Guardians of the Galaxy [M]

After the death of his mother, young Peter Quill is abducted from Earth and brought up by a crew of space pirates called The Ravagers. Years later, he’s on a mission to steal a strange orb, but halfway through the job he is intercepted by a minion of the evil Kree, Ronan. Realising that the orb could fetch a pretty price, Peter makes off with it, which sparks a whole group of people to hound his trail: two hunters after the bounty on his head and one assassin who seeks to betray her employer and take the orb to a third party. When the four come head to head, they discover just what the orb is and become reluctant heroes as they determine to work together to not let the orb fall into the hands of Ronan or his ‘business’ partner, Thanos, as it would mean the end of the galaxy. 

Of the four post-Avengers movies I had to sit down and watch this was by far the greatest! This movie is fantastic! It’s got absolutely everything that you could possibly want: science fiction action, romance, reluctant heroes/antiheroes, emotive scenes done through CG that actually manage to bring a tear to the eye, heaps of comedy, and quite possibly the coolest soundtrack ever! Seriously, this movie is awesome! 

After the death of his mother, young Peter Quill is abducted from Earth and brought up by a crew of space pirates called The Ravagers. Years later, he’s on a mission to steal a strange orb, but halfway through the job he is intercepted by a minion of the evil Kree, Ronan. Realising that the orb could fetch a pretty price, Peter makes off with it, which sparks a whole group of people to hound his trail: two hunters after the bounty on his head and one assassin who seeks to betray her employer and take the orb to a third party. When the four come head to head, they discover just what the orb is and become reluctant heroes as they determine to work together to not let the orb fall into the hands of Ronan or his ‘business’ partner, Thanos, as it would mean the end of the galaxy. 

Right from the first scene where Peter whacks on a walkman and is dancing about in this dark and dank cave, you know you’re in for a ride. One of my favourite things about this movie was the central group of heroes. These are all actually nasty people who definitely do not set out to help authorities and save the galaxy. We’ve got a thief, two bounty hunters, and an assassin whose ‘friendship’ begins in the cells of a prison! I mean, how brilliant is that!? 

The special effects were a real knockout with the character of Groot and Rocket being ones that I have to draw special attention to. Groot is a crazy tree-thing with a vocabulary of three words and Rocket is a genetically engineered raccoon. Throughout the movie their friendship provides a lot of the comedy, but during one particularly emotive scene, we get to see just how close these guys are and it seriously brings a tear to the eye! Not since Gollum have I been so moved with a computer-generated character! 

The story can get a bit convoluted at times because there are a lot of characters and essential plot points which are, of course, going to bleed into the Avengers saga but ultimately, I was really taken by how well this movie simplified the key plot points and actually took the time to sit down and let the audience come to grips with what was going on. It’s a good script. 

But the absolute BEST thing about this movie is the soundtrack! Seriously, this is the coolest thing because it’s SO MANY GREAT SONGS ON IT and the music plays a really big part in the film. We’ve got 10cc, the Jackson Five, Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell, Rupert Holmes, David Bowie, Blue Swede, and The Runaways! What more could you want!? 

Starring Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana, Dave Bautista, Vin Diesel, Bradley Cooper, Lee Pace, Michael Rooker, Karen Gillan, John C. Riley, Peter Serafinowicz, Benicio Del Toro, and Glenn Close, Guardians of the Galaxy is a great film that’s filled with action, adventure, antiheroes, romance, drama, great special effects, and comedy. The banter between the characters is great, the action is cool, the soundtrack is awesome: just everything about this movie works so well!