That's the raison
d'être of Disney's Guardians of the
Galaxy. Sure, it's a movie about space pirates and gun-toting raccoons, and
it has an obligatory supervillain, but the real story is about alienation and
friendship.
After a bleak and all-to-everyday prologue, young Peter
Quill (Wyatt Oleff) is abducted by aliens. Flash-forward 20 odd years, and
grown Peter Quill (Chris Pratt) is an intrepid space thief stealing an Orb that
contains one of the Marvel's all-powerful substances that can destroy the
universe. Little does he know that Kree terrorist/revolutionary Ronan (Lee
Pace) and creepily eccentric Collector (Benicio Del Toro) have both sent orphan
assassin Gamora (Zoe Saldana) after the Orb. After Quill eludes Ronan's
henchmen, the brutal warlord puts an astronomical price on his head. Rocket
(Bradley Cooper), a genetic experiment gone awry, and his side-kick ent Groot
(Vin Diesel) get into a fight with Gamora over Quill in a crowded city center,
and the four of them find themselves in a maximum security prison where they
meet Drax the Destroyer (Dave Bautista), a muscle-bound ward of the Xandarian
state who has a vendetta against Ronan for the death of his family. After a
relatively easy jail break, the ragtag quintet find themselves the only ones
able to protect the galaxy from Ronan and the Orb.
Guardians of the
Galaxy succeeds by telling an uplifting, universal story about the power of
friendship. Director James Gunn accomplishes this by establishing that the real
obstacle is not the run-of-the-mill supervillain Ronan, but instead the
protagonists' social alienation. Quill is the only "Terran" in this
galaxy. Gamora is an orphan raised in a loveless and exploitive family like an
extraterrestrial Oliver Twist. Rocket "didn't ask to get made," and
masks his misery with a vicious sense of humor. His only real tenderness is
reserved for Groot. The look in the raccoon's eyes when he realizes that he
might lose his best friend is an coup of animation. The look in Drax's eyes
when Ronan laughs him off is a coup of acting. Since his family's death, Drax's
only purpose has been to fight and kill the man he holds responsible. Instead
of taking the macho route, Bautista and Gunn let us see Drax's vulnerability. It's
the quintet's shared social alienation that brings them together, as Quill
makes explicit: "We're all losers. We've all lost something." Only by
establishing bonds of friendship can the Guardians overcome either the
intangible or tangible antagonists. The final showdown on Xandar is weak by
action movie standards, but that doesn't matter. It's not a story about action
and violence. It's a story about friendship. It's the kind of story that withstands
the test of time. This critic expects audiences to return to over and over
again.
Disney trades in uplifting, accessible stories, and Guardians is no exception. Sure, good
Disney movies have brilliant animation and wacky characters, but so do many others
that have not become cultural landmarks. Disney movies, by and large, succeed
so well because they have heart. Guardians
of the Galaxy, from story to acting to design, has as much heart as the
best of them.
No comments:
Post a Comment