Thursday was my brother's birthday, so I decided to treat him to a trip to the movies. We have previously watched all the other movies in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, starting with 'Iron Man' back in 2008. Now 6 years later we are met with this gem of a movie, that not only shines as a brilliant tie-in with the ongoing cinematic universe that Marvel has created, but it also stands on it's own as a genuine good, funny and amazing looking sci-fi action-flick.
When we went to see the movie, neither of us had any expectations, seing as 'Guardians of the Galaxy' is a relatively unknown aspect of Marvel, outside of comic book readers. But to our pleasant surprise, we laughed all the way to the mandatory Marvel post-credit scene, and even that was a hoot.
Now, I will try to make this review as spoiler free as I can, but If you have any plans about watching this movie, than quit looking at this and go see it, even if you don't want to - I URGE YOU TO GO SEE THIS MOVIE!!!! But without further adieu, here is my take on Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy:
Much like the Avengers is a team of extraordinary individuals, the Guardians of the Galaxy is also an ensemble of characters, which together forms a force to be reckoned with. But where the Avengers had 5 movies (Iron Man 1 & 2, The Incredible Hulk, Thor and Captain America) to lead into the tied-in film, Guardians of the Galaxy is as much of an origin story as any of the previous stand-alone Marvel films.
The team consists of:
- Peter Quill AKA Starlord(played by Chris Pratt), a human who got kidnapped and thereafter raised by a group of intergalactic treasure hunters/pirates known as "Ravagers". He's the movie's main protagonist, though he does not outshine the other characters, it may be the other way around, but I digress. We first see him as a little kid at his mother's deathbed in the 1970's (this is significant, but I will return to that shortly), where he recieves a final gift from her, but we won't find out the content of the gift untill the very end of the movie, making the gift an excellent leitmotif of the movie.
- Gamora(played by Zoe Saldana), the adoptive child of the galactic overlord Thanos (who was teased in the post-credit scene of Avengers). She has been turned into the perfect living weapon. She was tasked with retrieving an Artifact that Quill finds, which he tries to sell on the planet Xandar. She manages to track him down and a game of cat and mouse entails.
- Rocket(voiced by Bradley Cooper) the gunslinging racoon-like creature and his friend/partner in crime Groot (voiced by Vin Diesel), a humanoid tree, are bounty hunters, and manages to find Quill just before he is found by Gamora, which sudently turns it into a three-way battle in the streets, before they all get subdued and brought to a maximum security prisonship in space.
- Drax the Destroyer (played by Dave Bautista) who ranks highest among the inmates, and he bears a huge vendetta to the film's antagonist Ronan, who seeks to destroy Xandar and rule the universe. When the others meet up in prison, and they find out how valuable the artifact Quill found, they form a convinient alliance to escape, and the movie is hereby set to take to the stars...literally!
The rest would be spoiling too much, but trust me when I say, you should go see it!
