Guardians of the Galaxy: A Review

I went into Guardians of the Galaxy (GotG) with a little trepidation. As all of you know, I love sci-fi, but I often get a little wary when it's sci-fi that is done tongue in cheek. Sure, movies like Spaceballs have their place, but they aren't what I really watch sci-fi for. Given this, the notion of a talking raccoon and a tree-man who only says one line were a bit worrying for me. (I never read the comics).

I needn't have been worried.

Rocket (the raccoon) has a great origin story which is referenced in the movie and does, actually, explain his existence within the context of a sci-fi setting that could occur in almost any story of the type. Groot (the talking tree-man) is a plant life-form (a concept I've played with before) and whereas he is more fantastical (in that is powers are a bit hard to believe) they fit well with the rest of the setting—I mean, when you have a universe with things like "infinity gems" it's hard to complain about a little magical plant growth.

I'm someone who gets bothered when things in sci-fi don't get explained, especially things that stretch the limits of what I know about science, but GotG delivered and that let me enjoy the rest of the film.

Sure there are still a few problems. For one, why do alien plants have humans on them who have clearly been there for a long time? (This is part of the Marvel Universe in which Earth is the Earth of today + stuff like X-men) But overall GotG had it together and turned out to be just an enjoyable film—with one minor exception.

Gamora.

She's supposed to be the most dangerous assassin in the galaxy, yet we see very little of her being awesome/kicking butt and taking names. I kept waiting for her to open the whupass and it didn't really happen (except for a brief fight near the end which by the time it happened I was convinced she was undeserving of her rep. or that her awesome scenes wound up on the cutting room floor.) Waiting for her to beat a room of 20 into submission proved to be a frustrating exercise, and I left the theater feeling a bit disappointed on this one point.

But that was the only one. Overall GotG is a light, just plain fun sci-fi/comic book movie that I'll definitely be watching again (on dvd).

Oh and I really hope they give Gamora her chance to take out a room or something equally badass in GotG2.