Review: GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY

GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY  (SCI-FI/ACTION-COMEDY) 
3 out of 4 stars
Directed by James Gunn
Starring: Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana, Dave Bautista, Vin Diesel (voice role), Bradley Cooper (voice role), Lee Pace, Michael Rooker, Karen Gillan, Djimon Hounsou, John C. Reilly, Glenn Close, Benicio del Toro, Peter Serafinowicz
Rated PG-13 for intense sequences of sci-fi violence and action, and for some language.
121 minutes
Verdict: Fast, furious and immensely quotable, GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY features a star-making lead performance by Chris Pratt and a talking raccoon, and in all its whack and weirdness, it's a lot of fun, although Marvel's standard third-act bombast is wearing thin.
YOU MAY ENJOY GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY IF YOU LIKED:
THOR: THE DARK WORLD (2013)
MARVEL'S THE AVENGERS (2012)
PACIFIC RIM (2013)
STAR TREK (2009)
SLITHER (2006)

Ever since it was first announced, people have been proclaiming GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY to be Marvel Studio's riskiest venture and the film that may break Marvel's nine-film critical and financial streak of success.  The critics have already proven part of those doubts to be wrong, and in the past several months, I think its become fairly clear that this film isn't going to hurt at the box office either, despite the surviving trend of labeling the film a 'huge gamble' for the Disney-owned film branch of the legendary comics publisher.  Marvel has been building up a great deal of capital over the past six years, and they have room to try things even weirder than THOR, which you might remember was being anticipated with similar doubts prior to its release in 2011.

GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY opens on Earth, the Southern United States, in the year 1988, when young Peter Quill is abducted by an alien spacecraft.  Flash forward an unspecified number of years, and Quill (played as an adult by Chris Pratt) is now a womanizing scoundrel and a thief, indoctrinated into a roving society of thieves and scavengers light-years away from Earth, living amongst alien races and calling himself "Star-Lord".  After obtaining a mysterious orb from an abandoned planet, and keeping it for himself rather than sharing the spoils with his boss, Quill is beset by bounty hunters, assassins and terrorizing warlords who all either want the orb or Quill himself.  Among them are Rocket (voiced by Bradley Cooper), a genetically-modified raccoon and bounty hunter, with his muscle, Groot (voiced by Vin Diesel), an inarticulate tree-man, and Gamora (Zoe Saldana), a genetically-enhanced assassin sent by the fanatical warlord Ronan (Lee Pace) to obtain the orb, but intent on betraying her cruel master.  After an incident lands them in a deep space prison, Drax the Destroyer (Dave Bautista), a warrior hell-bent on revenge against Ronan, is added to the mix, and the quintet comes to form an uneasy alliance in pursuit of monetary gains and personal glory.

Pratt, best known for his role as the lovable and dimwitted schlub Andy Dwyre in NBC's mockumentary-style sitcom Parks and Recreation, recently voiced the main character Emmet in THE LEGO MOVIE and is currently filming next year's reboot/sequel JURASSIC WORLD, in which he also plays the lead, making him an unlikely new action star.  Here, he even gets to show off his newly ripped torso, which was explained in Parks and Rec with a throwaway bit about his character no longer drinking soda pop.  He makes an excellently likable lead as Star-Lord, a loosely Han Solo-esque space ruffian with a good heart and he sells the humor-laced action as well as Harrison Ford himself.  The obvious and inevitable standout however is Rocket Raccoon, a CGI creation voiced by Bradley Cooper (director James Gunn's brother Sean stood in for the character on set).  There's an old Hollywood maxim that says you should never share the screen with children or animals, because they'll get all the attention, but that goes double for animals that walk, talk, adjust the crotch of their pants and wield oversized firearms.
Wisely, Marvel has acknowledged the markedly more ludicrous nature of these characters and adjusted the humor factor accordingly, and when this film goes for laughs, they are big laughs.  In fact, GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY is well-poised to become the next "quoting" phenomenon, with a heaping assortment of memorable one-liners and exclamations.  The internet is going to have a heyday.  Unfortunately, the movie works better as a comedy than it does as an action movie.  The first half of the movie, similarly to what seems to be becoming a trend in Marvel's output, works a lot better in the action department, where the set-pieces are of a smaller scale, laced with humor and ingenuity while establishing characters' personalities and abilities.  There's some cool bits in the latter half, but too much of the extended climax wallows in unrestrained pyrotechnic display and destruction.  This a very visually loud film, garish at times, and although I'd kind of like to see a return to a simpler, restrained science fiction world-building (today's sci-fi is constantly teetering on the edge of detail overload), it doesn't become an issue until the third act when so many laser bolts are criss-crossing the screen that its impossible to tell who they're coming from and where they're going.
While there are multiple connections to tie this new "sub-franchise" of the Marvel Cinematic Universe to previous films, especially with appearances by characters teased in MARVEL'S THE AVENGERS and THOR: THE DARK WORLD, GUARDIANS OF GALAXY is largely disconnected from the happenings of such other films, primarily interested in telling its own story and, incidentally, expanding the Marvel Cinematic Universe well into the cosmos, daring audiences to cast away their cynical notions.  We've come a long way since the X-Men traded in yellow and blue spandex for black leather tactical suits, for better or worse, and while GUARDIANS may not be as big a gamble as it's been made out to be, time will tell how far audiences are willing to go into the weirdness of comic book worlds or if the bubble will ever burst.  The standard post-credits scene that viewers have grown accustomed to in Marvel's movies takes a really fun and whacky turn that I'd love to gush about, but obviously counts as "spoiler," so in any case, be sure to stay through the credits.  It really is worth it.