Guardians of the Galaxy

Based on an obscure Marvel comic book, Guardians of the Galaxy follows a ragtag group of superheroes (Chris Pratt’s Peter Quill, Zoe Saldana’s Gamora, Dave Bautista’s Drax, Bradley Cooper’s Rocket, and Vin Diesel’s Groot) as they reluctantly combine forces to take down a nefarious figure known as Ronan the Accuser (Lee Pace). Filmmaker James Gunn, working from a screenplay written with Nicole Perlman, does a superb job of immediately luring the viewer into the larger-than-life storyline, as the movie boasts a lighthearted and effortlessly entertaining opening half hour that seems to promise a fun, old-school adventure. It’s clear, too, that the roster of uniformly affable characters goes a long way towards perpetuating the likeable vibe, with Pratt’s star-making turn as the movie’s cocky protagonist matched by a supporting cast rife with charismatic, memorable figures. The film begins to stumble, then, once the focus shifts to a narrative that’s almost distractingly convoluted, as Gunn and Perlman suffuse the dense storyline with references and plot devices that generally soar over the average viewer’s head – with the presence of obscure, Marvel-specific elements only exacerbating the movie’s increasingly esoteric, uninvolving vibe (ie it becomes more and more difficult to work up any real enthusiasm for or interest in the protagonists’ mission). Gunn’s ongoing emphasis on CGI-heavy and aggressively generic space battles doesn’t help matters, while the seemingly endless final stretch ensures that Guardians of the Galaxy concludes on as anticlimactic a note as one could’ve possibly envisioned – which is a shame, certainly, given the preponderance of decidedly above-average elements within the production (eg Pratt’s completely endearing performance is alone almost able to compensate for the film’s various missteps).

** out of ****