Film review: Guardians of the Galaxy

*No spoilers*

Last night I went with nearly-wife to see the latest outing in the Marvel cinematic universe, Guardians of the Galaxy. To be honest, I went along with little in the way of expectation; I’m a fan of pretty much all superhero movies and have a reasonable familiarity with comic book lore, but I have to confess that I had never heard of this ragtag group of heroes before now. Nearly-wife just gave me *that* look when I explained beforehand that it had a walking tree and a talking racoon in it, but I’m ok on the brownie-points front at the moment so she agreed to go with me. 

You know what? We both had a great time. The movie had enough LOL moments (yes, we actually laughed out loud) to keep us grinning, some poignant moments that drew an ‘awww’ and more action than you could shake a stick at (stupid phrase; stop shaking sticks and pay attention).

The cast of Friends ten years on - something's gone horribly wrong...

Yes, the premise is silly, but it works. The film doesn’t take itself too seriously, the special effects are superb and the main characters bounce off each other well. Incidentally, two of the main characters being fully CGI did not look jarring, as these things so often can do. Rocket is a fully realised racoon with a serious chip on his shoulder and Groot is the tree ‘muscle’ that you just want to give a hug. The fact that Groot can only say “I am Groot” is no barrier to understanding what he is trying to get across.

Groot and Rocket are joined by Peter Quill, or Star Lord, a human that had been raised on the other side of the galaxy and whose main link to his roots is a mix tape of 70s and 80s tunes that gave a nice funky soundtrack to the film. There’s a bit of Han Solo and Mal from Firefly in him, making him a rogue that you can’t help liking. Gamora is a green assassin with a conscience that can kick butt with the best of them and Drax is a one ‘man’ army who takes everything said to him literally, to very comic effect.

At the beginning these characters are at each others’ throats, but through circumstance and the presence of a mysterious orb are pulled together to tackle the films’ main villain, Ronan, a typical over-the-top all-powerful evil dude that, shock-horror, wants to destroy everything. Special points go to his evil, blue, bald-headed sidekick Nebula, played by the virtually unrecognisable Karen Gillan (Amy Pond in Doctor Who), for being a bit more intelligent than your usual evil sidekick and actually kicking some ass.

There are links here to some of the other Marvel films, setting up future possible crossovers with The Avengers and teasing the presence of a future Big Bad in Thanos, one of the Marvel universe’s most powerful and dangerous villains.

If you like the other Marvel superhero films, go see this, I guarantee you’ll enjoy it. It does have a message, dished out a little heavy-handedly towards the end, but it’s a film with heart, with balls, and if it doesn’t make you LOL at least once then you are a lost cause, go get your funny bone checked out.

Oh, and look out for the whistle-controlled spear/arrow - that weapon is all kinds of awesome.