Friday 29 August 2014

Guardians Of The Galaxy

Imagine a film that is part Star Wars, part Indiana Jones and part Avengers. Well that is exactly what Marvel has done and it is just as cool as it sounds! When it was announced that Marvel was going to go ahead and make a film based on the cosmic comics, I was sceptical, but as soon as the first footage was released I was sold. Marvel have gone ahead and done the impossible, taken a bunch of relatively unknown characters and turned them into the next big franchise.


Guardians Of The Galaxy follows Peter Quill/Star Lord, a space pirate as he comes across a mysterious orb that he means to sell,  only to find that big bad Ronan is looking for this artefact. Adventure unfolds and Star Lord finds himself teaming up with Rocket Raccoon, Groot, Gamora and Drax The Destroyer to stop Ronan from destroying the galaxy.

Chris Pratt is the lead and he is a brilliant leading man who could definitely hold his own against RDJ's Tony Stark if the universe ever brought them together. Zoe Saldana plays a great badass Gamora whilst Dave Bautista surprises everyone with his brilliant comedy timing as Drax. Bradley Cooper brings Rocket to life as does Vin Dielsel with the always sweet Groot.

It is a scifi adventure film but more importantly it is a comedy and a very funny one as well! Some of the comics tend to take themselves too seriously but writer and director James Gunn gets it just right by doing the complete opposite of this. The film has a talking. Raccoon, it had to be self aware that the ideas were a out of the box and down right crazy. But the absurdity of this film is what is most fun about it and the comedy comes at you all the time and rarely misses a beat.

The two characters who were the riskiest ventures in the film, Rocket and Groot will undoubtably be everyone's favourite by the end. That's what I love about this film, it's easily accessible for anyone, my whole family loved it and they aren't big fanboy nerds like me. It's a great family film and this is because it is so much fun to watch!

The cinematography is great, there are so many stylish shots in the film. One of the best things however is the soundtrack, the big epic composed music is woven in with pop hits from the 70's and 80's which adds a lot of fun to an already crazy film but also holds a lot of emotional and sentimental value to the lead character.

My biggest problem with the film is one that Marvel seems to make quite a lot and that is with the villain of the piece, Ronan. For all his Darth Vader like presence he isn't really that well developed, as cool as he looks and as well as Lee Pace plays him, he comes across as just a bump in the road and not that interesting of a character. There were a lot of characters to introduce in this film so it is not surprising some were not as well done as others, but it is unfortunate that with Marvel, for every Loki there is a Whiplash.

Altogether though, Guardians Of The Galaxy is not just one of the most enjoyable films Marvel have made but it is also one of the best and most certainly the funniest! I loved this film and had so much fun in the cinema watching it! I am giving the film a rating of 4.5/5.

What did you think of the film? Did you buy a gun toting, talking Racccoon or not? Let me know in the comments below.

Thanks for reading!