Guardians of the Galaxy

So, the new Guardians of the Galaxy movie is the latest in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and has loose ties to The Avengers and Thor 2 (at the very least) but is largely a stand-alone movie that will likely intersect with the other Marvel movies someday. You needn’t have seen all the other movies to see this one.

Guardians of the Galaxy is a big budget comedy sci-fi action flick that’s largely trying to entertain and make you laugh. And, in that, it succeeds. It’s not deep but it has a few brief moments of surprising depth, sadness, and warmth (the opening sequence is almost tragic enough to make me think parents might think twice about their kids watching). And then people make jokes and things explode and it looks damn good doing so.

Based on a very C (possibly D) list set of Marvel characters, the flick is more sci-fi space opera than superhero. As a bit of space pulp, it’s not bad. I’ve seen much better movies but that partly is due to my desire for more meat to my action flicks.

Too bad the villain was boring… again… somehow (except for Loki) Marvel is turning on its head the idea that the villains have the best rolls. But not in a good way since we should love our heroes but we should also fear or at least appreciate the villains. The baddie here was… well.. about as deep and scary as the so-borring-I’ve-forgotten-him-already baddie from Thor 2.

But I laughed which is largely the goal. I was entertained which is also the goal. I feel it was a better movie than, say, Thor 2 but not as good as Avengers or Iron Man 3, if making comparisons. It was slight, funny, and ultimately something worth seeing but may not very memorable.

Score: 84