Guardians of the Galaxy
Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures | Release Date: August 1, 2014 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
76
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 53 Critic Reviews
Positive:
48
Mixed:
4
Negative:
1
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
We Got This CoveredMatt DonatoApr 24, 2017
Guardians Of The Galaxy is everything we go to the movies for, as Gunn is able to build an intricate intergalactic world full of multiple races, lush scenery, and maximum escapism through action, romance, comedy, and interstellar drama. Read full review
100
St. Louis Post-DispatchJoe WilliamsJul 31, 2014
Surrender, earthlings. It’s the Guardians’ world and you’ll be happy to live in it. Read full review
100
Washington PostMichael O'SullivanJul 31, 2014
It manages the trick of being both an unironic sci-fi action-adventure flick and a zippy parody of one. It’s exciting, funny, self-aware, beautiful to watch and even, for a flickering instant or two, almost touching. Read full review
100
HitfixDrew McWeenyJul 24, 2014
Guardians Of The Galaxy is the most charming Marvel movie so far. The primary ensemble (Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana, Dave Bautista, Bradley Cooper, and Vin Diesel) is perhaps the most winning group of characters they've introduced in any of these movies. Read full review
91
ConsequenceJustin GerberApr 24, 2017
Director James Gunn’s first foray into big-budget movie making succeeds despite focusing on characters largely unknown to mainstream audiences and provides some of the most genuinely affecting moments of any Marvel film to date. Read full review
91
Portland OregonianMarc MohanJul 31, 2014
A perfectly irreverent counterpoint to movies that take their superheroes a bit too seriously. Read full review
91
Entertainment WeeklyChris NashawatyJul 30, 2014
The film's a giddily subversive space opera that runs on self-aware smart-assery. Read full review
91
Film.comJordan HoffmanJul 29, 2014
[A] blend of classic sci-fi fare and current pop-culture irony is what rockets “Guardians” into the stratosphere. Read full review
90
Los Angeles TimesKenneth TuranJul 31, 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. Read full review
90
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzJul 30, 2014
It's easy to get carried away with movies like this, which lend themselves to fanboy hype. It's not a perfect movie. But it is one that is hugely enjoyable, bears repeated viewings and will be as funny in 10 years (or 50) as it is now. And that's pretty swell. Read full review
89
Paste MagazineMichael BurginJun 15, 2018
Marvel’s rambunctious entry into the space opera genre—and the cornerstone of its “Cosmic Marvel” roster of characters and storylines—so perfectly embodies what the preceding months of hype and hope foretold that even its weak points (and it has its share) feel almost like unavoidable imperfections—broken eggs for a pretty satisfying omelet. Read full review
88
The Seattle TimesSoren AndersenApr 24, 2017
"Guardians” stands apart because it’s somehow truer to a comic book’s essence than any Marvel or DC-derived picture you can name. Which is to say it’s pulpy, kind of cheesy and giddily exaggerated (and aware of it) in a way that, say, the “Thors,” the “Captain Americas” and Christopher Nolan’s Batman movies are not. Read full review
88
Rolling StonePeter TraversJul 31, 2014
Guardians of the Galaxy does the impossible. Through dazzle and dumb luck, it turns the clichés of comic-book films on their idiot heads and hits you like an exhilarating blast of fun-fun-fun. It's insanely, shamelessly silly – just one reason to love it. Read full review
88
Miami HeraldRene RodriguezJul 31, 2014
Gunn makes this huge entertainment accessible to the converted and the neophyte alike, and he has only has one goal: To send you out of the theater with a fat smile on your face. Mission accomplished. Read full review
88
Chicago Sun-TimesRichard RoeperJul 31, 2014
It’s filled with a kind of giddy energy that leaps off the screen. It’s corny, it’s dopey, it’s sincere, it’s romantic, it’s thrilling and it leaves one anticipating the next adventure of these heroic goofballs. Read full review
83
The PlaylistOliver LytteltonJul 24, 2014
Gunn’s careful to keep the focus on the central five, but certainly proves himself capable of the bigger canvas. The film really pops visually, with an admirably bright color palette (DP Ben Davis doing excellent work), and though there are occasionally some geography issues, the action is mostly satisfying. Read full review
