Fifteen years ago, “Guardians of the Galaxy” was one of the many forgettable teams from the Marvel Universe. In 2014, Marvel handed the premise over to someone who knew what they were doing and now we have a blockbuster. Not just a blockbuster, but a movie with substance, heart, resonance, and pure characterization. Director James Gunn has a knack for filming the unusual and the eccentric, and “Guardians of the Galaxy” relies on an environment where aliens and beasts lurk at every turn, and its team of ragtag superheroes is mismatched orphans. Gunn’s directing is excellent, dropping audiences in to the start of a lovable band of pirates that find a common bond and form their own impromptu family.
Starlord is one of the many interesting anti-heroes from Gunn’s film gallery, a selfish and often self centered rogue who finds some better way to spend his life beyond feeding his own needs. After stealing a mysterious orb, Peter Quill aka Starlord learns that he’s the holder of a powerful artifact that a being known as Ronan the Accuser wants. Quill ends up meeting a group of pariahs, all of whom have their own personal gains in the battle against Ronan, all the while discovering that they might serve a higher purpose if they can step up and consider self-sacrifice. Deep down “Guardians of the Galaxy” is about family, and what happens when a group of lonely and tortured people find common ground and love among other beings cut from the same cloth.
True, the characters are dynamic and absolutely mesmerizing, but they also garner their own sense of tragedy and heartache that’s transformed them in to bitter individuals. “Guardians of the Galaxy” becomes less about fighting evil, but mustering up the will to dig up the good that’s been buried beneath pain and sadness for so long. Director Gunn is tasked with cramming a lot of story in to one movie while trying to win over an audience on very obscure comic boo characters, and surely enough he succeeds. “Guardians of the Galaxy” is the most well put together and fantastic action picture of the 2014, and one of my favorite films of the year.
The Blu-Ray comes with a fantastic audio commentary from director James Gunn, who is exciting, enthusiastic and funny in his exploration of his film, revealing great care in every scene. He runs down the script development, the casting, the designs of the worlds we see, numerous easter eggs, and just adds on with many more interesting nuggets of information that enrich the film. “Guide to the Galaxy with James Gunn” is a twenty minute documentary that details the making of the film, Gunn’s ideas for the vast universe we experience during the film, and other finer details that contribute to the film’s quality. “The Intergalactic Visual Effects” is a seven minute takes a look at the film’s impressive effects. There are four minutes of Deleted & Extended Scenes; they’re accompanied with optional commentary by Gunn. There’s a two minute “Exclusive Look at Marvel’s Avengers: Age of Ultron” the much anticipated sequel to “The Avengers,” and finally a fun four minute gag and blooper reel.