Guardians of the Galaxy - Review

I pride myself on not being a hipster, but if there ever was a movie that made me feel the hipster syndrome was Guardians of the Galaxy. I saw this film twice in theatres back in the summer of 2014 and thought to myself, "Wow! This is better than the Avengers! So funny! Great excitement! It's awesome!" Turns out a lot of people felt the same way. The first day of film school that following September, I couldn't get away from it. Almost as bad as Bostonians and how much they talk about Tom Brady. Conversations in the halls only consisted of Guardians of the Galaxy and how it was the greatest film ever. It felt like the second coming for film nerds. So looking back on it during that time, I brushed it aside into the "okay" pile. However, coming back years later in preparation for the sequel made me realize why people love it so much, it is an extremely fun movie. Yes, some parts are a little too corny and yes "some" (don't get triggered here fanboys), of the humour felt forced, but this is a great action-adventure, science fiction, superhero, comedy blend. It's like if you took The Avengers and Star Wars and put them in a blender with an extra splash of superhero comedy. All the cast work well together and they form a great team. Each of them has their own distinct voice and although they are all goofy, they all do have motivation and reasons for acting the way they do. They aren't simply trying to be funny for the sake of being funny (I'm looking at you Ghostbusters). The jokes actually work for the given characters. Another reason why this film is awesome and is a reason I tend to like a lot of movies is the soundtrack. This one has some gems. However, back to the hipster syndrome again, I would always get aggravated when someone would say that their favourite style of music is 70's rock or 70's pop. I would then ask for some examples and they would simply just list off this soundtrack. I asked if they knew any other 70's music that isn't on the Guardians of the Galaxy soundtrack and nobody could do it. Now, I have no problem with somebody liking the music to a movie, but don't talk to me with a condescending tone about how you are a music historian because you are aware of the soundtrack to a Marvel film. (I'm describing myself a bit here.) This movie took the world by storm, I just happened to get sick of all the praise that it got at the time. Now that this movie has been out for a while and the talk about it has died down, I'd say it's a great time to re-live the original before the sequel comes out.