I didn't expect Guardians of the Galaxy to work. It sounded like a hard sell: a crazy concept based on a largely unknown series, no big names on screen and the trailer looked like a horrible mess of style and tone. I fully expected it to be a huge flop so it was a pleasent surprise then when all the good reviews started appearing and the film opened with some of the biggest box office takings of the year. All this meant that for the first time in a long time I was actually quite excited to see a film.
There's an awful lot to like but taken as a whole I'm not sure it works as well as Avengers, Iron Man 3 or even The Winter Soldier. The strengths are in the characters, their interactions and the dialogue which not only feel genuine but also fresh in an over saturated genre of comic book action films. Unfortunately these are mixed up with mostly uninspiring action sequences (only the prison break really stands out - and that's not even the best prison break of the year), dull and confusing villains (who's he again?) and a muddled plot (although not understanding what was going on had little impact on the enjoyment of the film). Perhaps the biggest let down is yet another final sequence on a collapsing space ship above a populated city; isn't there somebody overseeing the Marvel Universe who could've stepped in and mentioned that this had already been done in at least two of the other films.
Despite all the flaws when it's good it's really good and a whole lot of fun. I suspect a lot of people will end up liking and revisiting the film over the coming years and I'm left with high expectations for the sequel.
August 06, 2014 at 08:33PM
No comments:
Post a Comment