Guardians of the Galaxy - Film Review

Starlord, AKA Peter Quill, is a self-proclaimed outlaw. After stealing an orb from a far-away planet, Quill soon gets arrested for his theft after having a run-in with rocket, Groot and Gamora, all of whom are also arrested. The four, plus an inmate from the prison known as Drax the Destroyer, all realise they have an enemy in common; Ronan the Accuser, and so they team up in order to save the universe from being destroyed by the power of the orb, which could fall into the wrong hands at any time.

Wow, this film is great. The premise of criminals becoming the good guys isn't completely fresh, but its good enough and certainly brings in more laughs than a bunch of goodie-goodies doing the job. There is a whole new set of characters to add to Marvel's collection now, this time a set of misunderstood miscreants.You'll get to know Starlord (Chris Pratt), an abducted human, Gamora (Zoe Saldana), a green assassin, Drax (Dave Bautista), the muscly, tattooed human thesaurus, Rocket (Bradley Cooper), a strangely clever raccoon bounty-hunter and his tree-like bodyguard, Groot (Vin Diesel).

Marvel films aren't really known for the incredible acting, but for their awesome action sequences. However, I will say that Chris Pratt does an exceptional job at being a likeable jerk, and the comedic timing of everyone is spot on. There are a lot of famous faces in here: Zoe Saldana, Glenn Close, John C Reilly, Karen Gillan and Djimon Hounsou (horribly misused in my opinion as he doesn't have much screen-time) to name a few. Of course, there are a couple of faces that you won't see: Bradley Cooper and Vin Diesel. Rocket Racoon is by far the best character in the film, due to his snarky comments and foul temper, and Groot is pretty interesting too. I won't lie though, Vin Diesel must have had an easy time of it - one line to remember and no physical appearance.

Although this is all very sci-fi, you nearly forget about that fact as you get wrapped up  in the action of the scenes, and they were truly awesome; a prison break, countless fight scenes, a ton of outer-space shots and some really funny conversations. Speaking of conversations, younger viewers may want to cover their ears. This is a 12A film (UK) and I'm not sure I'd want a child younger than 12 to learn some of the curses that come out, parental guidance or not. Parents, you've been warned.

For those of us who are fans of the Marvel universe, we don't get a lot of nods to other films based on the Avengers. However, there are nods to the infinity stone storyline when we see Thanos and The Collector, who have featured in after-credits scenes. We can definitely see this story developing in this film, spurring on bigger and better things. This film has picked us up out of the Earth-bound (and Asgard-bound) world and flung us into outer-space, where things could really start getting a great deal more epic.

One last thing: the soundtrack. The soundtrack for this movie is incredible. It really makes the film, and links it to Starlord in a very nice way. The music actually comes from a mixtape that Starlord has on his person when he is abducted, and therefore all of the songs are from the 70s and 80s. This is totally geared towards the adults in the audience, but it is also very good in adding a touch of realism and humour into the mix. Lots of action sequences were made more amusing simply by adding the ill-fitting music over the top.

Join the universe's most unlikely heroes in a hilarious quest to deny a villain his attempt at Earth. This is a hugely entertaining film, full of laughs and action. It was so good, I immediately wanted to watch it again.

Best bits: Glenn Close sets the scene with the films first curse. Drax the Destroyer gets a bit too literal. Starlord gives a motoviational Kevin Bacon speech to Gamora. Rocket asks for an inmates leg as part of his escape plan. I am Groot.

Guardians of the Galaxy on IMDB

Kyra_x