I read a couple of issues of the original run of GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY from the 70s, and I recall them being morose, humorless, and relentlessly grim. There were mutants from a nuclear war being slaughtered by spacefaring raiders wielding swords (metal ones, not lightsabers) and the main character of the issues I had access to was a guy hermetically sealed in a skin-tight suit which he could not take off because he was 1,000 years old and would die if he did. I was never curious enough about the series to try to follow it -- fortuitous, since it didnt last long. And I was likewise never a reader of the revivals of the team: those from the 90s or the late 2000s. Basically, I went into the new movie as a virtual neophyte, uninitiated in the arcana of this particular milieu. And I came out liking it a lot. It isnt perfect -- third-act troubles, an out-of-left-field (for the uninitiated, which, again, I am) revelation about the main character, Starlord (aka Peter Quill, Parks and Recreations Chris Pratt), that is supposed to allow him to do something impossible, is the primary offense. But it didnt detract much from the movies overall quality. Its a team-coming-together movie, much like THE AVENGERS, and it shares not only that movies ultimate villain (Thanos, the mad titan, worshiper of death) but also its propensity for snappy dialogue and feuding protagonists. At its best, its humor is more subtle and wry than AVENGERS, and at its worst its just as good. (I particularly enjoyed the literal-minded Drax, who doesnt understand metaphor; this trait is mined for laughs in several of the movies funniest scenes.) Zoe Saldana is in this movie too, as Gamora, Thanoss surprise-adopted daughter, and under her coat of green paint, shes neither more nor less attractive -- or talented -- than ever. And thats all I have to say about that. Michael Rooker, as Ravagers leader Yondu, is likewise slathered in blue paint, and is armed only with an arrow, but nobodys likely to mistake him for a Naavi. Id feared, watching the trailer, that the movie would feel episodic and forced, and less than the sum of its parts; at worst, I feared another THE AVENGERS -- the flaccid 1996 version of the old British TV show, that is, not the 2012 superhero epic. Im happy to report that my fears were unfounded; the narrative, while not particularly groundbreaking, is solid and propulsive enough to serve. (The Macguffin is yet another super-powered, WETA-designed lightbulb, another Tesseract granting unlimited power to its owner -- oh, yeah, I forgot, there are six Infinity Stones, so counting the Tesseract, the one from the THOR sequel, and this one, were halfway through the Marvel Universes supply of glowing god-rocks... at which point, they might have to make a movie driven by character. The horror!) So, to sum up: galaxy-spanning threat, check; feuding team of misfits cobbled together (this time, without outside intervention from Samuel L. Jacksons Nick Patch Fury) to save the universe, check; hilarious dialogue, check check; glowing god-rock, check check check. All systems go; enjoy the movie.
Posted on: Fri, 01 Aug 2014 20:25:07 +0000
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