‘Guardians Of The Galaxy’ Review: Another Marvel Mega-Hit?

Is Guardians of the Galaxy just the latest in a string of Mega Hits from Marvel? All signs point to yes.

As wary as many Marvel fans are of spoilers – let’s say this review is light on spoilers, but purists who want to see the film with virgin eyes might want to steer clear.

Still with me? Good.

According to Robbie Collin of The Telegraph, Guardians of the Galaxy is a “pop-culture gem.”

Guardians of the Galaxy starts off with a boy in America in 1988. His mother is afflicted with terminal cancer and the boy stands by her hospital bed, listening to the heart monitor as she futilely clings to life. The boy is Peter Quill, and soon enough a spaceship arrives, beams him up, and sets him off on a lifelong adventure.

Picking up twenty years later, Guardians of the Galaxy rejoins Quill, played by the now uber-buff Chris Pratt, who sweeps through the galaxy under the swaggering moniker, Star Lord, as he hunts for interstellar treasure. Quill discovers a mysterious orb – the subject of the earliest Guardians of the Galaxy trailers – which sets the film’s plot points in motion. Superweapons are discovered, and intergalactic cities are threatened.

Enter the other Guardians of the Galaxy. Quill is thrown into the midst of Gamora (Zoe Saldana), a warrior princess who happens to be green, Drax the Destroyer (Dave Bautista), a massive hulk of a character whose demeanor matches his nickname, Groot (voiced and motion-captured suprisingly tenderly by Vin Diesel), and sure-to-be favorite of all Guardians of the Galaxy fans, young and old, Rocket (voiced by Bradley Cooper) who is an alien that looks like – but absolutely is not! – a raccoon.

More than anything else, Guardians of the Galaxy specializes in fun. (How else could you describe a film that offers a talking alien raccoon?) As our five heroes plow through the galaxy engaged in space battles and gunfighting strange aliens, Guardians of the Galaxy actually feels different than the other Marvel films. For one, director James Gunn never lets the audience forget that we’re watching for fun without letting the film descend into farce. One-liners are omnipresent and offered with a wink and a nod to the audience.

Forbes Magazine’s review of Guardians of the Galaxy says the film actually gets better as it plays, which is great considering that a lot of times in superhero and sci-fi films the big reveals are thrown up front leaving little to the imagination as the story unfolds.

All in all it appears the Guardians of the Galaxy doesn’t take itself too seriously, but takes itself seriously enough to not let down fans of the comic. The end of the film promises, “The Guardians of the Galaxy Will Return,” and it’s a sure thing that the film – described by highbrow magazine Forbes as “Superb Entertainment” – will have fans clamoring for more.

Guardians of the Galaxy opens August 1st in the United States.

[Images Via Marvel Studios]