Guardians of the Galaxy Review

The crew all together in prison in Guardians of the Galaxy

Photo Credit: Marvel Studios

Guardians of the Galaxy

B+

A review by Frederick Cholowski

The first prison break sequence of the latest marvel film, Guardians of the Galaxy, is pretty analogous of the entire film. The sequence involves our five heroes breaking out of a high security prison using a fun and wacky plan. The sequence works because of the characters and their interactions with one another, the sharpness of the dialogue, and the wackiness of all of it. Sadly the plot feels a little bit derivative, the sequence is a prison break after all. Guardians of the Galaxy as a whole is exactly that, a fun and cool romp through the galaxy with great characters that sadly fails in the plot and villain department in a big way.

The prime thing that Guardians gets right are the characters. The five main characters Peter Quill aka Star-Lord (Chris Pratt), Rocket (Bradly Cooper) a talking raccoon, his talking tree/muscle Groot (Vin Deasil who gets to say one line all film), the tough guy that is on a mission of revenge Drax (Dave Bautista), and the alien daughter seeking revenge Gamora (Zoe Saldana) all get a certain amount of back story, however brief, and by the end of the film we not only get a since of who these characters are but also why they are important. This is especially true for Quill, whose character arc is really satisfying and moving, really giving a center to the film. Rocket and Groot are also super characters, Rocket provides most of the laughs with his snappiness, and Groot gets a lot of millage out of his one phrase “I am Groot.”

The other thing that co-writer and director James Gunn gets right is the snappiness of the jokes and the references. Quill’s constant references to 80’s pop culture, whether be it through the music or the awesome Footloose nod (which made me laugh way to hard), add a lot of fun to the film, as does the banter from the always funny Rocket. The film really seems to know its tone and everything including its climax follows that tone. If there is a complaint it might be it may take certain things a little bit too lightly. The climax of the film is quite funny but maybe doesn’t have the impact it could have had if it were taken more seriously.

The main problem with Guardians, though, lands squarely in the territory of the plot. The plot never breaks out of generic Marvel film territory, nor does it crack the problem of an origin story. The characters, like in many a Marvel film, are out for some strange galaxy ending Macguffin that if placed in the wrong (and in this film underdeveloped) hands could cause catastrophe. The film plays around with these plot ideas but never really escapes them in order to do something truly new. This is also an origin story which means there is a ton of exposition that at times feels forced. There are times where the plot is spoken directly to the audience unnecessarily because the goals of the villains are poorly shown and executed, causing myself to groan a tad throughout scenes of the film.

The true and ultimate revelation of Guardians of the Galaxy is Chris Pratt, action star. It’s not that Pratt hasn’t been amazing in the past (Parks and Rec has been a prime example of how lovable the man can be on screen) but never could I ever have envisioned him doing a role like this. Thankfully he’s awesome in the role, playing a little bit of a more rugged and funnier version of a Luke Skywalker. Bradly Cooper is practically unrecognizable as Rocket but still plays the role of the Han Solo character quite well. Dave Bautista does what he needs to do well, and that’s snare and be tough while getting to be the butt of a joke or two. Zoe Saldana is the weakest of the five but that’s mostly because she’s underused compared to everyone else and her character’s back story is a little rushed and underdeveloped.

Technically the film uses a ton of CGI, Star Wars Prequels levels of CGI, but ultimately manages to make it look decent enough. Rocket and Groot are magnificent looking creations with tons of detail and an extraordinary range of facial and physical emotion. The rest of the vistas look fine and the alien creatures mostly look like different colored versions of humans. The score is fine but it ultimately takes a backseat to the awesome 80’s soundtrack that while obvious, is used extraordinarily well throughout the film.

Guardians of the Galaxy is a good first crack at the obscure side of the Marvel universe. It’s a fun, wisecracking film that never quite escapes the generic superhero mold nor manages to rise above the origin story. As solid summer fun though it’s a blast, and a great way to put an end to the main summer movie season.

Boyhood Review: Life’s growing pains

A family portrait at Mason's high school graduation in Boyhood

Photo Credit: Mongrel Media

Boyhood

A+

A review by Frederick Cholowski

I’m 13 years old, trying to figure out exactly how my feelings work and what they mean. At the time I had constructed a crush for a friend when asked about during a strange sleepover session (one of many that would come up in our strange lives over the high school years); as what seems to be the case with many of my mental constructions I started to really get into and believe in the idea. Of course, given my awkwardness at the time, I allowed the crush to boil and the friendship with this person began to become increasingly awkward until it boiled over on of all things atop a Ferris wheel ride that we were on with another friend; easy to say it was an awkward ride on the way down. Years later this story is laughed about amongst the two of us (and at this point almost everyone I know to an extent) but at the time it was utterly horrifying.

Or cut to a year later, 14 years of age, an angsty mess of a stereotypical teenage boy. I wander the halls of my life, angry at the world for numerous reasons; everything from a messed up school schedule to two of my best friends, in my mind, ignoring my very presence during a short dating stint. I must have been a pain to everyone around me, including myself. I would spend years later rehabbing relationships that should have never been tainted by myself in the first place.

