The Marvel enterprise has been practically saved by Disney as it's become more structured, more organized, more successful, and less prone to ill decisions since the buyout from the House of Mouse. Love or hate them, Disney knows how to draw up profits from any smaller company----just ask Pixar. And Guardians of the Galaxy is pretty much the assertion that the Marvel universe and comic book movies are here to stay as they took even one of the more obscure and pulp cult hit comics and transformed it into a big budget hearty fest of entertainment.
Guardians of the Galaxy is a film that works but should not work because of the content and the heavy tongue-in-cheek humor, as well as containing a cast that hardly has the appeal of an Iron Man or a Captain America. For crying out loud, we have a regular joe, a tree, a raccoon, and a condensed version of the Hulk amongst the main characters. The comic book it's based on is meant to be a Scott Pilgrim type of cult hit that engages with a specific niche audience, but I assure you that it stands perfectly on par with the other Marvel films without overkilling itself.
What mainly allows for newcomers and veterans to the franchise to warm up to the characters and the premise is the major focus on character development, fresh script, and also providing a beautiful blend of sci-fi action and rambunctious humor that dances along the PG-13/R line. Although the diehards were probably hoping for Disney to truly let this movie get unleashed, they should be satisfied with the fact that this movie is definitely the dirtiest, rowdiest, and most gutterball of the Marvel bunch. James Gunn holds very little back as we see plenty of dark humor sprinkled on nearly every scene.
The outstanding cast also allows for the movie to flourish. Chris Pratt (Peter), Bradley Cooper (perfectly voicing Rocket), Zoe Saldana (Rising up the sci-fi queen ranks), Dave Bautista, and even Michael Rooker (small role, but steals the show as one of the antagonists) portray their characters perfectly without missing a beat and intertwine themselves with the heavy amount of special effects without any issues. The production value here is top-notch as we've come an extremely long way from 70s Superman.
If there is something that Man of Steel (ugh.....) has proved, it's that special effects should not be the main hull but the icing of the cake. James Gunn does a fantastic job by giving everyone their moment to shine and allowing the audience to root for them. Unfortunately, Marvel still hasn't really given us a great villain outside the lines of Loki within the past decade, as we have several throwaway villains here that don't have much screen time or much personality either. Luckily the heroes and anti-heroes are far too much fun to watch to make up for the dullness coming from the evil side.
Disney/Marvel has quietly revolutionized the film industry by providing us a yearly dosage of films that are connected heavily amongst each other by putting them in the same timeline. It almost makes for a required viewing of each Marvel film in order to be caught up and anticipate the next major blockbuster. So in other words as long as Marvel plans on using the dozens of heroes within its repertoire and maintain it in the same universe, they will not run out of movie ideas for at least a couple decades.
Guardians of the Galaxy may have been a cult classic comic book with a quiet history. But thanks to a great script, great cast, and great direction and production value, this new franchise will fit and blend perfectly with Iron Man, Thor, Captain America, and whatever else Marvel decides (and is legally allowed) to throw in between Avengers movies.
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