‘Guardians of the Galaxy’ Review

Things have been quiet around here again. Sorry about that! I’ve been busy launching a new business and the only thing I’ve had the energy or time for resembling blogging lately has been maintaining the THS Instagram account, but hopefully that’s changing soon. That doesn’t mean I haven’t been watching geeky movies, playing video games, etc, I just haven’t had the energy to blog about it.

That said, it’s been a pretty eventful few weeks for us geeks. I’m sure you all are wondering if I’ve seen the new TMNT movie, but I haven’t. I’m really divided on seeing it (at the least I could write a bad review) but being so busy and also having so many awesome things I’m excited about has made me strangely at peace with the idea that there’s a new Turtle movie out there that I haven’t seen. The opinions I’ve read from the people I trust basically let me know that the movie is terrible, and honestly all the people I’ve had telling me it’s good have had to preface their recommendations with things like “If you don’t think about it…” or “It’s just the Turtles…” which is bullshit to me. I’ve gotten called out on Instagram and Reddit (ugh, don’t go to the TMNT sub) for being whiny for wanting a good TMNT movie, and I’m kind of over the whole thing. I’ll torrent it when it comes out on video to make sure I don’t contribute any money to Bay’s production company, and maybe write a late review.

Anyway…

Meanwhile, I’ve seen ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’ twice

And it’s amazing.

I’d been excited about this movie since it was announced, way before the average movie-goer had any idea who Star-Lord, Rocket, or Groot were, and I’m so excited to see it doing so well. It was a huge risk from Marvel and it paid off handsomely, which only means they will continue taking risks and maybe we’ll finally get movies based on Black Panther and/or a female-lead film.

The movie just works. It completely nails the sci-fi side of the Marvel Universe and establishes a lot of really important things for the years to come. Remember in Thor 2 when the Aether was vaguely described by Odin? You could kind of tell they were hinting at Infinity Gems, but until Guardians they were always dancing around the subject. In this movie, we get a short, expertly crafted explanation that actually calls them Infinity Stones, and it totally works.

And Thanos, oh man, he’s awesome. He doesn’t get a lot of screen time, but the little bit he has is great. Josh Brolin sounds so menacing, and Thanos is the thing I’m most excited about for the next few years of Marvel movies. He’s not your typical dumb brute of a villain, and the few lines he has in Guardians establish that for the MCU. He’s above everyone else, and even though it will be a while until he gets proper villain billing in a movie, I think it’ll be worth the wait.

I could ramble for days about how much I love this movie, but the bottom line is that everything about this movie is well done. It’s written well, the direction, cinematography, and visual effects are all to notch, and the characters are great. Chris Pratt is perfect as Star-Lord and this movie will be seen as a defining moment in his career. The humor is as good as it’s ever been in a Marvel movie, the soundtrack is amazing, and the addition of 80s pop culture references helps make it one of my favorite movies ever. After Captain America: The Winter Soldier, I didn’t think Marvel movies could get much better, but Guardians proved me wrong. Long live the MCU.