With the Guardians of the Galaxy sequel about to hit cinemas, we felt we had to give the first film another viewing as it is part of the BMAF collection.
This film was a highlight for us when we were suffering from comic book film fatigue, yet we went in not sure what to expect, we knew nothing of the comic or the characters its based on, but a talking raccoon and tree seemed fun.
We were also unsure about its writer/director James Gunn, we loved his smaller movies Slither and Super, but would he be able to deliver a blockbuster movie to win other the mass audiences?
The answer is a resounding yes, in part thanks to a superstar making performance from its lead Chris Pratt, who had already won movie audiences over in the year with his voice work on The Lego Movie.
We always loved him as Andy in TV comedy show, Parks and Recreation but this performance as ‘Star-Lord’ was just something else.
A quick opening sees a young Peter ‘Star-Lord’ Quill deal with the loss of his mother, then abducted by space pirates, known as ravagers led by Yondu (Michael Rooker)
26 years we see the fully grown Pratt as Star-Lord, in a character which combines all the best of Harrison Ford’s Indiana Jones and Star Wars legend, Han Solo
On a planet known as Morag, he steals an orb in order to collect a huge reward, which immediately sees a bounty put on his head, but more importantly, the orb is wanted by Ronan (Lee Pace) the big villain of the film.
Ronan sends Gamora (Zoe Saldana) to retrieve the orb, but in attempting to retrieve it, she is captured by the Nova Corps led by Irani (Glenn Close) with Star-Lord and Rocket, a genetically modified racoon (voiced by Bradley Cooper) and his talking tree sidekick, Groot (voiced by Vin Diesel, although he only says I Am Groot, albeit in different ways) who had been trying to get the bounty!
We then see them imprisoned on Nova’s space prison, which with the help of Drax (Dave Bautista) who wants revenge on Ronan, for killing his wife and daughter.
The race is now on to get the orb back, which includes the Infinity Stone, a source of huge power that in the wrong hands could have terrible consequences.
Ronan even sends Gamora’s half sister, Nebula (Karen Gillan) to retrieve the orb, which will see Star-Lord and his new found friends form the Guardians of the Galaxy, a team that will stop at nothing to stop this evil taking control of the universe.
This really is possibly our favourite Marvel film, it is certainly up there with Deadpool and Blade for being our favourite c
The film is served by an exceptional cast, Pratt deservedly gets the praise but all 5 Guardians, even those just using voices excel, especially Bradley as the wise-cracking Rocket, creating characters you immediately love.
The film is also a great story, a lot of these initial Marvel films can feel like they are just setting up sequels and not give much in their first outing.
It also had a fantastic retro soundtrack featuring the likes of 10CC; David Bowie and most memorably The Jackson 5 thanks to Groot!
Early word is the sequel will be as good, so much so a third film has already been greenlit, only cementing the Guardians place in the Marvel cinematic universe.
The film is not with at faults, mainly due to its 2 hour run-time, we are sure like most modern day movies, some time could be lost but that is a minor quibble. If you have not seen Guardians of the Galaxy, we highly recommend it.
You can find the trailer here:
Visit the website for the sequel here:
Find the film at Amazon here: