Guardians of the Galaxy

Released in 2014 under the direction of James Gunn ("Tromeo and Juliet," "Slither") on a budget of $170 million with distribution through Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures; "Guardians of the Galaxy" is the recent superhero action movie based on a lesser-known superhero group of the same name. But with the enormous success of Marvel's more well-known comic adaptations such as "Iron Man" and "The Avengers," it would make some sense to branch into unfamiliar territory for the summer season. Although this was quite a risky gamble for Marvel, it would seem Marvel tossed it's dice right, earning them a record-breaking opening weekend of $94 million with rave reviews from critics. Is this the summer blockbuster we've been waiting for or is this lost floating in space?

Abducted in 1988 and living in space for 30 years, Peter Quill (Chris Pratt) recovers a mysterious orb containing an "Ark of the Covenant, Maltese Falcon sort-of vibe" that is pursued by Gamora (Zoe Saladana), a highly-trained assassin defecting against Ronan the Accuser (Lee Pace), bounty hunters gun-toting Rocket Raccoon (v. Bradley Cooper) and simple-minded Groot (v. Vin Diesel). The confrontation causes the four to be arrested and sent to the Klyn prison planet where they meet Drax the Destroyer (Dave Bautista) who swears a blood vengeance against Ronan for the deaths of his family. With his assistance, they escape with the orb in hand and Ronan's other assassin Nebula (Karen Gillan) and the blue-skinned Ravager leader Yondu Udonta (Michael Rooker) chasing after them. If that sounds confusing, don't worry, it's not that hard to follow.

Let me say how much of a relief it is to finally watch a summer movie that knows how to have FUN for a change. This is a movie that does not take itself seriously first and foremost and it greatly benefits for doing this as it allows for the movie to give some of the funniest moments in any comic book movie we've seen in recent years. From references to 80's culture, witty banter between the characters and a mixture with 70's pop hits that saves the universe. 

The title characters are perhaps the most likable jerks ever written for a movie since Steve Martin. There was never one character I preferred over the other, every one of them had fantastic chemistry, smart-ass dialogue and all got their respective chance to kick some ass. 

The story is nothing too original but that is also it's greatest strength. It's a movie that serves to be a love letter to 70's space operas and the movie revels in recapturing this feel with it's choice of 70's pop hits from the Jackson 5 to Redbone to Marvin Gaye peppered across the soundtrack. The only issue I had with the movie are it's stock villains, but with these unheroic characters, I figure a stock villain balances out the smart-ass characters.

I cannot praise this movie enough, if you haven't seen this movie by the time I've posted this review, then why are you still reading?

Final Rating: 4.5/5

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Lucy

Released in 2014 under the direction of Luc Besson ("Leon the Professional," "The Fifth Element," "Taken") on a budget of $40 million with distribution through Universal Pictures; "Lucy" is Besson's recent sci-fi action thriller that dares to blend fast-paced action and the metaphysical aspect of evolving to the next stage of human evolution: godhood…only minus the Star Child.

Living abroad in Taiwan, Lucy (Scarlett Johansson) is pressured by her boyfriend Richard (Pilou Asbaek) to deliver a suitcase full of synthetic drugs to a drug cartel run by Kang (Choi Min-sik). To deliver the drug, a bag is placed inside her lower stomach and sewn up to transport, but she is intercepted and held prisoner by a rival gang, causing the bag to rupture and leak inside her body, boosting her cerebral capacity past the fictional 10% and allowing her to realize the wonders of the universe around her and allowing her to read minds, move things, collect data at an incredible rate. To help comprehend her growing condition, she calls upon the aid of Professor Samuel Norman (Morgan Freeman) and to help in recovering the other drugs being transported, she acquires the aid of French police officer Pierre Del Rio (Amr Waked).

So…um…this movie has had quite a lot of high expectation lately. From all the twerps on Tumblr calling this movie "the only action movie with a woman without a love interest" to even the middle-age women on my Facebook contacts, this seemed to be one of the most anticipated movies of the summer…
Boy does it break my heart to say it's a let-down.
Not to say that it completely falls together, but it is a movie that will leave you feeling either disappointed, unsatisfied or angered by it's ending.

The cast is decent, though their characters range from one-dimensional to half-hearted performances. The action scenes grab your interest and when Lucy demonstrates her evolving powers, they are genuinely fascinating to watch. Such as locking onto cell phone signals from a car, hacking a television, radio, cell phone and computer to flash her image to talk to Morgan Freeman and calling someone over the phone and sending them pictures of drug mules without a computer is cool.

But the character arcs are unfulfilling, the story takes a downward spiral to pretension-ville by the end and it's explanation of science is pure nonsense. This movie expects you to believe that humans use 10% of their brain's capacity and by achieving 100%, we become omnipotent like God. Thing is, we DO use 100% of our brain, 55% is what we use to process thoughts and ideas, 45% of your brian controls the parts of your body you don't consciously think about, such as your heartbeat, digestive system, hair growth or breathing.

With that information, one has to wonder how much of Luc Besson's brain capacity went into writing this deeply flawed screenplay. The action scenes were impressive and so were Lucy's powers, but nothing else really warrants running out to see this brainfart.

Final Rating: 2/5

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