80
The New YorkerBruce DionesApr 24, 2017
The film, directed and co-written by James Gunn, is joyfully irreverent. Gunn lends his underachiever superheroes a geeky, comic camaraderie, and he brings a spry touch to the wacky intergalactic adventure. Read full review
80
New Orleans Times-PicayuneMike ScottJul 31, 2014
It is fast, it is fun. Read full review
80
New York Daily NewsElizabeth WeitzmanJul 31, 2014
To see an expensive, big-studio movie freed from creative constraints and directorial cynicism is always a rare and wondrous experience. In a season of bloated indulgence, it’s also fair to call it a marvel. Read full review
80
The New York TimesManohla DargisJul 31, 2014
Here, a pulse, wit, beauty and a real sensibility have been slipped into the fray, alongside the clockwork guffaws, kabooms and splats. Read full review
80
The DissolveKeith PhippsJul 30, 2014
Gunn, a B-movie enthusiast who got his start at Troma, has found a way to bring funkiness and humanity to a galaxy-spanning blockbuster, one filled with dogfights and floating fortresses, but also with heroes quick with a quip, fast on the draw, and more than a little beaten up by the universe. Read full review
80
EmpireDan JolinJul 24, 2014
As much as Guardians largely thrives through its lovably scuzzy style, it cannot avoid the immense tractor-beam pull of The Big Marvel Studios Final Act. Read full review
80
Time Out LondonTom HuddlestonJul 24, 2014
Overall this is giddy, ridiculous fun, a witty, wacky and wonderfully generous sugary gift of a film. Read full review
80
Total FilmMatt RisleyJul 24, 2014
Mad, marvellous and all kinds of sci-fi magical, Guardians Of The Galaxy is Marvel’s riskiest but most surprising success yet. Read full review
80
CineVueBen NicholsonJul 24, 2014
Guardians of the Galaxy is undoubtedly a flashy space opera, but if you are on board with that, it's a resounding success that takes a seat at Marvel's top table and suggests there could still be life after The Avengers. Read full review
80
The TelegraphRobbie CollinJul 24, 2014
The fun of it – and Guardians of the Galaxy specialises in fun, served by the sugar-sprinkled ice-cream-scoopload – is in seeing this odd quintet bluster through space battles and alien brawls that would have defeated anyone smarter and better-equipped. Just as the team makes do with the junk they find around them, the film feels like a mound of gems culled from decades of pop-culture scavenging. Read full review
80
The Hollywood ReporterJustin LoweJul 24, 2014
Overall, the writers have crafted a well-articulated universe with distinct settings and relatable, compelling characters devoted to a thrilling quest for redemption. Read full review
78
Austin ChronicleKimberley JonesJul 30, 2014
Guardians of the Galaxy is an outlier: a space opera in a largely earthbound movie cycle (excepting the occasional red-eye to another dimension in the Thor pictures), candy-colored and bopping where the other Marvel movies are muted and imposing, and the funniest one to date, without a doubt. Read full review
75
The Film StageNathan BartlebaughApr 24, 2017
What works best in Guardians is, in fact, the camaraderie of the team itself and the heart applied to their slowly gelling sense of family. Read full review
75
Philadelphia InquirerDavid HiltbrandAug 1, 2014
The gadgetry and fight scenes are nicely rendered. The aeronautical battles, though, fall well short of state-of-the-art. Maybe they're collateral damage to the film's goofy style. Read full review
75
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Liam LaceyJul 31, 2014
Too loud, too long and too busy but – here’s the good part – also wonderfully silly. Read full review
75
Charlotte ObserverLawrence ToppmanJul 31, 2014
The film’s fast, amusing, good-looking and not overlong, which is all sensible non-geeks ask of such movies. Read full review
75
USA TodayClaudia PuigJul 31, 2014
With its introduction of wonderfully memorable characters and blend of humor, action and catchy tunes, Guardians is perfectly pitched escapist fun. Read full review
75
RogerEbert.comGlenn KennyJul 31, 2014
A fun and relatively fresh space Western. Think “Firefly” pitched at 15-year-olds, with a lot of overt "Star Wars" nods. And super-“irreverent” dialogue that is, more often than not, genuinely funny. Read full review
75
Boston GlobeTom RussoJul 31, 2014
The motley crew’s repartee makes for comedy that’s surprisingly consistent, yet freewheeling and sharp enough to pinball from Kevin Bacon to Jackson Pollock and back. Read full review
