Han Solo was Star Wars secret weapon. The wise cracking bandit treated all the wonder around him as if it was run of the mill bland stuff. Guardians of the Galaxy postulates the question: what if Star Wars was told entirely from Han Solo’s point of view? The result is an intergalactic space comedy that never takes itself too seriously. Purple stone that kills massive amounts of people? Sure. Talking raccoon? Why not. Giant tree that only says 3 words? Pick ’em up!
Peter Quill (Chris Pratt) gets taken up to outer space after his mom dies of cancer. After that, he becomes a thief that steals random things for profit (see the Han Solo parallel?). He steals an orb that everyone seems to want, drawing the team to Quill: Gamora (Zoe Saldana, wearing another primary color) wants the orb to make sure Thanos (Josh Brolin), her adopted father, does not get it; Rocket (voice of Bradley Cooper) and Groot (voice of Vin Diesel) want Quill to collect the reward on his head from Quill’s former partner Yondu (Michael Rooker); and Drax (Dave Bautista) wants Gamora as bait to avenge his family’s murder at the hands of Ronan (Lee Pace), who covets the stone for his own personal use. Oh, and the Collector (Benicio Del Toro) and Glenn Close are involved. Whew.
What Marvel does so well compared to copycats out there is understand the characters and tone of its comics that it is adapting. The Guardians of the Galaxy is wise cracky and lighthearted on its surface, and oh man, will you laugh at this film. Dance montages to cheesy pop songs from the past are used in key character and plot moments. Monologues get rudely interrupted by gunfire. When putting together a bomb, one character asks for an amusing piece he has no intention of using just for a joke. To balance the jokes, Guardians uses a heavy undercurrent of sadness and redemptions. It’s easy to root for Rocket and Groot because of who they are, and Quill, Drax, and Gamora have such tragic backstories that their evolution is rooted for. Guardians flirts heavily with character mockery to keep things easy like Sunday morning, but mostly walks the serious line very well, never forgetting the rules of a great summer blockbuster.
The other great Marvel rule is spectacular effects. Director James Gunn makes the jump to the big leagues well: the movie mostly uses the effects to service the story, not the other way around (outside of the giant Macguffin orb). Groot and Rocket look close enough to their real life counterparts that it’s hard to believe they aren’t real things. The space battles are gigantic in scope and cool to look at, including a giant space net of fighter planes. The galaxies and planet hopping is hella fun, creating color concoctions nicely upon the eyes. The effects threaten to consume the story in the third act battle that’s obviously coming, but they never wholly take center stage from our talented band of outcasts.
Good thing too, because this group rivals the Avengers in terms of crazy fun personality. Chris Pratt’s goofiness is on full display here, giving Peter Quill a Luke Skywalker filtered through Han Solo’s perspective vibe. Pratt proves adept at carrying a franchise, nailing the joke beats easily and shockingly decent at some of the small emotional moments. Zoe Saldana reinvents the Princess type into an ass-kicking take no prisoners chick. Her grounded pain plays nicely off of Pratt and anchors the Guardian’s motives. Dave Bautista is wisely limited to what the wrestler is good at: staring angrily and looking hulky. His literal personality is one of the Guardians best running gags. However, as expected, the big winners here are Bradley Cooper’s CGI Rocket and Vin Diesel’s Groot. Cooper is Han Solo here, landing every joke thrown at him with aplomb. The movie’s best moments are little jokes Rocket throws into a chaotic situation. As Groot, Vin Diesel found the role he was born to play: a giant tree that says 3 words. That being said, Groot’s 3 words magically create the most likable character in a film filled with them. John C. Reilly, Djimon Hounsou, Michael Rooker, Glenn Close, and Benicio Del Toro do fun things in support. If there is a weakness in casting, it’s Lee Pace as the villain Ronan, who is nondescript and uninteresting: makes me wish Josh Brolin’s Thanos had more to do here.
Guardians of the Galaxy feels like Marvel’s out of left field story (confirmed by the post credits scene). Like the great summer blockbusters, Guardians embraces the wacky as normal, making the jokes even more wacky as a result. I mean, how could you not enjoy a raccoon with a giant gun on top of a tree laying waste to a bunch of bad guys?