Overall verdict: 6/10
The space Avengers and their shallow funny romp among the stars
The Good: Well written comedy, amazing visual effects, excellent cast chemistry
The Bad: lack of character development, mediocre music, badly timed comedy kills drama and tension, comes off as a bad parody that does not take itself seriously, unnecessary changes to existing comic characters
***********Review***********
Guardians of the galaxy is the fluff of a Saturday morning cartoon aimed to please the lowest common denominator of audiences. It's special effects loaded visuals and overdone comedy act like drugs, numbing the senses to the narrative incoherence, overly convenient plot twists and flat characters. Furthermore it commits the worst crime of any comic book adaptation of completely misinterpreting the original characterisations of the characters just to serve the writers' own ends, which in this case seems to be more comedy.
We open on young Peter Quill who gets abducted by aliens following the death of his mother. No doubt we are supposed to feel much sadness for this unfortunate youngster. But this traumatic event hardly factors into the story as we cut to 20 years later where Peter Quill has grown up to be a space faring Indiana Jones, minus the gruff charm but with added dose of "American pie" style goofiness. He is comic relief number 1, and starting with his introductory scene the movie throws all heavy stakes and any sense of peril out the proverbial window as the self named "star lord" dances through a dangerous cave casually kicking aside carnivorous critters, all to the tune "come get your love". And that is the first problem with this movie; it never takes itself seriously.
One strange artifact later, Quill runs into a green woman (Gamora) out to get that artifact, a talking raccoon comic relief number 2 and bellowing alien tree comic relief number 3 who are bounty hunters after Quill. They land in prison where they meet comic relief number 4, a green tough guy named Drax who's talk is bigger than his brain. Bearing only a visual resemblance to their comic counterparts, the titular characters have been changed for the sake of comedy. And that's the second problem: unnecessary changes to existing characters.
What was once a diverse team of warriors, each with their own skill and unique personality have been neutered into a rag tag bunch of losers who exist just to be funny. As mentioned, Starlord Peter Quill is Chris Pratt playing himself, all fun loving snarky, instead of the veteran intergalactic soldier from the comics. The cunning warrior Drax has been changed into a dim doofus for us to laugh at his inability to comprehend figure of speech. Groot, the scary tree with a berserker rage has been made peaceful and cute!
Conveniently they team up to escape from the prison, pursued by glorified space security Guards that claim to be the powerful nova corp from the comics (again, another stupid change). Somehow big bad Thanos is involved but we never know anything about him other than his underling Ronan cutting him off mid conversation and wanting to take over as big boss. And he needs Peter Quill's artifact to do that. There's some dude named The Collector, a jive talking blue dude named Yondu, and so many characters that we never know any back story about. Third problem: way too many character, much too little development.
Our characters don't seem to go through any development arc from start to finish. Nothing was changed by the experience of facing down Ronan and the characters are still who they are by the end of the film, other than the fact that they are now a team. Convenient plot hijinks ensue which causes an unprepared face off with Ronan, splits the team, reunites Peter with Yondu, and the team gets back together again in time for the big planet wide special effects laden showdown with Ronan's attacking force. These story beats are a dime a dozen, a relatively typical story of its kind with no surprises.
Of course credit where credit is due and credit goes to the first drug which is the special effects. They are magnificent. Space ships, aliens and more are right up ILM's alley having done the Star Wars movies. The action sequences are a breathtaking roller coaster worthy to have their own Disneyland ride. Credit also goes to the chemistry among the cast. While the frequent attempts at comedy kills the mood and any sense of danger, the interplay between characters can be genuinely funny and at times heartwarming. The dialogue is snappy and filled with energy as we are shown each characters' motivations and quirks. Like any good cartoon cast, they are a diverse bunch with distinct, if at times exaggerated, personalities which all contribute to the fun of the movie.
And that is practically it! Guardians of the galaxy is as fun as a cartoon, appealing to children and children at heart, playing heavy on nostalgia through its use of classic pop songs to spice up and otherwise run-of-the-mill tale. There is barely any depth or development of the characters, barely any deeper themes explored other than the whole "importance of putting aside differences and coming together" cliche that so many movies have done.
While I admit the comedy is well written, it can get overdone and when it comes right smack in the middle of drama, it kills the mood of more intense scenes, negating the sense of danger and peril. Ultimately GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY should have been titled as a movie completely separate from the comic book that inspired it considering all the liberties taken with the characters. It is fun fluff, but fluff nonetheless, dressing a mediocre story, shallow narrative and flat characters in the modern movie drug of humour and special effects.
***********Review***********
Entertainment: A-
Story: C
Story: C
Acting: A-
Characters: C+
Music: C-
Replay value: B-
"Brains": C-
No comments:
Post a Comment