MOVIE REVIEW: Guardians of the Galaxy

The latest movie from Marvel Studios is Guardians of the Galaxy. This movie has been heavily marketed and I really had not intended to see it but after it was released the film earned excellent reviews and stellar ratings at rottentomatoes.com (92% critics, 96% audience). The film stars Chris Pratt as Peter Quill a.k.a. Star Lord, the sole human member of a rag tag group of misfits and criminals from across the Galaxy that includes Groot (a talking and walking tree-like alien, voiced by Vin Diesel), Rocket (a small furry alien who resembles a raccoon, voiced by Bradley Cooper), Gamora (a green-skinned humanoid played by Zoe Saldana who is also a deadly assassin and daughter of the villainous Thanos) and Drax (a muscular, powerful humanoid who takes all statements a little too literally, played by Dave Bautista).

Guardians of the Galaxy is bolstered by a breakout performance by Pratt as Star Lord. He is funny, sexy, geeky and charismatic--sometimes in the same scene! Pratt is definitely the best thing about the movie, but after him the next best thing is the overall "vibe" of the film, which irreverent and fun. It is also, quite often, a bit ridiculous.

Some examples of the ridiculous aspects of the film include: 1) Glenn Close's hair and make-up (playing the leader of the planet Xandar whose people Thanos is trying to exterminate) is comically bad, resembling a cartoon. 2) Peter Quill has a mixtape of 70's and 80's hit songs from his dead mother which we are to believe that even though these civilizations have spaceships and advanced technology they don't have digital copies of music? 3) There's a scene which takes place in a prison which our characters will of course break out of (is this a spoiler?). The ridiculous part of the scene is basically how easily our heroes escape because of how incompetent the guards are as well as the venality of the other prisoners.

The irreverent vibe is exemplified by the film's great soundtrack and Pratt's goofy but effective dancing, to songs like "Oooh Child," "I'm Not In Love," and "Ain't No Mountain High Enough." Another example is the Star Trek like make-up to indicate alien physiognomy.

Overall, Guardians of the Galaxy is a classic sci-fi romp, reminiscent of the original Star Wars  (in tone) but with flaws reminiscent of other fun films like The Fifth Element and Serenity. What I'm trying to say is that Guardians of the Galaxy is definitely worth seeing and an enjoyable entertainment.

Title: Guardians of the Galaxy.
Director: James Gunn.
Running Time: 2 hours, 1 minute.
MPAA Rating: Rated PG-13 for intense sequences of sci-fi violence and action, and for some language.
Release Date: August 1, 2014.
Viewing Date: August 10, 2014.

Writing: B.
Acting: A-.
Visuals: B+.
Impact: A.

Overall Grade: B+/A- (3.50/4.0).

MOVIE REVIEW: Riddick

The original Pitch Black (2000) introduced the world to the muscular, ethnically ambiguous good looks of Vin Diesel. He has gone on to become more well-known (and well compensated) for his appearance in the "Fast and Furious" movie franchise about hot cars and hotter "chicks" but it was a surprisingly successful low-budget sci-fi/horror flick that started it all. Apparently Diesel is pretty fond of the character introduced in that film, named Richard B. Riddick because he has now played him in three films. In fact, after the spectactularly awful sequel The Chronicles of Riddick the studio refused to even cnosider making any more films in the franchise and Diesel bartered his appearance fee in one of the many Fast and Furious sequels for comprehensive rights to the Riddick character so that he could make sequels if he wished.

For Riddick, Diesel again brought in the creative team behind all the Riddick films, writer and director David Twohy (most well-known for the disaster that was Waterworld). The film is cast with various unfamiliar faces, with the notable exceptions of Katee Sackhoff (Starbuck from SyFy's Battlestar Galactica) and Bokeem Woodbine.

The latest Riddick film has a sense of being very deliberately created to try and replicate the feeling of the first film. There are lot of scenes with just Riddick and a digitally created dog surrogate (which sort of looks like a cross between a hyena, wolf, cat and a rat) with almost no dialogue. As in the first one, the creature effects are well above average and, somewhat surprisingly, the creatures are very different from those that appeared in the other films.

The premise in this film is that Riddick gets abandoned on a harsh,barren planet through treachery and when mercenaries come to pick up the bounty on his head (which is doubled if he's brought back dead!) he is able to leverage the local deadly alien flora and fauna to convince his purported captors that he can can save their lives but in return they'll need to help get him off the planet.

Although it has a lowly 57% rating on rottentomatoes.com (65% from audiences), if you go into the film with low expectations and still have fond memories of the first film, Riddick is a perfectly pleasant way to spend two hours at the movies, which from the look at upcoming attractions for the next month or two is going to be a rare event in the near future.

Title: Riddick.
Director: David Twohy.
Running Time: 1 hour, 59 minutes.
MPAA Rating: Rated R for strong violence, language and some sexual content/nudity.
Release Date: September 6, 2013.
Viewing Date: September 12, 2013.

Writing: B+.
Acting: C.
Visuals: A-.
Impact: C-.

Overall Grade: B- (2.67/4.0).