75
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsJul 31, 2014
The film owes its relative buoyancy above all to Chris Pratt as the wisecracking space rogue at the helm. Read full review
75
Tampa Bay TimesSteve PersallJul 31, 2014
Guardians of the Galaxy is fun but forgettable, or perhaps Gunn crams so much onto the screen that memory is crowded out. Definitely worth a second look, just to figure out what in the name of Buckaroo Banzai is going on. Read full review
75
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliJul 30, 2014
The vibe, if not the specifics, is highly reminiscent of "The Last Starfighter," "Battlestar Galactica," "Battle Beyond the Stars," and others. The fact that the movie's "present" is defined as being 1988 and the soundtrack is peppered with '70s tunes cements the retro feeling. Read full review
75
The A.V. ClubA.A. Dowd Jul 30, 2014
Guardians boasts not one, but two Han Solo proxies — not to mention an ass-kicking Princess Leia surrogate, a villain with a very Sithian fashion sense, and the flora answer to Chewbacca. Also, one of the Han Solo types is a talking raccoon. Read full review
75
McClatchy-Tribune News ServiceRoger MooreJul 30, 2014
Laugh-out-loud funny and production-designed to death, Guardians of the Galaxy pops off the screen. Read full review
75
IndieWireEric KohnJul 24, 2014
Though the special effects win the day, Guardians of the Galaxy holds court with a sense of humor that transcends its more familiar ingredients. Read full review
70
SlateDana StevensApr 24, 2017
The film’s scruffy, smartass band of brothers, along with Gunn’s light directorial touch, make for an invigorating breather after too many summer weekends of hammer-wielding superheroic solemnity. Read full review
70
New York Magazine (Vulture)Bilge EbiriJul 31, 2014
The film seems content to be the class clown of the Marvel Universe, which is all well and good. But like most class clowns, sometimes you wish it would apply itself — because it seems capable of being so much more. Read full review
70
Wall Street JournalJoe MorgensternJul 31, 2014
A likable lightweight, though it's heavy enough on cosmic combat and dazzling effects. Read full review
70
SalonAndrew O'HehirJul 31, 2014
It’s a high-spirited, swashbuckling lark driven by cartoonish special effects and an ingenious double-layered nostalgia that allows it to become a virtual mixtape of ‘70s hits that predate its intended audience: “Hooked on a Feeling,” “The Piña Colada Song,” “Fooled Around and Fell in Love,” etc. Read full review
70
TheWrapJames RocchiJul 24, 2014
Unlike the stiff-jawed heroics of the other Marvel films, this feels a little looser and lighter, with Pratt as charming, amoral accidental leader Peter Quill, an earthling among the stars who, as he will tell you, is also known as the roving brigand “Starlord.” Read full review
70
VarietyScott FoundasJul 24, 2014
Director James Gunn’s presumptive franchise-starter is overlong, overstuffed and sometimes too eager to please, but the cheeky comic tone keeps things buoyant — as does Chris Pratt’s winning performance as the most blissfully spaced-out space crusader this side of Buckaroo Banzai. Read full review
63
Slant MagazineAbhimanyu DasJul 30, 2014
For every scene that soars into the dizzying heights of the pop sublime, there's another that crashes back down into the mundane troughs of studio-mandated formula. Read full review
60
The GuardianSteve RoseJul 24, 2014
The movie practically satirises itself as it goes along, glossing over its own absurdity in the process. Read full review
50
TimeRichard CorlissAug 4, 2014
It’s a bit of a botch. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleJul 31, 2014
Guardians of the Galaxy is pretty much where action movies are these days - a combination of comedy without wit, action without drama and elaborate visuals that are nothing much to look at. Read full review
50
Village VoiceStephanie ZacharekJul 29, 2014
Gunn has to juggle so many plot elements — so many booming galactic battles, so many whisker-close brushes with death — that it's little wonder he loses his grip on the thing. He inserts occasional moments of wonder but doesn't bother to smooth over the seams. Read full review
25
New York PostKyle SmithJul 30, 2014
Guardians of the Galaxy brings to mind some of the most unforgettable sci-fi event movies of the last 30 years. Alas, those films are “Howard the Duck” and “Green Lantern.” Read full review
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