Reel Review: The Guardians Of The Galaxy

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I didn’t love or hate ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’ and that is why I was so disappointed with the film. The main problem I found with GOTG is that it suffers from an overcrowded ensemble – there were too many main characters. This is something comics do not suffer from, but some movies can be victims to*, so therefore GoTG was an excellent comic adaptation, but not so much a blockbuster movie.

When Avengers (2012) came out, there was also concern of an overcrowded ensemble. Not only that, but they had huge stars all gaging on the main role. Many believed that Iron Man/Robert Downey Jr. would upstage the cast, or that not all the Avengers would receive enough screen time. This dread was quickly silenced when notable ensemble director Joss Whedon (Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Firefly) took the helm, but the suspicions remained.

Additionally all the heroes in Avengers were given more than 5 movies to set up their origin story. GoTG, however, does not have an origin story, at least not with the current crew (i.e. Starlord, Gamora, Drax, Rocket and Groot), and so one had to be made.

This was the major difference between the two films. As such, GoTG suffered from having to introduce five main characters while giving them a reason to form a crew and guard the galaxy. Personally I felt the movie fell flat on its face in their attempt; coupled with their use of intergalactic worlds rarely mentioned in the previous Marvel Universe movies the overall aesthetic of the film seemed foreign and unrelated – it felt like it belonged in a Star Wars film.

It was difficult to really grasp the motivation of all the characters too. With the exception of Rocket (voiced by Bradley Cooper) and Groot (voiced by Vin Diesel), the others seemed either 2 dimensional or unclear on what role they were supposed to play:

Peter Quill/Starlord (Chris Pratt) had a moving opening scene. As emotional as this could have been, it was only 3-4 minutes long and after this, we never get any indication of who Peter became. Is he the bumbling buffoon who drops things and improvises a lot; or the suave, heart of gold, Han Solo-esque renegade who will sacrifice his own life for friendship; or is he the strategic, resourceful leader who can escape from gunpoint and fly a spaceship while using the metal claws of a smaller spaceship? He seemed to be all of these and none of these at the same time.

Gamora (Zoe Saldana) is the step daughter of Thanos and is considered the most dangerous woman in the galaxy. She is evil looking and seems to be the trusted right hand woman of Thanos himself. But then she tells us that she intends to double-cross Thanos and is actually a good person. Now, it is not the audience’s responsibility to take her word, and for those unfamiliar with the comics, she doesn’t actually seem genuine. But her story is never developed and we just accept that she is telling the truth and that she hates Thanos.**

Drax the Destroyer is a rampaging meat head out to avenge his lost wife and daughter. There was some serious potential to make his story arc a heartfelt addition to the crew; his hate and anger transformed into a plight for the 5 to come together. But his character ended up blending with the comic relief and became as stunted and dumb as The Juggernaut in X-Men 3. He charged around a lot, but the moniker ‘The Destroyer’ was a bit of a stretch, never seeming to do very much or do much damage to his enemies – he is much more hardcore in the comics.

Having said all this, once the movie had all introductions out of the way, and some notion of trust established between the 5 to stay as one, the movie finally took off in the final half, giving a lot of fan service and a rather entertaining and touching ending. The characters became more believable as a group of misfits with a shared philosophy and really made it easier to enjoy the final conclusion.

Rocket and Groot really did most of the heavy lifting; Rocket giving an emotional recount of being ‘torn apart and put back together’ while dolling out some good old ‘space western’ humour. Groot’s final act of sacrifice was more poignant than any of Drax’s hurt or pain for revenge. The irony is that we get a more clear-cut personality in the CGI characters in this film than the actors themselves. The villain in this, Ronan the Accuser (Lee Pace) was both campy but intimidating, I really liked his design and scenery chewing, but angry-man-who-wants-to-destroy-world is as far as he goes in terms of depth of character.

Overall the movie was over hyped for me and seemed to be rushed into production or made for the purpose of a sequel. I didn’t feel connected to any of the characters to begin with but as soon as the formalities were out of the way the movie was able to shine as a standalone Marvel flick.

*Good examples of ensemble movies are, ‘Little Miss Sunshine’ (2006), ‘Serenity’ (2005) and ‘Snatch’ (2000).

**A good example of developing a character’s history in one scene is in Wanted (2008) where we see Fox’s (Angelina Jolie) history and why she trusts Sloan (Morgan Freeman).