Guardians of the Galaxy is good. Like Iron Man 1 good. As of late, Marvel hasnt done much to change up the formula of their cinematic universe films, I found the sequels to Captain America and Thor to be to repetitive or unoriginal to completely enjoy. They werent bad movies, they just werent everything they could have been. I began to believe that Marvel was running out of fuel just as they got off the ground. Fortunately, Guardians has shattered that belief. Im not sure whether it was the studio or director James Gunn, but this film manages to feel unique, independent from the world of the Avengers in terms of scope and tone. The direction and writing of the movie are really top notch here. I would say that Chris Pratts charasmatic Starlord steals the show, but realistically, nearly every character has moments that make them feel like the star. And this actually isnt a bad thing. Films with casts this big usually have trouble establishing whos who and whos doing what. But Guardians excellent pacing gives each character enough time for both crucial development, and for some fun one on one action sequences. Guardians knows exactly what to give the audience and in what dosage. Guardians runs just under two hours, making it one of the shortest pictures Marvel has put out in the last two years. This brevity has made the story concise and well managed. From rewatching several of the trailers for the movie, it looks like the crew shot a decent amount of footage that is not used in the final product. Any unnecessary padding was left on the cutting room floor. There were only one or two moments that felt unexplained, and they are distracting, but thankfully, the movie doesnt dwindle on them, it transitions from sequence to sequence in quick enough succession to distract from this minor flaw. And for the most part, it succeeds. I was apprehensive when Guardians was announced, the concept seemed too hectic to be turned into an enjoyable movie. In the time since that announcement, my opinions on the film have done a complete 180°. Guardians is the best film Ive seen this summer, and one of the funniest releases of recent memory.
Posted on: Mon, 04 Aug 2014 03:40:11 +0000