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Guardians of the Galaxy (2014)

Director(s): James Gunn

Writer(s): James Gunn, Nicole Perlman

MPAA rating: PG-13

Runtime: 2h 2m

Format: Live Action

Genre: Action Adventure Sci-fi

STARRING

Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana, Dave Bautista, Bradley Cooper, Vin Diesel, Lee Pace, Karan Gillan, Djimon Hounsou, John C. Reilly, Benicio Del Toro, Glenn Close

PREMISE

An interstellar sci-fi, blockbuster action flick about a bunch of dirty space outlaws who have to learn to get past themselves to save the galaxy.

THEMES

The clear primary theme of the movie is one of redemption. They might be dirty outlaws, but even dirty outlaws can do good things for the right reasons and turn their lives around.

A second clear theme is that mean, criminal folk aren't necessary evil (humanly speaking), but just broken by things that have happened to them. All but one of our protagonists eventually ended up becoming a dirty outlaw because of the suffering they experienced earlier in life. (Divinely speaking, every person alive is evil, and that's why we need a savior in Yeshua the Messiah.)

A third clear theme is that we all need each other, for both help and friendship. In regards to help, one person can't accomplish big things by themselves, and lots of big things need to be done. In regards to friendship, it's what we as humans need for healthy souls. (Aliens apparently need it too.)

A fourth and final clear theme is that the only way we can come together is to put aside our differences. Our dirty outlaw heroes are all very different in outlook, even being different species, but they manage to become a team. (I completely overlooked this theme until 8/4/14, two days after viewing. It never registered to me that all the characters were very different. Interesting. Definitely not the movie's fault that I missed it.)

LIKES

Aside from focusing on outlaws, this movie pretty much replicated about 90% of my childhood imagination. Yup, sitting there in church back in the late 1980's and early 90's, this stuff was what I was thinking about. (Aside from samurai bursting in and slicing up all the pews into pieces.)

It's a much better Star Wars movie than the new Star Wars movies. But I suppose that's not hard.

The themes.

The fun tone. The flick was just having a good time, and it did it well in my opinion.

The tree-man named Groot, one of our dirty outlaws. "I am Groot." That's all he can say. He's the movie's Chewbacca, except he's way cooler and, I think, more golden-hearted than Chewbacca.

I was actually impressed by the special effects. That doesn't happen often. CGI sure has come a long way since the early 1980's.

DISLIKES

The bad guy is a religious extremist. I understand why the writers would choose that route given what radical Muslims have been doing for over a decade now, but part of me felt like it was a subtle stab from Hollywood Neo Atheists at all traditional religion. It can be difficult to know what's deliberate and what isn't when it comes to this stuff.

I'm not really a fan of the lovable bad boy. I was always "Lawful Good" in my Dungeons & Dragons games.

Once again Hollywood glamorizes criminals and a criminal lifestyle, but at least it wasn't overbearing and was somewhat addressed by the end.

Warrior women. A distinctly unfeminine image in a time when gender identities are in total chaos and God's intended designs are greatly needed.

I never feel entirely comfortable with how cheaply action movies treat life.

I didn't find the movie as funny as people claim it is. I didn't laugh or even chuckle once. But lots of people in the theater did.

Rocket, the intelligent cyborg raccoon, was a total jerk, and I wasn't much amused by his jerk humor. But, even so, and unsurprisingly, he's one of the most popular characters of the film. He was designed to be a lovable jerk, but I just didn't find him all that lovable.

The bizarre after-credits scene. I entirely understood what was going on, but it somehow felt like breaking the fourth wall, and that felt very out of place in a movie like this.

As usual, people sleeping around like it's okay. But at least it wasn't coming across too strong in this movie.

S-L-V CONTENT

Profanity and violence earn their PG-13 rating, but nothing I can remember pushes it too much. As far as sexuality, Zoe Saldana is the subject of a bunch of quickly over, but obvious, (clothed) butt-shots. And some of the alien background women wear immodest clothing. Overall, though, nothing sexual challenges the PG-13 rating. I think this movie could have been PG without censoring much.

EDIT: Upon a second viewing, I noticed something I missed: there is a shot of naked male buttocks. It's small on the screen and, obviously, easy enough to miss that I didn't even notice it the first time around. Also, I have a feeling that there will be increased sexuality (at least) in an extended cut available for home video.

ROB'S FINAL OPINION

3 out of 4 stars - I liked it.

I didn't like it as much as a lot of people did, but still, I liked it.