Guardians of the Galaxy review!

Glib Reviews Of Recent Movies

In the Fricking theatre, yet

AKA, How I saw Guardians Of the Galaxy on the Opening weekend, instead of going to Pride.

Guardians Of the Galaxy
- Directed by James Gunn

Yeah, so, after not going to see the new X-Men movie earlier this year, or Amazing Spider-Man 2, I waited until GOTG came out this weekend to brave the superhero experience known as going to the movies. So many tent-pole Super movies, so little time.

I am a bigger comic book nerd (though I don’t retain facts and continuity the way I did when I was young) than I am a movie nerd, which is saying something. I read, have read all the comics, well maybe not all, but definitely all of one my favourite 21st century reboots: ‘The Guardians of the Galaxy’. As recreated by Abnett and Lanning, the modern heirs to Jim Starlin, crafted a nice mix of old obscure to all but the biggest Bill Mantlo, Tom Sutton fans, like myself, GOTG became in the 00’s, one of the fan favourite Marvel Properties. Nobody else was really doing much “cosmic” heroics, which frankly they should be. Where is my gritty ROM, Space-Knight reboot, for example!

On to the movie: It’s a wonderful example of the right kind of balance of humour, action, adventure, and special effects that make good summer movies hum. Chris Pratt, makes a "star turn," as the “leader” (self named "Star Lord")of this motley band of smugglers, bounty hunters, who have enough decency to not sell planet killing technology to obviously Evil Space Monologuists, aka ‘Villains’. There is real chemistry between the gang of pretty dorky heroes and you are cheering for them quickly. 

The SFX are stellar, and the action sequences, and reinvention for movie audiences of big concepts like ‘the Nova Corps’, and all the Space Politics between them and the Blue-skinned Kree (whose Space Destroyers are some of the coolest looking ships in Sci-Fi, in a while), especially the nicely juiced up version of Ronan the Accuser, played by Lee Pace. Thanos, of course lurks, in his big chair, which for hardcore fans like me, is so awesome to see, him pulling the strings for future movies, just like in the Comics.

There are of course flaws here and there, like none of the female characters have much in the way of character development. Gamora, being a main team player, gets the Black widow treatment, ala the Avengers. A few cool fight scenes, and some gooey eyes at Star Lord, that the “real Gamora” of the comics, would cringe at. Romance, or at least sexual chemistry, is far more important in a movie than in a comic book, though. Different kind of story telling, and I’m glad there was no full blown sex scenes or anything, just some awkward tension between people with really traumatic upbringings. 

Which is all you get in the comics. Gamora’s best years for me, were when she was teamed up with Adam Warlock (who she was trained/created to kill). But maybe Adam Warlock will slip in later in movie continuity? one can hope. I would have liked a bit more of the interplay between her and her ‘sister’ Nebula, hopefully in the next movie, we will get a bit of that, as Thanos ups his game, and gets off his big Space Throne.

Very entertaining summer movie that hasn’t disappointed the comic book reader in me, just the opposite, in fact. 



9.1112346 Time wasting Evil Monologues outta 10


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