Alex Yarde was blown away by Marvel’s summer tent pole movie.
Gamora: I am a warrior, an assassin. I do not dance.
Peter Quill: Really? Well, on my planet, we have a legend about people like you. It’s called Footloose. And in it, a great hero named Kevin Bacon teaches and entire city full of people with sticks up their butt that, dancing, well, is the greatest thing there is.
Gamora: …Who put the sticks up their butts?
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Rocket: Groot! You can’t do this buddy, you’ll die!
Groot: WE are Groot.
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“Guardians Of The Galaxy” is the most fun I’ve had in a Marvel movie so far. Period. The ensemble cast (Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana, Dave Bautista, Bradley Cooper, and Vin Diesel) is an uncanny group of equally extremely dangerous emotionally damaged and totally disarming misfits. The D list GOTG franchise, without the burden of name recognition (mirroring the running gag of no one ever hearing of Peter Quills outlaw moniker “Star Lord”, which never got old) that an A list group like The Avengers has, are as free to make it up as they go as one of Rockets cockamamie escape plans. If you have fond memories of Raiders Of The Lost Ark, The Last Starfighter or Battle Beyond The Stars, or jammed to a carefully crafted mix tape on your Walkman (look it up), welcome home! The end of the film forges this bunch of backstabbing losers into a family. Not by blood, but the kind you build along the way, vetted by strife, shared turmoil and earning the right. Every single one of them no one is filler. Every main character is awesomely fleshed out and flawed and has their moments to shine. But Groot seals the deal for me!
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It goes without saying that I’m a huge comic book geek. My children are also being raised Geek Orthodox. They are studying hard a vast Marvel mythos. But at their tender ages their chosen delivery system is primarily Netflix. We sat in slack-mouthed awe for two hours and two minutes enveloped by the warm geek bliss that is Marvel’s GOTG. Writer/Director James Gunn gets it. Any beloved 80’s summer movie was equal parts Action, Humor & Heart. This is the best example so far for Marvel Studios. The film starts with a devastating loss, which worried me when my daughter squirmed about leaving and I comforted her (Disney routinely kills moms). Young Peter Quill (Wyatt Oleff) visiting his mother in the hospital on her deathbed kicks you in the gut. It’s almost like the first ten minutes of Pixar’s “UP”. Wracked with guilt and pain, the boy runs from the hospital and whoosh! he’s abducted Close-Encounters style by blue spaceman Yondu (Michael Rooker). Flash forward twenty some odd years…Peter Quill as an adult, played now by a winning “Marty Mc Solo” (Chris Pratt), puts on his orange Walkman headphones and gingerly line dances to Redbones ’’Come and Get Your Love” across a barren landscape while Tomb Raiding an alien planet searching for an ancient relic “The Orb”. Looking to cut his Mentor Yondu out of the payday he was to share with him and his fellow Marauders a band of ruthless intergalactic cutthroats.
The coveted orb eventually leads Star Lord to Nova Corps Homeworld Xandar (the Nova Corps are like an intergalactic police force) where he’s confronted by Thanos daughter, and Ronan’s minion green-skinned killer Gamora (Zoe Saldana) she was adopted as a child by Thanos, augmented and trained to be a killer and ready to turn on Ronan and his master the Mad Titan, steal the Orb and leave her life as an assassin behind. After double-crossing Yondu he’s also tracked and spotted by a pair of bounty hunters, foul-mouthed wisecracking Rocket (Bradley Cooper) a failed genetic experiment with serious anger issues and talking tree Groot (Vin Diesel), an incredibly realized CGI creation. There is so much depth to Diesel’s portrayal, imbuing Groot with child-like innocence and unbridled power. It’s incredible that a CGI character that only says four lines grows to be the emotional center of the team. After a hilarious chase and brawl in the Capital city, the four criminals end up in The Kyln, a bizarre, overcrowded Nova Corps space prison where they meet powerful and super literal Drax the Destroyer (Dave Bautista) out for vengeance against rogue Kree governor Ronan the Accuser (Lee Pace) and intergalactic despot Thanos (Josh Brolin).
