Guardians of the Galaxy (2014)

Guardians of the Galaxy (2014)

Release Date: August 1, 2014

Last time in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Captain America: The Winter Soldier changed everything. Okay, not everything, the sky is still blue and the Berlin Wall hasn’t been rebuilt, but it did change the status quo in a significant way. The more light-hearted Guardians of the Galaxy provides a welcome breather for the audience, as well as representing the first step into a new frontier.

Bringing this back for fun and profit.

Before the space stuff though, there’s a prologue in which young Peter Quill is at the bedside of his mother, who is dying of a terminal disease, and because of that, he is too frightened to grant her last wish and hold her hand as she dies. Just when I was starting to think I put the wrong film on by mistake, Peter runs outside and gets beamed up on to a passing spaceship.

Fast forward to the present day, and the film quickly settles into the space adventure we were expecting. The now adult Quill, or Star Lord as he is referred to by himself and nobody else, finds a valuable orb and is able to keep hold of it even after forces working for the nefarious space terrorist Ronan try to seize it, but is unfortunately unable to sell it for that reason. As a consequence, a bounty is put on Quill’s head, which is pursued by bounty hunter duo Rocket and Groot, and Ronan’s minion Gamora. The resulting chase between the four gets them arrested and thrown in prison together. Perhaps anticipating that someone would try to trade him for a cigarette, Rocket helps the four escape the prison, along with new tagalong Drax the Destroyer, who doesn’t get along with Gamora because Ronan killed his wife and daughter.

Quill tries to sell the orb to the Collector, who reveals that inside the orb is one of the Infinity Stones, six extremely powerful artefacts, but before they can seal the deal, the Collector’s assistant uses the stone to destroy the building, killing herself in the process. The Guardians get over their loss of 4 billion units by getting drunk and gambling on space cockfighting instead, until Drax drunkdials Ronan and challenges him to 1v1 on Rust m8. Ronan isn’t one to turn down a challenge, so he beats up Drax after telling him that for Drax, the death of family was the most important day of his life, but for Ronan it was Tuesday, leaves Gamora to almost die in space, requiring Quill to hand himself in to a group of space pirates lead by his mentor Yondu to save her, and taking the Infinity Stone, which will allow him to destroy planet Xandar. The last one leads Ronan to realise that he doesn’t need his boss Thanos anymore, and promptly turns on him.

Upon reuniting, the Guardians convince Yondu’s crew and the Nova Corps, space law enforcement, to help them stop Ronan and save Xandar. They succeed in protecting Xandar’s surface from Ronan’s forces, and destroying the boss ship when Rocket drives his ship into Ronan to run him over. Groot sacrifices himself to protect his new friends from the boss ship’s crash, proving that Vin Diesel can still make grown men cry with a single innocent utterance before giving his life to save another. 

 That missile was aimed right at the feels.

However, in a shock reveal, Ronan survived the crash too! Quill reveals that the time has come for him to Step Up and Stomp the Yard, because he was able to Save the Last Dance and leave Ronan Footloose with his Dirty Dancing. Street Dance 3D. The distraction allows Drax to destroy Ronan’s hammer so that Quill can retrieve the Infinity Stone. The other Guardians hold on to Quill so that the Infinity Stone’s power is shared between them by the Power of Friendship, allowing them to survive the stone’s power and destroy Ronan. For good measure, Groot starts to grow back too and starts dancing to 80s music. He has good taste in music.

Once again, Guardians of the Galaxy is very different in tone to previous Marvel films. Though most of the other films have had humorous moments or scenes, this is arguably the first full-on comedy to come from the stable. The tone is more laid-back and light-hearted, and the group dynamic is quite different from the Avengers, in that the Guardians run primarily on greed, fun times or a desire to kill things, whereas the goals of the Avengers are a bit more altruistic. Groot serves as the token good teammate, but only in the sense that he’s less of a dick than everyone else. This makes it clear that, after the prologue, the film doesn’t take itself too seriously, and there are plenty of laughs to be had. My picks for the funniest moments are Rocket’s habit of stealing prosthetic limbs, the discussion of whether people can be 100% a dick,  and the climactic dance battle. Hopefully the next Avengers film will end with Tony Stark challenging Ultron to throw down.

The soundtrack adds to the fun. The film is backed by an extensive collection of cheesy 70s and 80s hits, which again give the film a distinct identity, and continue to convey the breezy tone. The selection of tracks gives the film a pulpy matinee feel, as if it’s paying homage in its own way to the period that saw Star Wars, which this film owes a lot of inspiration to, become a global phenomenon and cultural juggernaut. For the record, yes, Hooked on a Feeling is still stuck in my head. Ooga chaka intensifies!

The film’s best quality is its ability to transport you to a completely different universe and manage to make it so convincing. One of the reasons for this is the excellent costume and make-up work that makes all the various alien races stand out and immediately draw attention to themselves. The effect is further sold by the incredible amount of detail that goes into the designs. Characters that have implants or intricate designs on their multi-coloured bodies blend together seamlessly, which makes it easy to forget that these are actors, and people aren’t really blue or green. The best designs are arguably the tattoos that adorn Drax’s body, and the black markings on Ronan’s face that strike a big contrast with his blue skin and makes him look quite intimidating. On a set design note, the Collector’s collection of the strange is also a cool area for showing off all sorts of strange alien iconography to achieve a similar effect.

Guardians of the Galaxy is very fun to watch, and the tone and setting invoke the feel of a modern day Star Wars. In fact, Guardians of the Galaxy is a better modern Star Wars than the actual modern Star Wars.

Stan Lee Spotter: Stan Lee continues to flirt with pretty women. This time, Rocket sees him doing his stuff on planet Xandar. At this point, I would like to see Stanny Bravo, in which Stan Lee tries to seduce every woman in the Marvel universe.

Bonus: This trailer mashup uses footage and dialogue from Star Wars, but edits it in such a way to make it feel like this film. It’s an even better trailer edit than the one that made Mary Poppins look like a horror film.

Next Time: I’ve already told you what it is.