Guardians of the Galaxy
Director: James Gunn
Cast: Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana, Bradley Cooper
Length: 121 mins
Country: USA
“…who?”
Based on characters from Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning’s 2008 run that was pretty unknown even among comic book fans, and featuring a gun toting, anthropomorphic raccoon as well as a talking tree, and left in the hands of an indie director whose last film featured a murdering lunatic who thought he was a superhero, Marvel Studios gambled big on Guardians of the Galaxy – and director James Gunn has successfully delivered Marvel their most unique film; every bit as grandiose as The Avengers, and with a lot more heart. That said, it isn’t exactly a superhero film; the characters are criminals and ‘losers’, in the same vein as the characters in Firefly, Serenity and Star Wars.
Guardians of the Galaxy is set in the farthest corner of the Marvel universe, but the very beginning takes place on Earth. Peter Quill is listening to his precious Sony Walkman in a hospital ward, waiting to see his dying mother. Refusing to accept the situation confronting him, he runs and gets abducted by an intergalactic gang of thieves. Cue the Marvel Studios theme. The scene acts as a kind of cold open, and an insight into why we end up seeing a supposedly badass space-hero dancing across the screen underneath the giant “Guardians of the Galaxy” title card to “Come and Get Your Love”. At this point, the audience has essentially been hurled into the deep end; 26 years later, Peter Quill (Chris Pratt) is an outlaw man-child, preferring to be known by his code name ‘Star-Lord’, still carrying his distant memories of Earth (and his Walkman) with him. We meet the adult Star Lord dancing his way through an ancient temple on an abandoned planet to his prize – a “mysterious, Arc of the Covenant, Maltese Falcon” type orb, his theft of it attracting the attention of the Kree zealot Ronan the Accuser (Lee Pace), as well as most of the protagonists.
It is with the orb that Guardians of the Galaxy finds its main connection to the rest of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, as one of the Infinity Stones that has plagued The Avengers across a few films. From here, the pace of the film picks up, as the film swiftly and effectively establishes the other misfit characters who make up the rest of the team. Gamora (Zoe Saldana) carries an abusive and violent upbringing, and wishes to escape it; Rocket and Groot (voiced by Bradley Cooper and Vin Diesel) are an odd couple of best friends looking to get rich, and Drax (Dave Bautista) is, at first, a random maniac who joins out of an intense desire for revenge. These motives bring the protagonists into a lot of conflict, and eventually, a partnership.
While the film marks the third time Marvel Studios has had a plot that is essentially “villain wants to use a MacGuffin to destroy the universe”, Guardians very smartly invests most of its runtime in its titular team of dysfunctional characters. Chris Pratt’s Star Lord is a charming, roguish Captain Kirk/Han Solo/Indiana Jones type character, though it becomes clear that his indulgence in these intergalactic escapades is a numbing agent, a distraction from his lack of direction and emotional baggage that he is clearly incapable of dealing with. Pratt is outstanding, delivering every line with enthusiasm and heart, working very well as the centre of the film. Between this, The Lego Movie and the upcoming Jurassic World, Pratt’s career looks set to take off, and it is well deserved. Rocket is a standout, not just because of the astonishing CGI used to create him and his partner-in-crime, but the amount of pathos that Bradley Cooper, and the script bring to the character. There are quips, jokes, and some hysterical one-liners, but at the bottom of it, Rocket is an angry, broken little creature – and a mid-film monologue does really well to demonstrate this. Groot, his closest, and literally wooden friend, could have been played off as a one note joke, but turns out to be an incredible character, especially considering his vocabulary – Groot is Vin Diesel’s Iron Giant 2.0, getting an astonishing amount out of the phrase “I am Groot”. The ‘giving tree’ is innocent, loveable and hilarious, while of course having the capacity for some fairly terrifying violence.
One of Marvel’s best films so far, and quite easily the most fun I’ve had in the cinema all year.
Gamora and Drax are slightly more straightforward, both green(ish) powerhouses with a grudge against Ronan and Thanos (Josh Brolin) Their ‘weirdness’ comes from their lack of familiarity with any kind of friendship, as well as Peter Quill’s metaphors and film references. Dave Bautista is very much the film’s secret weapon, lacking both a strong background in acting as well as exposure in the marketing for the film. Bautista’s acting and comedic timing is great, not only matching his co-stars, but often stealing the show, helping Drax deadpan and gleefully kill his way into the audience’s hearts. Gamora first appears as a lackey of Ronan, but is eventually shown to want to break out of the life of terror and death that she’s been stuck with ever since being adopted by the ‘mad titan’ Thanos. Unfortunately, her relationship with Ronan, Thanos and her adoptive sister Nebula is never fully explored, a few more scenes between her and her genocidal adoptive family will have better illustrated her inner conflict and her determination to save Xandar. Despite this, the character of Gamora is not just well realised, but thankfully, not nearly as sexualised as one might expect from the trailers, proving immune to Quill’s “pelvic sorcery” (actually a line from the film).
Nicole Perlman and Gunn’s script is concise and clever, and very quotable. The humour is frequent, and surprisingly dark and crude, the action is pulse pounding, and the visuals are stunning – Guardians of the Galaxy is, by far, Marvel’s most beautiful film yet. Gunn does well to blend astonishing sci-fi visuals and wondrous cosmic landscapes with a gritty, Alien-esque aesthetic, and really brings the intensity when it comes to the action scenes; which themselves are varied and quite hard hitting… continuing the trend of superhero films pushing the limits of the ‘12A’ rating. In addition to the remarkable cast, the soundtrack (also known as ‘Awesome Mix Vol.1’), is an honourary character in itself – bringing comedy to moments that would otherwise be filler, and along with Quill’s numerous film and pop culture references helps to ground the film while connecting the audience to Star Lord.
With Guardians of the Galaxy, James Gunn and co. have delivered a fresh, clever and extremely fun space opera, delivering some touching and heavy emotional moments along with crazy and varied action and brilliant humour. One of Marvel’s best films so far, and quite easily the most fun I’ve had in the cinema all year.
Comments