Guardians Of The Galaxy

A few years back, DC tried to introduce the cosmic side of their superhero universe with Green Lantern. There was some hope that such a star-hopping adventure with some epic action, goofy charm, and heartfelt sincerity might be a Star Wars for a new generation. Well, that didn’t really work out, and Green Lantern didn’t really fill the desire for a fun new adventure set amongst the stars. Now, Guardians of the Galaxy comes swaggering on to the scene and, with cocky confidence, says, “Let me show you how it’s done.” This is Marvel’s attempt to go cosmic, and where Green Lantern fell flat, Guardians struts, and dances, and exudes so much roguish charm that it’s impossible not to like it. It’s one of Marvel’s most entertaining movies yet. It’s got wit and laughs, some fantastic action, wonderful characters, and some very sincere heart beating at the core of it. In short, it has all of the elements that helped make Star Wars and Serenity (Firefly fans and brown coats are going to love it) so enjoyable and memorable. I know that sounds like high praise, and perhaps it is, but this rag-tag crew of space faring ne’er do wells are certainly worthy of it.

There was a lot of talk about how this was Marvel’s riskiest venture yet, and for it to work, a lot of things had to be done just right. Part of that was casting. Well, no fears there, as Chris Pratt carries the film like a seasoned pro. He’s so pitch perfect that it reminded me a bit of how I felt Robert Downey Jr. so perfectly embodied the role of Tony Stark/Iron Man. Zoe Saldana is perfectly understated at Gamora, and surprisingly, Dave Bautista is wonderfully deadpan and funny as Drax. Well, that’s the human cast. The other thing that really needed to work well was the gun-toting, hot-tempered raccoon that loves big guns and the walking tree that only ever says, “I am Groot.” These are strange characters, and if we, as an audience, didn’t buy into them, this whole Guardians of the Galaxy thing wasn’t going to click. However, just like most of the other elements in this film, they work just fine. Bradley Cooper gives Rocket Raccoon just the right amount of pathos to go along with his bombastic personality, and the subtle inflections of Groot’s one phrase along with his wonderfully expressive face make it easy to understand exactly what’s going on with him. Put a great cast together with smart, funny writing, and that goes a long way to making a real winner of a film.

The other element that worked really well was how believable it was that, first of all, these guys would want to fight each other and then later that they would be willing to band together and fight for each other, and the galaxy. The Avengers had the luxury of other movies to establish the personalities to make those same elements work, but Guardians has to do it all in one movie, and it does so really well. These characters are well developed, engaging, and even endearing despite being rough around the edges. And if I haven’t really mentioned the villains, that’s because they don’t really play much of an important role here. This movie is really about the Guardians, and that’s just as it ought to have been for their first film outing.

What’s interesting about this particular corner of the Marvel universe is that none of these characters are what would traditionally be called a hero. In fact, they’re really nothing but a bunch of common crooks, killers, and miscreants. Yet, somehow, the fate of the galaxy winds up in their hands. When it does, they don’t shy away from doing the right thing because of their past, but despite their less than perfect background, they seize the opportunity and show that even the least likely people in the galaxy can prove to be truly heroic.  That’s encouraging because that’s exactly the model God is using to, quite literally, save the world.  He doesn’t want perfect people; he wants you and I.  He wants the imperfect, the cracked pots (2 Corinthians 4:7), to help him share the fact that everyone in the world can be saved through Jesus Christ (1 Corinthians 9-11).  We all have imperfect pasts, and if we’re going to wait until we “get it right” before we choose to serve God, we’ll never really do anything heroic.  But if we, like the Guardians, can set aside that past, and in fact, have it cleansed through Jesus, we can then do the most heroic thing in the galaxy; save a life for all eternity.

I have to say, I never expected the summer of 2014 to deliver two movies that, in my opinion, surpass The Avengers.  Captain America: The Winter Soldier and Guardians of the Galaxy have done just that, and between the two, I’d say Guardians is the one that’s just more flat-out fun.  It’s Marvel’s funniest movie to date, but it still has some epic action and touching moments.  In addition, it also moves some important pieces to the overall Marvel Cinematic Universe into place, which is also exciting to see.  This is definitely the “have a good time at the movies” type of experience that just leaves you feeling good.  It’s the type of ride that’s so fun you want to turn right around and get back on again.  It seems laughable now to consider how this was going to be Marvel’s riskiest venture.  From the very get-go, the movie swaggers on to the screen and dances about to show it isn’t worried about any of that, it just wants to have fun.  Guardians of the Galaxy is quite simply Marvel’s best movie to date and the must-see film of the summer.  Is it that “Star Wars experience” that so many other films have tried but failed to capture?  Well, not to loft your expectations too high, but I’d say yes, it is.  And the fact that Marvel could pull it off, while DC couldn’t, is undoubtedly going to leave the latter, green (lantern) with envy.

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