Review: ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’

For a good while there, “Guardians of the Galaxy” has more in common with sci-fi space epics than it does with the other Marvel comic book superhero action movies and that is definitely a good thing.  It is a fun, joke-filled romp through some crazy locations, like a space jail filled with all sorts of beasts and the inside of a huge, floating, severed head of an ancient space god. There are different alien species and kooky technology and a walking tree and a talking raccoon and for the most part it all makes for a pretty damn good time at the movies.

So why does “Guardians of the Galaxy” feel a little hollow?

Because make no mistake, there is plenty of entertainment to be had from this thing, as it has an irreverent tone and sense of whimsy that has definitely been missing in this day and age of the brooding blockbuster. This movie doesn’t take itself seriously (except for the couple of scenes that we ARE supposed to take seriously), it has a fun 70’s pop soundtrack that keeps heads bopping and toes tapping, there are more special effects and huge action scenes than you can shake a stick at (if that’s the kinda stuff you want from your movies), and there are good performances from folks who are really giving it their all, really buying into their ridiculous characters and just selling the shit of them. So what the hell else does this movie need?

Well, how about a plot? Or a sense of theme? The entirety of “Guardians of the Galaxy” is about an orb, with a purple stone inside it, a stone which has immeasurable and kind of hard to define power, and a bunch of different groups of people want this orb with the stone in it and they are all fighting for it and that’s really it. The movie starts with Peter Quill aka Star Lord (Chris Pratt) doing an Indiana Jones style raid of some extraterrestrial tomb for this orb, and he gets it without any problems or complications, which is odd considering how powerful and important this thing ends up being.

Actually, that’s not the start of the movie. The movie starts with 11-year old Peter at his mother’s death bed as she is apparently about to eat it thanks to cancer, and right after she dies Peter gets abducted by aliens. The whole dying mother thing adds nothing to the story and only exists to gain sympathy for the lead character. “Oh, isn’t this sad? The dude’s mom died. Awww.” And the whole abduction thing? Yeah, no real explanation for that except at the very, very end. We may get one in the sequel, because there WILL be a sequel, so we’ll have to wait for the sequel to get the origin story. Greeeeat.

So anyway Quill gets the Orb, and then the rest of the movie is other people trying to get it, usually so they can turn around to give it to someone else. For people that know comic books and where this whole Marvel Cinematic Universe thing is going, we all know that this movie exists as a two-hour excuse to establish this particular macguffin of an orb, so that we can set up Thanos as the main bad guy of “Avengers 3.” And really that’s it. Otherwise this movie is just a fun diversion from the tales of Thor and Captain America and Tony Stark and so on, only tangentially related to those movies, yet somehow existing only as a piece of back story for them as well.

Because otherwise, what the hell is this movie about? Peter Quill becoming a hero? Why is that important? The movie starts with him as a bounty hunter of artifacts, a scavenger of sorts, and he kind of finds himself in the position of a hero by accident, just kinda stumbling into it, and he decides that he needs to try to save the galaxy, not necessarily because he wants to be a hero or because it is the right thing to do, but because as he notes himself, he is one of the people who happen to live in said galaxy. So this is more of a self preservation type of deal. It is not established at any point WHY he needs to change or grow or be a hero, it just sorta happens, and really its not a big deal, and he is really the same person in the beginning of the movie as he is by the end of the movie.

Really this movie isn’t actually ABOUT anything. Like how “Iron Man” is about how an arms dealer has a (literal) change of heart, and how “Captain America” is about a kid realizing his full potential (with the aid of steroids), and how “Captain America: The Winter Soldier” is about how governments can be underhanded and duplicitous, and how both Thor movies are about a rivalry between brothers as well as with their own father. Instead “Guardians of the Galaxy” is a lot like “The Avengers,” because both of those movies are all about characters pursuing an object, and one particular character either trying to control a world or destroy it. So do you need your movie to actually say something? Because if not, “Guardians of the Galaxy” is just about perfect.

Too bad this movie doesn’t have an actual story, as opposed to just being a series of loosely strung together action scenes and boring revenge-based motivations, because it has a lot of elements to be a classic movie, with interesting scenes, well shot action, lots of laughs and good actors doing good work. It just doesn’t have any, you know, substance. And that’s kind of important for the longevity of a piece of art, but then again, like the tunes used in this film’s soundtrack, maybe simple pop art is all that is needed to be lasting. Only time will tell in that regards.