In spite of some schoolyard talk and salty dialog (a hilarious Jackson Pollack semen reference that went mercifully over their heads) and some admittedly pretty awesome ultra-violence ,it was a terrific film to share with my kids. Its introduction of wonderfully memorable characters and blend of humor, action and catchy tunes, Guardians is perfectly pitched old-school escapist fun. It’s Kettle Corn. A wee bit salty & sweet, earnestly space operatic and sweeping like my favorite summer blockbusters used to be. However, the backbone of the story is all very familiar if you’ve been watching the Marvel Cinematic Universe so far. An all-powerful Magoffin (Infinity Stone) everybody wants is discovered. Thanos then dispatches powerful flunkies to recover said stone for his ultimate plan to unite the stones and become all-powerful. Men and women in tights show up to thwart Thanos’ evil plans. Roll credits. A scene in the middle of the film lays it all out. The scene in question featured awesomely bizarre home of The Collector (Benicio Del Toro), his menagerie stuffed with Dark Elves, Cosmo the space dog and other missed Easter eggs that are a must see for my next viewing and give me joy! You don’t necessarily need to know or care for that matter who Thanos or Ronan are or what an Infinity stone is to be totally immersed in this tale and to enjoy the performances. That’s a testament to the creative genius of Gunn, and the solid performances of the actors two of which Bradley Cooper and Vin Disel never physically appear on screen. From the opening credits to the final reveal this is a love letter to Marvel aficionados and fans of 80’s Sci-Fi.
Marvel honcho Kevin Fegie should be congratulated for two things. First, hiring super fan boy director Peter Gunn (Super, Slither) to write and direct the proceedings. Second, for trusting him and leaving him alone. GOTG is not film by committee. This smacks of Gunn’s singular vision. His dark, inappropriate sometimes sick humor, cynicism and wide eyed 80’s optimism and fun all at once. Gunn made his bones under Andy Kaufman’s Troma films and works with the deft hand of a low budget journeyman director who is really a precocious twelve-year-old at heart with $100 million dollar play set to work with. Gunn solidly concentrated on our main protagonists. This could have been an overstuffed mess (*cough Amazing Spiderman 2 *cough) with so many different entities coveting the Orb. But to his credit, Gunn gives everyone of our heroes a chance to crack wise, suffer, grow and redeem himself or herself. It’s full of almost Tarantino-ish banter between the motley crew interspersed with awesome visuals, set design and explosive, kinetic action set pieces to an awesome &0’s soundtrack that carefully lay out the casts’ motivations. All are confronted with opportunities to shine. Rocket’s sensitivity, self-loathing and scars from experimentation, Gamora’s guilt for the evil she’s done and longing for a new life, Peter’s quest to become a true hero and his attachment to Earth symbolized by his moms mix tape. Drax’s harbors a bitter loneliness, the murder of his family fueling an all-consuming rage. But Groot is Silverstein’s “Giving Tree”. I had so much fun and emotional investment with Vin Diesel’s Groot that when the “We Are Groot” scene came up I unashamedly had tears in my eyes, my daughter, now her turn to comfort me, grasping my hand and whispers eyes still glued to the screen, “It’s okay daddy. Groot regenerates right? So he’ll be okay.” She has snatched the geek pebble from my hand. The film ends James Bond style “The Guardians Of The Galaxy will return” not fast enough for me. Marvel Cosmic has truly opened up the rest of their universe for Phase Two, and it doesn’t get much better than this!
* Cue music Ogah Chacka Ohga Ogah!
all art-Marvel Entertainment
Hey, thanks for the Heads Up on the Spoilers! That was…oh, yeah…there were no Spoiler Alerts. Nice.
Correction: I mistakenly credited “Peter Gunn” instead of James Gunn as writing and directing Guardians Of The Galaxy. Apologies to Mr. Gunn and my readers. I can only blame my enthusiasm and haste in publishing my review.