PCP in Theaters - Guardians of the Galaxy

It's been more than a month since Guardians of the Galaxy hit theaters, and it has been even longer since I saw the film, but I'm finally getting around to writing my review. Better late than never right? Besides, it was still the #1 film at the box office on Labor Day weekend, so obviously a lot of people are still watching it. Probably because the film is frakking awesome!

Guardians of the Galaxy - 2014, rated PG-13. My rating: 10 out of 10.

Look, I know I'm a bit of a nerd and a Marvel movies fanboy. So, take this review with a slight grain of salt. That being said, the characters in GotG are ones that I was not familiar with before seeing this film. I have never read any of the issues of the comic, and couldn't tell you anything about any of these characters before seeing the film. When I first heard that Marvel was going to make this film, I couldn't believe it. With such a deep roster of characters in the Marvel universe, this was the film they were going to make? Would Marvel have its first flop on its hands since it started making its own movies? I was concerned.

I shouldn't have been worried. The film is a ton of fun, despite having to do some major plot expansion of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). Marvel is using this film to greatly expand the universe inhabited by their Avengers, and a lot of items introduced in this film were done to make it so people understand when they show up in future Avengers installments, especially the powerful Infinity Stones and the character of Thanos. For the completely comic book ignorant, like my wife, she got confused at times as to who characters were and what were their motivations. For example, she has no clue the difference between a Skrull and a Kree, and doesn't know Nova Squadron from Thanos. So, her perspective on the film was different from mine, and she didn't enjoy the film as much as I did.

As I've said, I had a lot of fun with this film. The film has plenty of humorous moments, it is very obvious that this film is not taking itself seriously at all. Which, in the case of these characters, really works. In addition to many laugh out loud moments, the film also has a ton of heart. You wouldn't believe that a barely talking tree-creature could be the heart of a movie, but Groot pulls it off.

While the film gets slightly bogged down a couple of times from too much information and new characters being dumped on the audience, its hyperkinetic energy quickly brings the film back up to speed. The action sequences are pretty awesome and the CGI really makes this expanded universe believable. As a comic book film in the MCU, it is just as good if not better than anything that has come before. As a science fiction film, it is the most fun I had in space since seeing Serenity many years ago. It's not every day that a great space adventure comes along, and GotG really delivers as a space epic.

Bottom line: if you haven't seen Guardians yet, I can't encourage you enough. It easily was the best movie of the summer. I can't wait til its sequel in a few years!