Guardians of the Galaxy
Back when “Guardians of the Galaxy” came out, I praised it highly but fretted that audiences wouldn’t come out for yet another comic-book adaptation based on characters most of them had never heard of.
Silly me. Now the top-grossing film of the year, “Guardians” obviously didn’t need any sympathy.
What a dizzy, daffy antidote to a summer of largely dreary flicks. Here for the first time was a superhero movie that was a flat-out comedy. That whole thing with glum caped crusaders kvetching about “with great power comes great responsibility” had gotten kinda old. Here’s a quintet who love doing what they do, no apologies, and with plenty of humor along the way.
Rather than being inveterate do-gooders, these Guardians are a motley crew of thieves and killers who get thrown together while greedily pursuing the same mysterious space orb. They are:
Star-Lord (Chris Pratt), a smirky, quip-throwing human with cool gadgets;
Gamaro (Zoe Saldana), a green-skinned assassin and turncoat;
Rocket (voice by Bradley Cooper), a spirited raccoon engineer;
Groot (voice by Vin Diesel), Rocket’s 9-foot-tall tree-like companion;
Drax (Dave Bautista), a burly red guy with revenge on his mind.
The plot is a little hard to follow, but something to do with a powerful rebel Ronan (Lee Pace) who wants to throw off the yoke of his master, Thanos, an evil space emperor. Ronan and his fellow Kree want to destroy the Nova, a benevolent race guarding the orb.
The action is zingy, the villains (there are many) quite hiss-able and the belly laughs plentiful. I doubt “Guardians of the Galaxy” will need my boosterism for its video release.
Video features are good, not great, and feel a bit underwhelming considering the success of the film. The DVD comes with but a single feature, and it’s more of an ad: an exclusive look at “Marvel’s Avengers: Age of Ultron.”
Upgrade to the Blu-ray combo pack and you add a feature-length audio commentary track, deleted scenes, gag reel and making-of featurettes.
Film: 4.5 Yaps Extras: 4 Yaps