film
• The Power Stone (which was used by Ronan the Accuser and Star Lord in this film) was entrusted with the Nova Corps

While there's NO post-credits teaser for Avengers: Age of Ultron, but there's something for 70's to 80's comic book fans will get a good laugh at the reference in the form of Howard the Duck. I know, I know... I was a little pissed too, but I'm guessing that Marvel has something else planned on how to tease that between now and next summer. I doubt Howard's getting a film, but I wouldn't be surprised if Cosmo (the dog shown licking The Collector's face) has a role in the 2017 Guardians sequel.

If I'm 100% honest, I'm NOT feeling Gamora and Star Lord's outfits AT ALL here. Their
debut costumes at the beginning of the film looked better than what they wore
for the final battle. If they want everyone wearing matching uniforms like FOX's X-Men
the they should have went with the Guardians' iconic navy blue outfits. 

This film was great, as in it was better than Thor: The Dark World and Iron Man 3, but not better than Captain America: The Winter Soldier. Call me nit-picky but they left a lot to be desired. For example, I wanted the final confrontation between the Guardians and Ronan the Accuser to be a longer affair than the "one-shot kill from Star Lord then the whole 'Let our powers combine!' Captain Planet moment" for the finale. Also, is it too much to ask for a bit more action from Nebula in this film other than that ONE fight sequence she had with Gamora? The whole spaceship chase sequence was straight out of Star Wars and you guys reading this KNOW it. Lastly, let's not forget about what little involvement the Nova Corps had in this film other than establishing themselves an incompetent galactic police force in this Universe... If that's the point that they were driving at with this film for the Nova Corps, then bravo...

Okay, okay... I can't complain TOO much as this is the Guardians' first "formal" introduction to the masses. This film did what it was supposed to do - introduced the Guardians to broader audience, successfully introduced the "Cosmic Realm" of the Marvel Universe as an integral part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and gave Avengers fans a small preview of what Thanos is up to while the Avengers are still on Earth.

There's one thing that was bothering me as I left the theater. I have to wonder when does the previous events in this Cinematic Universe take place in relation to this film? In other words, does this film take place BEFORE Captain America: The Winter Soldier and Iron Man 3? Sure, it says 2014 but the understanding with Thor: The Dark World, Iron Man 3, and Captain America: The Winter Soldier was that almost all of these events were occurring simultaneously and that's why those heroes didn't come to each other's aid.

I have a feeling that Whedon is trying to do a clever mind-fuck that won't come to surface until Phase 3 or 4, much like the surprising plot twist that "saved" Season 1 of Agents of SHIELD after The Winter Soldier came out.

I don't know... Maybe I'm dwelling a bit too much on this. That's the blessing and curse of being a comic book nerd. You start thinking of all of these possibilities and potential outcomes of how the events of these future films could play out and you get excited in anticipation.

Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy exceeded my expectations and Marvel's gamble paid off tremendously. Much like Marvel's 2012 summer blockbuster, The Avengers, this team of unlikely heroes paves the way for even more Marvel heroes to dominate the silver screen for years to come. Pulling off this successful gamble twice might give Marvel the confidence to test the waters with even more lesser-known heroes with film adaptations. In either case, Marvel Studios has a potential gold mine on their hands as the sky is the limit - potential (or rather inevitable...) Avengers/Guardians of the Galaxy team-ups and/or crossovers, overlapping storylines, or even the opportunity to give even more lesser-known heroes in this corner of the Marvel Comics Universe to shine on the silver screen.

With an amazing cast to the directorial talents of James Gunn, this combination manages to recreate the magic that made Avengers such a success, but leaves it's own mark on the Marvel Cinematic Universe that fans will remember for years to come.

Let's not forget the unforgettable soundtrack...

I'm giving this film an out-of-this-world rating of a solid 9 out of 10.