★★★★ out of 5
I am feeling better about the state of the world now that I have seen “Guardians of the Galaxy.” We are in good paws.
Young Peter Quill (Chris Pratt from “The Lego Movie”) is having a rough day. His mother dies of cancer, and he runs outside the hospital seeking answers from the heavens. At that moment, a light appears in the sky. Turns out it’s a spaceship that snatches him up and takes him away.
Jump 26 years later to a barren planet where Peter has become a Ravager, which is a cross between Indiana Jones and Boba Fett. He’s looking for this magical Orb that everybody wants and other alien folks will pay him handsomely for. He finds the Orb, others find him and we are off to the space races.
Some of the “things” that want the Orb and/or want to kill Peter become allies, starting with Gamora (Zoe Saldana from “Avatar”) whose “father” wants to destroy a bunch of other planets. Just out for the money is Rocket (Bradley Cooper from “The Hangover“), who is mostly a raccoon but you can’t say that to his snout, I mean face. His companion is, naturally, a tree called Groot (Vin Diesel from “Riddick”), who lumbers through the movie until his woodworking skills are required. The muscle is Drax (Dave Bautista from “Riddick”), who surprisingly had some of the most tender character moments. There is a whole intra-galactic Israeli-Palestinian thing going on here that Peter’s team gets dragged into.
There is a lot going on in the movie, but the chase for the Orb keeps everything on track. Since Peter was taken from Earth in 1988 Earth, the futuristic sci-fi adventure is allowed to pull from our nostalgic ‘70s and ‘80s music and references. I have to admit that after seeing the trailer I wondered how all this was going to work. Now that I have seen it, I know that it all works, and I still don’t know how. The mood is dark and the tone is light. Most of the characters are not real, but you care about what happens to them nevertheless.
I could say that it was all derivative, but none of that mattered. The dang thing is just so entertaining, and for that I must give it 4 stars out 5. These guys can guard my galaxy anytime.
Tom Basham is an indie filmmaker. Here is a link to his movie review site: http://bashmovies.wordpress.com
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