Jay Snook reviews the newest film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe
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This was one of the best movies I have seen all summer. Guardians of the Galaxy came out August 1st, and it is rated PG-13. This is a good film to go see with the older parts of the family because of some swearing and scenes of violence and some adult themes.
The film begins with Peter Quill as a boy. He has a tragic event happen to him, so he runs away from his family and gets abducted by some strange looking ship. The film then jumps to many years later where Quill is grown up and is on a dead planet that houses a unique artifact. He finds an orb, but only has it for a few seconds before 3 men with big guns tell him to drop it. Quill does as he is asked and tells them who he is, but none of them have ever heard of him before. He is able to evade these men, and goes to Xandar to try to sell it. He bumps into Rocket and Groot who are bounty hunters and Gamora who is a skilled assassin. While in prison, they meet Drax, a man who is full of rage over the death of his family. He wants to kill Gamora because she works for Ronan, the man who is responsible for this crime. Rocket and Groot wanted to kidnap Quill so they could collect the bounty on him. They are people who don’t like each other and seem to have nothing in common, besides all being criminals. But they all end up coming together when they find out the orb Quill has is worth a lot of money. They all make a plan and escape from this prison, and go on their way. Along the way, they visit strange places and run into many interesting creatures. They find out what the orb really is, but I won’t spoil that here. What finally makes their team cohesive remains to be seen, you’ll have to watch and see. How will they achieve their goal? Can they work together as a real team? And what is so special about this strange orb?
Chris Pratt does a wonderful job as Starlord/Peter Quill. He seems to just be a thief who is in a rush to make a few bucks and sleep with a lot of different woman. Through the film he not only becomes a hero, but shows more courage and determination than you would think he was ever capable of. Bradley Cooper is wonderful as Rocket, a foul mouthed raccoon with anger issues who only seems to care about himself. By the end of the film, he not only ends up having a big heart but he also really does care about each person on this team and wants to do what he can to help save the galaxy. Zoe Saldana was made to play Gamora. This character seems to be a simple assassin, but in reality she has more of a conscious and heart than most anyone else in the film, and she wants to make sure no one gets hurt by Ronan. Lee Pace plays Ronan very well, and he is an easy villain to hate. This man just wants revenge and power, and he will do whatever it takes to achieve those goals no matter who is killed along the way. Just when you think he can’t sink any lower into evil, he does and it is a shocking what he will do to achieve his goals.
This movie did very well in theaters this weekend. It got the #1 spot and made $94 million, with $11.2 million just from the Thursday night screenings which helped make it the second biggest opening of the summer. Originally it was thought this film would bomb in theaters because of the lack of recognizable characters and a plot that involved unknown planets, but audiences and critics alike loved this film. I had a blast watching this movie, from the beginning to the end I was either laughing or on the edge of my seat, eager to see what was going to happen next. The best things going for this movie were the special effects and the soundtrack. Each song fit perfectly in so many scenes, and to see these worlds come alive made this film more fun for me. If you want to see a film that will make you laugh, this is the film for you. If you are a fan of any of the people in this movie, you should go see it with a date or even with your friends. It is a must see whether you are a Marvel fan or not.