GotG Review.
Positives
Honestly? My biggest positive of this film is Groot - which is a good and bad thing. He is easily the most charming and entertaining character of the whole movie. Its simple and it works. His interactions are very well handled and timed and the way Rocket sort of gives insight to what more he is saying is pretty funny. Especially the mid credit scene - which is hilariously cute.
Star-Lord is also a pretty nice character, but even though he was clearly suppose to be the lead and most important character he sort of gets lost sometimes.
There's also plentiful cool references in this movie - and the whole thing basically takes place around the Nova Corps which is very cool to see. Thanos also has a brief cameo which is cool (though he looks kind-of small).
The action overall is very good too. And the movie is paced nicely too (at least after a horrid start which I will mention later)
In between
Rocket and Drax are both pretty mediocre if you ask me. Rocket's over-the-top silliness is not really something that works with me. He's funny sometimes, other times he's just annoying.
Drax is ...Drax. There's not much to say about him. Here's there to smash things and have some few "derpy" funny moments. Also a big meh for me.
The comedy for me is hit and miss. Its mostly the same style we've seen before from Marvel. Some of it is very good and worth a laugh, some of it is just way to over the top and left me shaking my head a few times.
Negatives
The biggest negative in this movie is easily Ronan. He is incredible dull villain that no one is going to find all that interesting, cool or sympathetic. His origin is only briefly given, his motivations are generic and he is basically ala Loki in Avengers - a stand in for Thanos and the whole movie basically revolves around setting up yet another infinity stone - ala Thor 2. Pretty disappointing considering the actor right now is killing it on a TV show I particularly like (not that I blame him)
Ultimately its just something we've all ready seen before and its extremely forgettable from that perspective. None of the other acting performances are particular notable either so that doesn't help.
I'm also going to come out and say right now that Gamora sucked. Though no fault belongs to Zoe, the way Gamora was portrayed was just pitiful. She had only a couple action scenes and they weren't particular impressive (especially compared to the fights in TWS). And the "romance" was really, really dumb. There's also a heft amount of ass-shots that weren't really needed either.
Finally, the opening scene with Star-Lord as a boy was waaaaaaaaaaaaaaay over the top cheesy for me too. It almost took me out of the movie before it started.
Oh and minor nitpick - there are several scenes in which these characters talk in the vacuum of space and Star-Lord even flies around a couple times. They briefly give a reason but otherwise its mostly glossed over. Nothing film breaking, but its kind of annoying.
Overall.
This is honestly nothing but another popcorn flick. What you see is what you get. While that may not be a bad thing, its not really all that of a good thing either. The plot and villain here are sooooo very weak. The comedy is hit and miss for me - sometimes its good - sometimes its over the top ridiculous.
It does get bonus points for including Cherry Bomb though. That was awesome.
Oh and, while worth a chuckle, the post-credit scene is not that important to the overall universe, so skip if you don't care.
Final score of a 6/10. Not bad, but nothing really overly good either. Big step down from TWS, in my opinion.
PS. I saw this in IMAX 3D cause I haven't been to one in a while and the 3D, as usual was garbage. Save your money.
