“Guardians of the Galaxy” is terrific – easily one of this year’s best movies. When it was over, my wife, who rarely expresses enthusiasm about the films we see together, looked at me and said, “I want to see it again.” She’d spent the last two hours laughing and singing along to the songs, so I knew she’d enjoyed it.
Her endorsement is the only one you need, but she’s not the one who’s supposed to fill this space, I am, so I’ll offer my thoughts, too.
In writing about “Guardians,” I’m tempted to slip back into my young teen persona and gush. I was 13 when “Star Wars” came out in 1977. That movie swallowed my summer vacation whole as my friends and I saw it more times than we could count, and wasted untold hours absorbed in discussion about it. (Yes, we were dorks, but we were happy.) When we talked about “Star Wars,” we didn’t analyze the movie critically or discuss its merits as a film; we shared our favorite scenes: the first time the Millennium Falcon jumped into hyperspace; the lightsaber duel between Darth Vader and Obi-Wan Kenobi; the attack run on the Death Star.
Were you and I to sit down over Doritos, Coke, and old issues of Starlog Magazine, as my friends and I did back in the day, and talk about “Guardians,” I’d tell you I loved how Drax the Destroyer was unable to understand metaphor, and how this running joke produced big laughs, including one in which he doesn’t comprehend what a slashing motion across a neck means. “Why would I touch my neck?” he asks fellow guardian, Peter “Starlord” Quill, in all earnestness. We’d then share a good laugh.
Maybe you’d tell me you enjoyed the ‘80s pop culture references, served courtesy of Quill, who was born on Earth and raised there until a certain age. We’d then say, “We’re just like Kevin Bacon!” in unison before sharing another laugh.
I’d counter with high praise for the soundtrack, which injects several oldies but goodies into the action, to superb effect. Again, I’ll defer to my wife, who turned to me while singing Blue Swede’s “Hooked on a Feeling” and said, “I want the soundtrack to this movie.” Not only had she never said that combination of words to me, she’d never uttered them in her life. There is something chili cheesy about watching a space ship rocket across the cosmos to David Bowie’s “Moonage Daydream.”
We could go on for hours, and it would be a joy. That said, you might be feeling like the kid whose parents wouldn’t let him see “Star Wars.” All he could do was sit on the edge of our circle and smile like a bigger dork than the rest of us because he didn’t have a clue.
So, to clue you in, “Guardians” is a Marvel movie in which five criminals (including a talking raccoon and a sentient tree) band together to save the galaxy from villainous, destructive evil. The story really is as simple as that. What must not have been easy for writer and director James Gunn was concocting the perfect blend of humor, heart, action, chemistry, and sheer fun. “Galaxy” is not Shakespeare, but it is pop culture entertainment at its best.
Comparisons to “Star Wars” are not entirely misguided. Like the George Lucas’s classic swashbuckling space opera, “Galaxies” is centered around characters people will genuinely care about. However, I don’t believe it has the qualities that will make it an enduring classic on par with “Star Wars.” That’s not to say it isn’t terrific. As I already said, it is.
When my friends and I would part ways at the end of the day, we’d leave a trail of final remarks in the night air – little snippets meant to finish our discussion about our then favorite movie: “The music! Bummm bummm bum bum bum bummm bummm ...” (I already said we were dorks; give it a rest.)
I’ll do the same to close this review: “I am Groot!”
Three-and-a-half-stars out of four. Rated PG-13 for intense sequences of sci-fi violence and action, and for some language.