Months ago I saw the trailer for a new Russian superhero film called Guardians that looked outstanding. Since I have been eagerly hoping to see this movie get a proper US release and thanks to Shout Factory that is finally happening.

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​Guardians follows the secret organization “Patriot” who created an elite squad of superheroes to defend the Soviet republic from threats far beyond the capabilities of mortal men during the Cold War. For years, these heroes hid in the shadows… but now, four must emerge to defend their homeland from a menace unlike any other they have faced before: the diabolical, power-hungry scientist Kuratov. Going in I was trying to keep an open mind and not let the fun of the trailers dictate what was coming, but they were all so great it was really hard. After seeing the film I can say that it is a fun movie, but still has a lot of flaws.

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The story is decent enough and feels like pretty much every other superhero film, but what makes it stand out is the unique powers of each of the characters. Watching them in action was a ton of fun and thanks to the creativity of it all made for something unique while still being familiar. The story is a bit all over the place and sadly follows a very generic template which some will likely find a bit mundane. The costumes and make-up effects are pretty cool and even though the main villain is a bit silly looking I still found myself entertained by the comic book nature of it all.

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The biggest issue here for me was the CGI that is both awesome at times and then other times just really bad. Had this movie been made about ten years ago we would have thought it was the greatest accomplishment ever, but sadly that isn’t the case here. Most of it works, but the biggest misstep is that of the coolest of all the characters which is a guy who transforms into a bear. Most of the time he only changes from the head and his muscles swell, but other times he goes complete bear. The CGI for this is barely believable throughout the film which is a shame since it takes you out of the coolness of it all. Had they been able to really pull that off he would have been the coolest part of the film especially seeing him in full action complete with dual machine guns.

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In the end this is still a fun entry into the superhero genre and one I hope generates a follow up to see these characters back in action, but has a lot of missteps that might throw some. Give it a try any way if you like the genre or ever saw the cool trailers and just have some fun with it. This release not only features this highly anticipated super hero flick, but bonus content including an image gallery, interviews, trailers and character profiles as well as both Russian and English audio options. Guardians makes its DVD debut as a Walmart exclusive on September 5, 2017 from Shout! Factory followed by the Blu-ray (with digital download) available everywhere December 5, 2017.

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For more information head over to www.shoutfactory.com