'Guardians of the Galaxy': Music Matters

You've seen the posters, watched the trailers and probably hummed Blue Swede's "Hooked On a Feeling" to yourself more times than you can count. Marvel's newest film, 'Guardians of the Galaxy' has hit theaters after months upon months upon months of annoying intentionally vigorous advertising and marketing. I'll just say it right now: it's worth all of the hype.

And no, I'm not Groot.

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'Guardians of the Galaxy', directed by James Gunn ('Dawn of the Dead') follows the unique misadventure Peter Quill (Chris Pratt) 26 years after being abducted from earth. After successfully finding a mysterious orb deep in the galaxy, Peter plans to simply sell it in hopes of scoring some big cash but finds out it's a coveted treasure being hunted down by Ronan the Accuser (Lee Pace). This lands him in the middle of something far bigger than he had hoped, along with his enemies-turned-companions Gamora (Zoe Saldana), Drax (Dave Bautista), Rocket (voiced by Bradley Cooper) and your-new-favorite-quoatable-character Groot (all two sentences voiced by Vin Diesel). Bonded together by their love of money and hate of people who take their stuff, this dynamic group sets out to take down Ronan and see what the mysterious orb is really all about. Even with such a strong cast, this is probably the best group dynamic I've seen all year on the silver screen (beats out 'The Purge: Anarchy' by a long shot). Not only is there phenomenal character development for everyone but amidst all the chaos they all remain their unique selves. A lot of movies tend to lose a character's personality once everything really hits the fan but not this film. Peter is Peter and Groot is Groot until the credits roll and that's nothing short of satisfying.

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Despite being the fourth Marvel film to grace the public this year, 'Guardians of the Galaxy' manages to stand out among the crowd. This is, without a doubt, the most entertaining movie I've seen this year. As you've probably noticed from the trailer, there isn't much that's supposed to be taken seriously. The dialogue in this film is so well crafted that it's work of art. From the well crafted humor to Rocket's sarcasm to the pure irony, I thoroughly enjoyed it all. 

It's worth noting though that in Marvel's quest to continuously push the envelope, 'Guardians of the Galaxy' pushed it just about as far as it can go, particularly in Rocket's character. While kids will giggle at the obvious jokes, there's a fair share of mature humor in here (some being more subtle than others) and oddly enough it worked really well. It felt evenly spread out throughout the whole movie so there wasn't too much of it in one place. It made me feel that amidst all of the child's play, there's still room in the world of superheroes for adults. I think Marvel is trying it's best to teach the world that even the whimsical world of talking raccoons and flying space pods has as more mature side. This wall was broken into pieces from the release of 'Captain America: The Winter Soldier' as the audience was thrown into a deep, dark, hopeless place while watching the downfall of justice in colorful uniforms. Lesson learned: you can never outgrow your heroes. Hmm, sounds like an upcoming blog post. 

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You want tunes? You got tunes. As a kid, Peter Quill always kept a cassette player with him because it was a gift from his mother. Aptly named 'Awesome Mix Vol. 1', Peter carries it around and still listens to it even as he hunts throughout the galaxy. Nothing like the classics to help you with a heist. 

Instead of the typical deep Hans-Zimmer like bass drops and far-out effects you get a nice taste of what good music used to be...and still is.. You'll hear Elvin Bishop's "Fooled Around and Fell in Love" to Marvin Gaye's "Ain't No Mountain High Enough" and everything in between. It may sound silly but it really adds to the whole 'Guardians of the Galaxy' experience. In a future filled with spaceships, intergalactic showdowns, and pink people, it maintains a sort of human element to everything that's going on. I think it's the most powerful asset of this film and I know it had to take guts to run with this concept to the end. This showed that music still matters and can still add so much to an already amazing film. Future movie releases would do well to take note. It isn't all about flashy explosions and CGI, music is an important asset that can take things up a few notches. Take that, system!

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As fantastic as 'Guardians of the Galaxy' was, it walked a fine line in terms of getting the general audience to understand what was going on. I'm not much of a comic book buff so there were a few parts that left me scratching my head. Granted, this film was already a huge gamble for Marvel, which is why the marketing was so relentless for the last few months. I hadn't actually heard of the Guardians of the Galaxy until the first trailer dropped so Marvel was left with the risky task of bridging the gap between a foreign comic book entity and a typical average joe. I have a few friends who are into the comics that absolutely loved this film and that's completely understandable. This was something that obviously catered to them a bit more than it did to me and I was happy that Marvel took some time out to honor, in a way, the dedicated lovers of their comic-verse. After about 15 minutes of the movie I accepted my fate and settled into it though, and I had a good time. I may not know everything going on with everyone but I still enjoyed the fast-paced action, the witty dialogue and the newly expanded Marvel universe. I was happy that I finally got a look at Thanos. After the post-credit scene of 'The Avengers' I was afraid that I'd be left in the cold until 'Avengers: Age of Ultron' drops next year. That's right, those post-credit scenes will start to finally make sense now. Being one of the only people to stay back after a movie theatre was empty finally paid off!

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All in all, 'Guardians of the Galaxy' was worth the hype. I'm eagerly awaiting the second installment (they couldn't make it anymore obvious that there will be a sequel) to the series and I'm looking forward to seeing how this will tie in with future Marvel releases, particularly 'Avengers: Age of Ultron'. Despite the lean towards comic-buffs, this film still takes bold risks to make sure that everyone who goes to watch this will enjoy the party and it's something that it should be commended for. While it may not be the best movie of 2014, it's going in my top 10 for this year. If you're asking yourself if you should go to see this, the answer is yes. Do yourself a huge favor and see this movie. Please. You'll thank me later.