Guardians of the Galaxy was released in 2014, and was directed by James Gunn. The film stars Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana and Dave Bautista. Legendary outlaw Star Lord is wrapped up in universal stakes when he obtains an orb with world ending powers. With the help of his new colleagues, he must prevent the orb from being obtained by the evil Kree empire.

     There are few times where an actor is truly born to play a role. Chris Pratt as Star Lord, is one of them. He is astounding as the legendary outlaw. Zoe Saldana is good as well, and the movie does a great job and letting you understand why she’s there. It actually does a great job with all the characters, including Bradley Cooper’s Rocket Raccoon, Vin Diesel’s Groot, and Dave Bautista’s Drax the Destroyer. Over the course of the movie you end up really enjoying all the main characters, especially Star Lord. Unfortunately, the movie’s villain, Ronan, played by Lee Pace, is really only there because the movie needs a villain. His intentions are explained well, but overall, very forgettable. 

     The script does a fantastic job at balancing as many characters as it has. As stated before, it helps you understand why each character is there, and why they’re all vital to the plot. It lets you care about each character. It’s definitely the most comic book accurate out of all the MCU movies, but you can easily enjoy and understand it if you’ve never heard of these characters before. The use of music is excellent. It’s a really funny movie too, and the jokes are set up well. The script understands that two of the main characters are a talking raccoon and a tree. 

     The pacing is very good. There isn’t a scene that feels out of place, or doesn’t matter to the story. There were some moments where if you really pay attention you’ll go, “Wait what?,” or, “Why didn’t they just do what they did earlier?” There are also some continuity errors. Hair changing between shots, things like that nothing too big.

     The directing is solid. The cinematography was really cool in some instances. The costume designs are very memorable, and for the most part, the CGI is good. It was maybe only once or twice, but there were times where it was noticeable that they didn’t put as much time on the CGI in a scene. The editing and match to action are not perfect, mainly in action scenes. The editing for action scenes makes the scenes very headache inducing. 

     Guardians of the Galaxy has technical flaws, but the main cast, and the great writing make this what I would call a good time at the movies.

 [My grade for Guardians of the Galaxy is an A-]