A cheerful blockbuster in which Star Wars meets Ziggy Stardust...

Full Review | Aug 29, 2022

For much of its 122 minutes, Gunn's grab-bag of quirky characters, genre ribbing, and incongruent '70s pop tunes goes over like gangbusters. The trouble is, it's only irreverent to a point.

Full Review | Jun 18, 2016

If Guardians of the Galaxy is an origin story, it is also a satire of the origin story, one that emphasizes the power of the "We" over that of the "Chosen One."

Full Review | Jun 14, 2016

In proper "who gives a toss?" B-movie tradition, Guardians of the Galaxy takes us into the silly section of the Marvel Universe.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Jan 4, 2015

Guardians bounces with the energy of pure invention.

Full Review | Sep 30, 2014

Blessed with a loose, anarchic B-picture soul that encourages you to enjoy yourself even when you're not quite sure what's going on, the scruffy Guardians is irreverent in a way that can bring the first Star Wars to mind.

Full Review | Sep 30, 2014

The lightly derisive, live-action-cartoon tone robs the movie of any majesty, even of the comic-book type, and the many violent deaths of their suitable gravity.

Full Review | Sep 30, 2014

These meager pleasures are swallowed up in all the frantic action and overblown CG sequences.

Full Review | Sep 30, 2014

Chris Pratt, overflowing with charisma, plays the leader of the pack of misfits, and his blissed-out space cowboy (with a love for seventies music) is so full of good will that he buoys the film and its requisite whizbang special effects.

Full Review | Sep 5, 2014

Fans... will delight in the wisecracks offered by Rocket (Rocky Raccoon) or the profundities of Groot.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Aug 8, 2014

Hovering between irony and sincere enthusiasm, the film is above all a triumph of tone.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Aug 7, 2014

Outre, cheerful, yes... but wake me up when the Doctor Strange movie is ready.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Aug 4, 2014

Director and co-writer James Gunn brings a giddiness and a wondrous, endless sense of why-the-hell-not? possibility that's reminiscent of Star Wars.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Aug 2, 2014

Pratt is their prime asset for turning the comedy up to 11. With him playing Star-Lord, you never question what Quill brings to the team: a sparkling, cracked esprit de corps.

Full Review | Original Score: B- | Aug 1, 2014

It may be a mess, but it's an extremely good-natured mess, full of humor and warmth. More surprising still, the very elements that seemed most likely to ruin the movie-the tree-man, the talking raccoon-account for much of its improbable charm.

Full Review | Aug 1, 2014

Guardians succeeds when it proves the Marvel formula is malleable; it fails when it discovers that formula is not yet malleable enough.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/5 | Aug 1, 2014

Gunn appears to remember the high of certain kinds of moviegoing, where when the credits are over, all you want to do is get back in line and enjoy the whole thing again.

Full Review | Aug 1, 2014

At first I thought, 'This movie isn't as clever as it thinks it is.' But after a while, I decided maybe it was after all.

Full Review | Aug 1, 2014

If you want a superior successor to Red Dwarf, Blake's 7, Star Wars and, yes, Scooby Doo then look no further. There are worse things.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Aug 1, 2014

Finally, some jokey superheroes.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Aug 1, 2014