Guardians of the Galaxy

Okay, so at first I thought I'd just switch off and enjoy this popcorn movie. It was going well, but then I ran out of popcorn in the first half and started to focus more on the movie. The music was great, no question about it, so it gets a star for that. The other star is for a successful joke here and there, for some pretty good effects that look like every other Marvel movie or Michael Bay movie... Unfortunately, I got bored from the middle onwards, suddenly this Star Wars parody, which at times played at being more than a parody, lost the charm it had at the beginning. It was like I suddenly woke up from hypnosis. Even though it wasn't New York that was being destroyed, but a city that looked like an amusement park, it oozed American patriotism and the kind of stuff that makes my teeth ache. Of course, some people don't mind it, some people enjoy it and all that. But I'm a bit of a curmudgeon, and I just rolled my eyes for the last half hour. I went to the cinema expecting to be entertained (the ovation on FilmBooster really got me hooked), only to get the same thing I've gotten in other Marvel movies and other American movies where XY is being saved (XY = Earth, the USA, the president’s daughter, Beetle Baggins, ...), and I just wasn't entertained. Yup, my brain. I just didn't want to turn it off and be entertained. So we get a cynical raccoon, we get Prince Hardbody, we got the girl from Avatar, only painted green instead of blue, we got a tree who has the biggest heart out of all of them, and we got a tattooed typhoon who lost his family but found a friend. We've got such a cool crew that you're just guaranteed to have fun, of course!! (02/08/2014)

At first, I thought: another Marvel movie that’ll get lost in the mix. Then I read some enticing articles about it and slowly but surely, I was beginning to inconspicuously change my opinion of it. In the end, I was only truly convinced at the moment when I watched the movie at a cinema. This Marvel movie isn’t mediocre at all and most importantly, it’s different from all the other superheroes they keep shoving down our throats all the time. It takes place in space, it has a bunch of alien races, a talking raccoon and an overgrown tree. It’s fun, amusing and it has an amazing CGI that makes you feel like you’re in space with them. Plus, it offers Dave Bautista, a wrestler whose door to Hollywood was forever opened by this movie, in my opinion. And I’d love to see him again. All of these points are connected by originality and humor that has managed to tell this two-hour story with ease. And I wouldn’t have guessed that length at the cinema, not even after twenty minutes of contemplating. It was amazing! I’m just so pleasantly surprised and I can’t wait for the sequel. (08/08/2014)

An unforgivable waste of potential. The most entertaining (because it’s the most crackpot, most absurd and the biggest sneer at classic superhero team movies) Marvel squad movie whose wings have been clipped by being grafted onto the standard template of an endless stream of Marvel movies “putting our money only on the tried and tested"; this time dressed up as a space opera with shamefully unremarkable action. Although they should have chosen a rather more revolutionary approach to the material. Maybe some time in the future; maybe with that already cult character from the post-credits scene. (31/07/2014)

The comparison of film and a rollercoaster perfectly suits Marvel blockbusters. The standardised products from the shared workshop of the Marvel Studios and Disney divisions attract viewers with a spectacular ride, which is, however, constructed in a completely mechanical way. Just as fairground machines differ from each other in their effect on one’s emotions only in their scary murals, extravagant names and number of flashing lights, Guardians of the Galaxy is absolutely identical to, for example, Big Hero 6. The narrative construction and dramaturgy, i.e. the rails conveying the audience to the individual emotional hoops and loops, are exactly the same; they differ only in their particular twists and turns. This is most striking in the conclusion, when, immediately after the spectacular climax comes an emotional twist that transforms the given film into a tear-jerker. Distinctive directors are hired for Marvel flicks solely for marketing purposes in order to help create the impression that the individual films are different, but in practical terms, their contribution has the same weight as the authorship of carnies who paint unlicensed portraits of pop-culture icons on midway rides. (11/07/2016)

The plot rides on the wave of traditional comic book clichés, there’s the die-hard bad guy who wants to wipe out the galaxy and a bunch of oddballs trying to stop him. But the ubiquitous self-deprecating humour takes this tale up a level of fun, as do a bunch of likeable characters who have each picked up an extra bucket of charisma and whose fates keep you interested. James Gunn has capitalized well on his Troma beginnings, and he handles the wisecracking bizarre characters with aplomb and with humor that doesn't feel awkward or hammy. And tell me, is it possible not to love a film in which the protagonist is willing to put his life on the line to save his beloved prehistoric Walkman? I myself once, many years ago, as a poor student, bought my first Walkman with the last money I had saved and was happy as a pig in shit, so I understand Chris Pratt's feelings :o) And it wasn't even  a gift from my mother. (12/08/2014)