Guardians of the Galaxy

Guardians of the Galaxy is the latest in Marvel’s delve into the toy cupboard that is comic book superheroes. Unlike the Avengers, which drew together a host of existing characters, Marvel's first foray into space gives us a whole new team of fresh faces. There’s Peter Quill (Chris Pratt – The Lego Movie), aka ‘Star Lord’, a wisecracking bountyhunter-cum-outlaw raised on ‘80’s music, Gamora (Zoe Saldana – Avatar, Star Trek), an enhanced super-assassin with daddy issues, Drax (Dave Bautista), aka ‘Drax the Destroyer’, an eloquent maniac bent on avenging his family, Rocket (Bradley Cooper – Limitless, The Hangover), a genetically engineering raccoon suffering from ‘short guy’ syndrome, and Groot (Vin Diesel – Fast and Furious), a talking tree who acts as Rocket’s muscle. In traditional movie style these misfits must overcome their differences and learn to work together to defeat a skinny blue guy, ‘Ronan the Accuser’.

The fear with any plot introducing a team of new characters is that there is only so much film to develop them in. However, with the existing Marvel universe as a backdrop the fear is unfounded; the characters are surprisingly fleshed out without the film losing pace, and the plethora of other small cameos and characters don’t feel like the afterthoughts they easily could have. The film feels as though it was written and directed by the Easter Bunny (Peter Gunn) with the number of Easter Eggs littered across the landscape - even the most aloof Marvel fans will enjoy spotting the numerous tie-ins to other parts of the Marvel universe!

One of the greatest takeaways from the film is the soundtrack. Based on Peter Quills ‘Awesome Mixtape #1’ it’s a fantastic mashup of ‘70’s and ‘80’s classics that bring life and colour into the film. All said and done, Guardians of the Galaxy won’t win any prizes for being deep and brooding, but instead it's a light hearted romp through the Galaxy. This is summed up beautifully in the credits where it’s stated: “No raccoons or tre creatures were harmed in the making of this film”.

Harry Austin