Movie Monday - Guardians of the Galaxy

OOGA-CHUCKA OOGA-CHUCKA OOGA-OOGA-CHUCKA



Director: James Gunn

Writer: James Gunn

Starring: Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana, Bradley Cooper, Dave Bautista, Vin Diesel, Lee Pace, Karen Gillan, Michael Rooker, Glenn Close, Djimon Honsou, Sean Gunn

Release: 2014

Peter Quill (occasionally known as Star-Lord,) is your typical abducted Earthling – he's brash, loud, arrogant and steals things for money. When he double-crosses his boss and tracks down an artefact on the abandoned world of Morag, he finds that the forces of the Kree renegade Ronan the Accuser are also after the item. All Quill wants is a payday, but he'll have to deal with murderous assassins and dangerous raccoon-like bounty hunters first. Thrown into prison with the people trying to hunt him, Quill manages to form them into a band that may have a hope of stopping Ronan's plans to destroy the fragile peace that currently hangs between the stellar empires. And behind it all, a darker, more sinister power awaits to be woken...

THE SQUEE

• Everything. All the things. OK, most of the things. Let's start with the cast. This was an amazing cast, from Chris Pratt and the other leads right down to the extras.
• The directing was top notch. I'm now of the opinion that the Gunn family are the new Raimi family. Think about the similarities between James Gunn and Sam Raimi – both got started directing at a young age, focussed on horror with a side of wacky comedy, moved into superheroes with an independent film and then landed massive Marvel movies. They both have actor brothers (Sean and Ted respectively), who know how to ham it up perfectly. They also have writer brothers (Brian and Ivan, respectively) who have a few films under their belts, but aren't as well known. The parallels are definitely there. (In this scenario, Nathan Fillion is Bruce Campbell.)
• This leads me to the cameos. These were a real treat. You kind of expect to see Easter Eggs in Marvel movies nowadays, and they're a great way of making the universe feel real and lived in. Mentioning too many would be spoileriffic, but there are some to look out for. The dog in the spacesuit at the Collector's is a great reference to the Guardians comics series. Thanos is basically there as a cameo, but he brought a huge amount of menace to his scenes. The stinger at the very end of the credits has a cameo I never thought I'd see in the Marvel films, but hey, there it was.
• The character design was outstanding. Two that really stood out were Ronan the Accuser and Nebula. Lee Pace and Karen Gillan nailed those characters so well. Ronan wasn't particularly memorable (to me, anyway) until about midway through the film, upon which he became AWESOME. Nebula looked amazing throughout, a great counterpart to Gamora's awesome, and Gillan infused Nebula with the perfect amount of attitude that you really got a sense of who this person was from just a few lines.
• Rocket! I want to pet him! I might lose a hand, but he was adorable! Much soft! So fur! Wow!
• I am Groot.
• One of the major promotion aspects of the film was the soundtrack. The classic 1980s tunes were a nice contrast to the typically epic score that most sci-fi action films would go for.
• The humour of the film was fantastic – it wasn't the somewhat ad libbed feel of Iron Man or the funny dissonance of Thor. It was never afraid to throw something completely ridiculous at a serious moment, and was always clever enough not to underplay a touching moment with anything too zany. The best humour always builds on emotion, rather than detracting from it, and the writing managed to use humour to build scenes to satisfying conclusions.

THE SUCK

• Actually, I felt that Gamora was underused. This may not be a popular opinion with everyone (I haven't read any other reviews yet, so I don't know what other people are saying, but Zoe Saldana is a goddess, so I suspect people are going to be pro-Gamora). Gamora is incredibly kick-ass, and I felt that in this film she was simply 'action movie girl' – sure, the movie was going for an 80's action movie vibe, but Gamora is better than that. She doesn't get taken prisoner by three goons and dragged off unless she wants to go somewhere else so she doesn't scare the rest of the populace with blood-splattering violence.
• I already mentioned what I thought of Ronan until about halfway through the film, but since he was the villain, him not leaving an impression on me wasn't particularly great. Fortunately, Nebula was there to make up for it.

So there you have it. It's a big silly blockbuster that has some fun action sequences, some great lines and a lot of heart. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go dig out some mix tapes.