It’s a good time to be a raccoon.
When this movie came out this past weekend, I told
myself, “I can’t review this… I just did a post about a movie and I should
really be talking about books again. Leave the movie review to others!”
And then HE came onto the screen:
That’s Rocket. Rocket Raccoon to the wise. He’s one of my
favorite comic book characters and this is the first time we’ve ever gotten to
see him realized on the big screen, and, boy, do they hit it out of the park!
After I saw him in this film, I debated and said, “Darn it, this is the Raccoon
Reader Review! If I can’t talk about awesome raccoons here, then where can I?”
So I may be somewhat biased towards this one.
But I’m getting a little ahead of myself. Let’s talk about
this film and what it’s about, as well as what it brings to movie-goers. There
may be slight spoilers ahead, so please be sure to watch the movie before
reading further if you want to go in fresh!
Marvel’s Guardians
of the Galaxy is based on a long-running comic series of the same name,
though the team represented in this film is from the newer run of it. I’m
personally most familiar with the 23 issue Abnett/Lanning run starting in 2008,
but the most current version is written by Brian Michael Bendis. I’ve read that some people don’t care for how
Bendis portrays some of the characters compared to how they were introduced (in
particular how much more violent he’s made Rocket), but my own exposure to that
version of those characters beyond Rocket and Gamora is minimal. I’m willing to
bet that the movie versions of these characters lean more towards Bendis’
portrayal, but I saw a lot of what I loved from Abnett’s writing in them as
well. Also, Abnett did an official Prelude comic to the film, so he’s
definitely involved with these characters once more.
Okay, now that I’ve officially outed myself as a nerd…
The film sets the tone for us almost immediately at the
start. We’re shown a young Peter Quill listening to his ‘Awesome Mix’ cassette
while he waits next to his mother’s hospital room. He’s suddenly shaken out of
his thoughts and hurried in to listen to her dying words. He hesitates while he’s
near her and misses his chance to take her hand in comfort before she passes.
We learn in this scene that she’s the only family that Peter has, since his father
has disappeared, so her death is understandably traumatic for the poor lad. In
his horror at losing her, Peter runs out of the hospital and into an open field…
where he immediately gets abducted up by
a spaceship and we’re treated to our title sequence.
In about five minutes, the film has kind of summed up all
that it has to present to us and the order it tends to present it: A.) Music B.)Relatable
problems, and then C.) In Space!
I’m serious about this. This scene progression happens
several times in the movie. We’re treated to an awesome oldies song (The
soundtrack in this movie is absolutely incredible, by the way), we’re shown a
situation or problem that we have here on Earth (Going to prison, preparing for
war, etc.), and then the scene will zoom out or show us something fantastic to
remind us of the setting.
Mind you, I’m not calling this a fault, but I do find it
kind of funny in hindsight.
The progression of the film’s story is pretty
straightforward, but it keeps us engaged. After seeing Peter grown up and
taking on the outlaw name of ‘Star Lord’, we see him doing a bit of treasure
hunting/thievery and eventually going to another world to sell his find. After
a botched sale, we meet Gamora, Groot, and Rocket, who all promptly get into a
major scuffle in an attempt to take Quill down for their own reasons. The
property destruction and disturbance from the fight rightly get all four of
them landed into prison where they meet Drax the Destroyer, and then our happy
band of misfits is complete.
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| Even the tree's got his 'game face' on! |
After a rocky start, they get themselves involved in a
war to protect the entire galaxy from the evil Ronan and find that the treasure
Peter nabbed at the beginning is just what our villain needs to destroy all
existence. I won’t spoil what it is, but Marvel fans will go crazy over finally
seeing it represented. Needless to say, the stakes are high, and every person
on the team needs to take incredible risks before victory is achieved.
The Good:
The story itself is solidly written and has a brisk pace
to it. We’re introduced to our cast quickly, but not in a rushed fashion, and
the problems are laid out clearly with just enough twists and turns to keep
things from being easy for our heroes. The script is also very witty and
self-aware, giving us a ton of humor and personality to really help audiences
connect with this very different super hero team.
The visuals are also top-notch. Aside from the stunning set
designs that show a much dirtier version of space than we usually tend to see,
the characters are just visually fantastic. Rocket looks like he’s just as
organic as Peter or Gamora and never once did I question reality when
characters interacted with him or Groot. Drax and Gamora are also an incredible
example of make-up artists at their finest, especially with the intricate
designs of Drax’s tattoos.
The music gets high marks as well, as I already
mentioned. I’m a sucker for the era of music they tended to use, but I also
like that every song was integrated into the movie because of Peter’s obsession
with his tape-player. Rather than just having music playing in scenes because
it fits for the soundtrack, every song is a song that Peter grew up with, so he
has a personal connection to it in some way. That extra bit of effort to make
music matter in a story sense is something I really appreciate.
Finally, it must be stated that Rocket is absolutely
awesome and stole the show. Yeah, yeah, I’m biased towards him because of his
procyonide nature, but I also feel he’s one of the best surprises of the film.
Rather than being throwaway comic relief like most anthro characters in these
kinds of movies, Rocket shows us so many deep emotions and bares so many mental
pieces of himself that we feel for him more than almost any other character by
the end of the movie. He emotes strongly both visually and audibly, and Bradley
Cooper never drops the ball as his voice. It’s just so striking to see such a
strong talking animal in a film like this, and he still gets to make us laugh
and have a good time as well! Whoever did Rocket’s dialogue should get top
marks.
The Bad:
The Humor… kind of.
When leaving the movie, a friend of mine made a very good
comment to me, “I felt like I was seeing jokes roll down an assembly line at
the humor factory” and I don’t think he was wrong.
There are a ton of jokes that work in Guardians of the Galaxy, but, with so
many jokes in the entire film, there are also quite a few that fall flat. Some
of Peter’s cute callouts to pop culture just feel forced, as does some of Drax’s
silly ‘Spock-like’ dialogue where he understands and states everything
literally in humorous fashion. If you’re somebody who easily cringes at ‘laugh-track’
moments in sitcoms, then you might have a rough time sitting through some parts
of this film.
The other problem I feel this film is going to have is
engaging people outside of the comic book and sci-fi camps. It does nothing to
make this easier to digest for people who want to see a summer action flick but
don’t know a thing about comics. The exposition and name-dropping are all well
and good for folks who love that kind of stuff, but I can easily see the
uninitiated tilting their heads. It also doesn’t help that green-skinned alien
people and talking raccoons already alienate some of the typical crowd… but
that also might just be the point.
This movie knows what it is and doesn’t shy away from it,
so fans of the source material will adore it. Heck, I nerded out over seeing a comic
panel from Legacy recreated on screen and from seeing Cosmo the Russian space
dog making a cameo. I think Guardians
wants that kind of reaction.
The Verdict:
If you’ve read this far, then you can already tell that I
loved this movie. I highly recommend it to anyone who reads here and likes the
kind of literature we’ve talked about already. I’ll be buying this once it
comes out, and trying to keep myself from rushing out to the theater to watch
it again and again before then.
I’ll also be working on increasing my collection of
raccoon memorabilia now that Rocket’s going to be flooding the market, though
some things may be harder to obtain than others…
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| Come on... you know you'd want one too! |
Happy Reading, all!
-Chammy
Currently Reading:
Silverwing by
Kenneth Oppel
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