Review #778: 'Guardians of the Galaxy' (2014)

With the rights to Marvel's other vast array of T-shirt adorned superheroes, such as Spider-Man and the X-Men, firmly in the clutches of other studios (who are reaping in the gazillions), Marvel - now combined with the surprisingly un-meddling might of the House of Mouse - are finding themselves having to turn to some of their more left-field, obscure creations. They don't come as unfamiliar as the Guardians of the Galaxy, a group of rag-tag criminals and rogues who operate millions of miles away from Earth and the Avengers, a gang no doubt familiar to hardcore comic-book fans, but little more than a collection of strange looking aliens and one human to the rest of us.

It's a massive surprise, then, that Guardians of the Galaxy may be Marvel's best movie to date, eclipsing the unexpected charm of Iron Man (2008), the easy-going chemistry of The Avengers (2012) and the formula-flipping breath of fresh air that was Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014). Director James Gunn, the man responsible for the fun Slither (2006) and the twisted Super (2010), knows that you probably don't know these people, but he makes sure you'll remember them. A combination of risky, but spot-on casting, a well-structured, incredibly witty script by Gunn and Nicole Perlman, and feast-for-your-eyes cinematography by Ben Davis, makes this the most fun to be had all year, perhaps even the decade.

After being abducted as a child shortly after watching his mother die, Peter Quill (Chris Pratt) now operates as a space bounty hunter, working for space-hillbilly Yondu (Michael Rooker) and trying to go by the name of Star-Lord. When he steals a mysterious orb and almost getting killed in the process, he betrays Yondu and tries to rake in the bounty for himself. This draws the attention of Gamora (Zoe Saldana), the green-skinned adopted daughter of space tyrant Thanos (glimpsed in the credits of The Avengers, and here played by Josh Brolin), who attempts to steal the orb for herself.

Also in the vicinity and hoping to capture Quill for the reward money, are Rocket (voiced by Bradley Cooper), a foul-mouthed, gun-wielding raccoon, and his companion Groot (voiced by Vin Diesel), a self regenerating tree. The four get into a scuffle and find themselves imprisoned by Nova Corps, where they come across tattooed man-mountain Drax the Destroyer (Dave Bautista), a man with a serious grudge against Gamora's boss Ronan (Lee Pace), who killed his wife and children. Though the group clash due to ego-fuelled personalities, grudges and personal demons, they may be the only thing standing between Ronan and the orb, the latter of which holds almost infinite power which Ronan plans to use to fuel his own genocidal tendencies.

The orb just may be the most obvious MacGuffin in cinema history (Quill even references The Maltese Falcon (1941), one of the most famous examples), and the plot sometimes whizzes by without giving you time to reflect or allow it all to sink in, but it's really hard to care when all you really want is to see these five characters in a room together, and if they happen to blow a lot of shit up at the same time, then all the better for it. The real success is the casting. Han Solo comparisons are obvious, but to lump Chris Pratt's star-making performance into the same bubble as Harrison Ford's iconic space cowboy is lazy and unfair. Quill is a loveable idiot, tough enough to face up to a fight, intelligent enough to always carry tricks up his sleeve, and flawed enough to make us care.

Racoon and Groot, one of the most adorable and effortlessly hilarious couplings in recent memory, will no doubt be the ones that the kids take away from the film, but it's Bautista, a WWE wrestler in his first major role, who truly stands out. He serves as the real emotional core in the film, initially fuelled by hatred and rage, but gradually learning the importance of friendship and camaraderie. Drax's failure to grasp sarcasm and metaphors also shows a deft comic timing, made even funnier by the man's imposing stature and gift of the scowl.

The film trips up on Marvel's usual struggle to deliver a climatic action scene that truly thrills or even offer anything original, but it's the first time I found myself genuinely concerned about a superhero's fate, all five of them in fact. It's a thrilling, beautiful, hilarious, and just plain weird movie, all scored to some great funky tunes from the 1970's (usually blasted through Quill's 'Awesome Mix Tape #1', which he listens to on his retro walkman, one of the few things he has left from Earth). The two hour running-time will feel like barely half the film has gone by by the time the credits begin to roll, and the inevitable sequel (the film is now the highest-grossing of a summer that involved the fourth entry into Michael Bay's CGI-ejaculation Transformers franchise) can't come soon enough.


Directed by: James Gunn
Starring: Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana, Dave Bautista, Bradley Cooper, Vin Diesel, Lee Pace, Michael Rooker, Karen Gillan, Djimon Hounsou, John C. Reilly, Glenn Close
Country: USA/UK

Rating: ****

Tom Gillespie