These memories and their feelings that amongst others seem menial now, like awkward games of truth and dare in a pool during elementary school, to moving to high school frightened and excited with a new slate; but they are things that whether I like it or not will live in hazy detail in my brain for much of the remainder of my life. No matter how insignificant they seem now they were important at the time and have shaped who I am as a person who is sitting here and typing this today.

Boyhood, the latest masterpiece from Richard Linklater, is the first film I have ever seen that captures the emotions of these kind of moments and their significance relative to the time they occurred. There are hundreds of American coming of age stories many of which capture something beautiful and complex about the character’s physical and emotional journeys, but nothing that captures as many of the near universal feelings of being a male growing up (or really of a family growing up together) quite like Boyhood. It’s a once and a lifetime film, a time capsule of what it is to grow up in North America in the early 2000’s and a capturing of the joys and pains of growing up in general.

It can be easy to say much of the love for the film is centered solely around its unique filmmaking story. The film is a near three hour conglomeration of the same actors filmed over the course of twelve years, something that has never been done before in a single narrative film. That critique might look good at first given this being the buzz around the film often pointing out that fact, but look any deeper into the film and it becomes a fallacy. Boyhood is not a simple chronicle of the life of the lead character Mason (Ellar Coltrane), but instead seems like a unique collection of memories, in a way like how I remember all of my childhood. It flows linearly from one time point to another, accentuating certain points and skipping over others just as people do with their own memories. For example we get a ton of the second husband (Marco Perella) of Mason’s mother (Patricia Arquette) but very little of the third husband (Brad Hawkins), lots of school in the early parts of childhood but little as we get closer to high school graduation. Sure part of this is that we are seeing these same actors across the various time frames, but the feelings presented are those of a great and understanding script and a simple almost a memory like clam and simplistic style of filmmaking. Following people for 12 years with a bad structure and little emotion is still a bad film; it takes a level of talent and true understanding to really get this right.

Richard Linklater also employs many beautiful and unique pieces of writing and filmmaking to keep the film flowing in such a beautiful and realistic way. The film never uses time cards to show what year we are in but instead finds little pieces of culture from each year to kind of set us in place (or you could always look at the haircuts and tell). Songs, movie references, sports, and politics all ground us in each particular era and really gives the since of what people were doing and feeling around North America during that time period. The device never feels forced or clunky instead adds a kind of since of specific time, place, and feeling to the film. There were many moments throughout the film where I went, “oh yeah my friends and/or I were into that at the time” (the best of these was when Mason mentions his three favorite films of 2008 so far being The Dark Knight, Pineapple Express and Tropic Thunder and I completely imagined myself standing in and saying that dialogue at the time) and for me it gave a certain realism to the flow of the film (as in that’s how I kind of remember my growing up period to a certain extent).

Another great flourish is that Linklater really takes the time to develop the characters around Mason and give them twelve year arcs as well. The best of these goes to Mason’s long divorced biological father Mason Sr. (Ethan Hawk the man who doesn’t seem to age one bit over the course of this film) who goes from being a man stuck in childish ways to perhaps the most grown up person in the film, becoming a bad influence to a good influence for Mason over the course of the film. We also get to see Mason’s older sister (Lorelei Linklater, Richard Linklater’s daughter) Samantha grow up around us as well, giving us a little bit of a different perspective on Mason’s childhood as well as childhood in general (one of the films funniest and more heartfelt conversation involves Mason Sr. talking about sex when he hears of her first boyfriend). Mason’s mother is also a key component, a hard working lady who gets the perfect job but never the perfect husband or family bond, she gives a clear picture of what single parent family life is like, how hard it is, and how it shapes Mason and his sister.

The performances in the film are also stunning. This is Ellar Coltrane’s first acting performance and every bit of it is utterly stunning. Him growing up along with the film really makes every portion of the film seem real, from his great naturalistic acting as a kid to the incredible awkwardness of his teenage years where it feels like he really doesn’t want to be there, it all adds something unique and special to the film. Lorelei Linklater is just as fantastic as Samantha, really giving a great since of both the sibling bond between the two and the different stages of her growth as a human being. Patricia Arquette is also fantastic as we move through the challenges of motherhood and no one ever gets the most out of Ethan Hawke other than Richard Linklater. The biggest compliment I can give all the actors in the film is that each of their characters felt like real human beings and not onscreen constructions; that is a true filmmaking achievement.

I sit here now, 19 years old, typing this review, wondering where my path in life will take me while reflecting on the moments on the past that have defined that path so far. I sit here thinking of the joy and pain I’ve caused and what it ultimately will amount to in the end, if any of this will matter later on. I am a different person from Boyhood’s main character, I’ve had completely different life experiences in a different country; yet after the completion of Boyhood I sat reflecting on my own life experiences and how many of those feelings related to those presented in the film. It felt as if for nearly three hours I was watching a boy that I could have known, one who shared many of the general feelings of growing up that I did. No other film I’ve ever seen has captured this feeling, nor the since of realism or understanding of a generation quite like Boyhood. This is an achievement in filmmaking, and the best film I will see in 2014.