Guardians Of The Galaxy are the Guardians of the Heart
As with many ensemble movies, we are given a truly motley crew of individuals, and each could be considered a misfit in his or her own right. We start with Peter Quill aka Star-Lord as played by Chris Pratt (The Lego Movie), a man who as a boy is faced with losing his mother from cancer, and it’s implied that he lost his father at an even younger age. And to top it off, almost immediately after the death of his mother, is kidnapped by a space ship filled with ravagers (led by Yondu Udonta played by Michael Rooker from The Walking Dead), and grows to adulthood having no sense of real family or friends. Then there is Gamora played by sci-fi chameleon Zoe Saldana (Star Trek, Avatar), a female alien fighting machine who is adopted by Thanos the Titan after he killed her family, and is now bent on stopping her adopted father. Rocket Raccoon is a brilliantly CGI animated character voiced by Bradley Cooper (The Hangover). Rocket comes off as an incorrigible and unpleasant character, although he is brilliant with weapons, machinery and tactics. He is truly irritating, but in learning his past we come to see he is more than just an annoying two-dimensional character, rather one who has physically suffered great torment that has served to scar a very tender heart. Pro-wrestler Dave Bautista lends his brute strength, as well as unexpected comedic humor, to Drax, a man who watched his wife and child be killed and now seeks revenge. Then there is Groot, the Guardians second CGI character voiced by Vin Diesel (Pitch Black), a humanoid tree who only speaks three words, and as fierce as “it” can be, shows the greatest humanity of all. Each of these characters has suffered terrible tragedy, and it could be argued that each (well at least three out of the five) have all lost families. That is where this movie’s heart resides.
The plot, on its surface, plays itself as a simple popcorn action film. This is not intended as a bad thing. After all, it does come from a comic book. After our individual characters come together to form an uneasy alliance, we are given a truly spectacular look into what the regions of outer space look like in this Marvel Cinematic Universe, and it does not disappoint. To the casual watcher it comes off as a richly textured universe with more interesting characters than people know what to do with. To the eagle-eyed Marvel fanatic it is filled with enough Easter Eggs to make any geek squee with sheer delight. The real plot of the movie starts off simply and we are given your basic movie character types. We have our heroes (Peter Quill, Groot), we have our anti-heroes (Gamora, Drax), and we even have our mercenary types (Rocket), as well as our villains (Ronan, Yondu, Thanos). The movie almost presents itself as a demonstration of a textbook summer flick, and that was what I was expecting.
Yes, I was expecting to be disappointed after the wonderful movies that Marvel had put out so far. For the life of me I could not see how this same studio could craft a movie worthy of standing next to the earlier Marvel films. I was expecting another Star Wars. Granted, I loved Star Wars when it first came out and watched it so many times I lost count, but this is a Marvel movie. I wanted something better that could stand next to movies such as Thor and Captain America: The Winter Soldier, but I just couldn’t see how that was possible. Well I underestimated Marvel and their ability to produce a truly spectacular looking movie filled with substance.