“Guardians of the Galaxy” wonderfully witty and epic

Another summer has come and with it another Marvel movie. 

“Guardians of the Galaxy” is fantastic. James Gunn has directed a great Marvel film that is wonderfully witty and epic.

The script is very well written and, in a film that is filled with humor, almost every joke works.

“Guardians of the Galaxy” focuses Peter Quill a.k.a. Star-Lord (Chris Pratt), Gamora (Zoe Saldana), Drax the Destroyer (Dave Bautista), Rocket (voiced by Bradley Cooper), and Groot (voiced by Vin Diesel).

Quill was abducted at a young age and has become a (somewhat) legendary thief. Gamora is a green assassin working for Ronan (Lee Pace). Ronan is the central villain and is as evil as can be, a psychopathic zealot. Drax is another alien who is deadly and has reasons to hate Ronan.

Groot and Rocket are, without a doubt, the movies standout characters. Rocket is a genetically modified raccoon lookalike creature, and is witty but damaged. Groot is a walking tree and is sweet and deadly.

The film is star-studded with Academy Award winner Benicio Del Toro in a very odd role, while Glenn Close who plays Nova Prime. (She’s similar to Nick Fury but in space).

The main storyline begins with an extended chase scene between Quill, Gamora, Rocket, and Groot, who all desire an powerful object called the Orb. The Orb is also desired by Ronan, who wishes to use it as part a personal war.

The four leads are arrested and thrown into a prison, where they meet the final member of the team, Drax. From there, they go on a whirlwind battle throughout the galaxy to prevent the Orb from being used by Ronan.

The movie does so many things very, very well. To start off with, the movie is simply gorgeous. Every shot is vibrant and intricate. It’s been a while since I have seen a movie that uses CGI this well. The CGI is nearly flawless, which is very impressive since Groot and Rocket are entirely CGI, yet still manage to convey lots of emotion and character.

Each of the Guardians gets a good amount of screentime and character development to carry them through the movie, so that the movie never feels as if it is focusing only on one.

A problem I had with the film was that I wish a scene had been added giving additional screentime to the villains, especially Nebula (c), who had lots of personality and was a fun psychotic character, but seemed underdeveloped.

This movie is a little edgy and features a few gruesome deaths, though they were all bloodless and nothing too terrible is shown onscreen. There were several extended fight scenes. One or two jokes are a little risque, but would most likely fly over the heads of anyone under 11 or 12.

If you like action, comedy, drama, “Star Wars,” “Star Trek,” space epics, or science fiction, this film is definitely for you. It gets 9.5 out of 10 for me!

–Aug. 1, 2014–