Guardians Of The Galaxy

...these days, it takes a little more to get me to want to spend the money required to see a film in the theater. Smaller, character-driven films are as good as their big budget counterparts but they lack the spectacle that larger movies provide. Cliché as it is, $12 and up is a lot to ask for a movie in the current economic climate so I personally enjoy getting the most of my money. As much as I found 12 Years A Slave a worthy film, I feel as if I got as much from it on BluRay as I would have anywhere. Big summer movies are more carefully constructed with the theater in mind - larger canvas for larger worlds.

Marvel has been an interesting studio for the past 6 years now. Since the release of Iron Man, they have handily dominated the theaters every summer. Their movies showcase larger-then-life superheroic protagonists that engage in antics requiring massive budgets, but there is always a good story at the center of it all. As they continue to evolve, their world-building becomes ever more complex and depth-filled. The Marvel films find themselves exploring dark crevices of human nature as well as pulling the viewer in with good humor. These are broad films with mass appeal because they have different ingredients for a diverse audience.

Marvel has taken a gamble or two in the past. When the first trailer for Iron Man was released, I knew of one friend who had read an Iron Man comic book and few more that knew of the existence of Tony Stark. Today, Iron Man is known the world over. My five year old nephew is growing up in a world where Iron Man is as recognizable and vital as any character in any medium. Iron Man went from a B-list Marvel hero with a strong comic book cult following to a creation that has the attention of the globe. Iron Man is beloved by much of humankind, thanks in large part to the pitch perfect portrayal by Robert Downey Jr.

There have been other gambles from Marvel since Iron Man. Thor was another gamble in both character and it's then-unknown star. Some might even argue that Captain America was a gamble as well, though Steve Rogers is as old as Superman. The point is that Marvel has believed in their roster for the world of big budget films in the past, turning comic book properties with mid-level recognizability into worldwide phenomenon's. This past weekend, Marvel took an enormous gamble when they released Guardians Of The Galaxy into theaters.

Before the film was announced, I had never heard of Guardians Of The Galaxy. Admittedly, it was The Dark Knight, Watchmen, Hellboy 2 and Iron Man that got me into the comic book shop and made me an avid collector and reader. Six years of being a comic shop regular and fan and Guardians Of The Galaxy felt as if it was on no one's radar. For Marvel to greenlight a film project of a virtually unknown property, let alone the massive budget utilized to do so, this felt Marvel going big on making a qualifying statement. They were and are not going away and they are not to be taken lightly.

But how would the film actually hammer out? Attaching quirky Troma film director James Gunn with a few indie/horror/exploitation titles to his name to an unknown Marvel property with a monster budget did not seem to make conventional sense. No matter - Marvel was not called "The House Of Ideas" for no reason. After seeing the fantastic spectacle that is Guardians Of The Galaxy this past Friday, it is amazingly obvious that Marvel is still the house of ideas.

Taking the Marvel universe off-world and into the furthest reaches of outer space, this property has limitless possibilities on the level of Star Trek. However, rather than reaching for high-minded concepts that Star Trek is known for, Guardians Of The Galaxy exists more in the imaginative and adventurous. One example of this playful nature is the planet Knowwhere, a mining colony inside of a massive ancient alien skull now populated by robots and weird beings, most notably the Andy Warhol-esque character The Collector, played by Benicio Del Toro. One complaint...we need more of The Collector going forward.

The effects are what are too be expected here from an enormous sci-fi tale in unknown space. The color palette is a mixture of muted tones of green, red and black off world while bright and pronounced on planetary locations such as Nova Core. The story spends an equal amount of time in both types of locales so as to not bombard the viewer with too much of one or the other. The CG effects created for the alien creatures, specifically Rocket Raccoon and Groot, are beautiful and emotive. All of the window dressing in the world is nothing without a great story with great characters telling it.

The Guardians are a rag tag group of "losers" (their words) that come together through a series of haphazard events, but they gel in such a seamless manner that one can now refer to them as "the band". Chris Pratt's Star Lord is a cocksure adventurer with nothing to lose. Gamora is an emotionless warrior woman with a hollowed out inside. Drax The Destroyer carries a tragic backstory and can't seem to comprehend anything other than extreme literal interpretation. Rocket Raccoon is a bounty hunter with a major Napoleon complex, uttering some of the best lines in the film. Lastly, Groot is Rocket's sidekick and muscle, a overgrown walking tree that only has three words of dialogue and somehow manages to garner some of the biggest audience affection. How these disparate personalities gel comes with watching this movie progress.

On the flipside, the antagonist is a dark, brooding figure of emotionless evil named Ronan The Accuser. Though he is an underling to Thanos, he commands this role and his place in this story. His bravado is extremely intimidating, placing him high atop my list of best villain characters in the history of film, superhero or other. His dialogue is very dark and Shakespearean, a complete offset to the otherwise lighter tone of the film. Where it shines through best is near the end where it is met so beautifully with a pie in the face.

Guardians Of The Galaxy is the first movie I have seen in quite awhile where I wanted to go back into the theater and see it a second time. It resides on it's own in the Marvel universe as the first from the studio that is not a superhero film. Skipping the origin story, it drops you directly in and then proceeds to take you wherever it wants.