Review: Guardians of the Galaxy (2D)
Released: 31st July 2014
Certificate: 12A
Director: James Gunn
Cast: Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana, Bradley Cooper, Vin Diesel, Dave Bautista
Marvel Studios ostensibly took a risk in putting all of their 2014 summer blockbuster eggs in the basket of an intergalactic comedy based on a comic hardly anyone had ever heard of. Happily, Guardians of the Galaxy sits comfortably among adaptations of the more well-known works, in some respects even outclassing them.
Guardians… centres around Peter Quill (Chris Pratt), a human taken from Earth as a boy and raised by bandits, who plunders ancient planets for treasures which can be sold on the black market. He bites off more than he can chew when he recovers an orb which is sought by extremists seeking to disrupt a fragile détente between two warring alien civilisations, the Xandarians and the Kree. A bounty is quickly placed on Quill’s head, but when various would-be abductors (including Zoe Saldana’s Gamora and Bradley Cooper and Vin Diesel’s Rocket and Groot duo) arrive to claim him, he is catapulted into an adrenaline-fuelled adventure.
This is nothing if not an ambitious movie: it aims to balance an ensemble cast to rival Avengers Assemble with the kind of fantastical location-hopping of Thor: The Dark World, and while it doesn’t quite have the cohesion or finesse of Avengers… it certainly takes a bloomin’ good swing at it. Visually, it is delicious: every spaceship, creature and world is beautifully designed. The frontier outpost Knowhere in particular teems with life that one can imagine ticking over without the audience watching. A wide shot of two characters floating in space in a live-saving embrace against the backdrop of a vast nebula is as iconic as any in recent cinema, and it’s interesting that it hasn’t appeared in more of the promotional material.
Despite having a multi-location space opera to realise, Guardians allows many players in its ensemble to have characteristics beyond charging around the galaxy being vessels for the most recent marvel McGuffin, the orb-encased Infinity Stone. Quill is haunted by the death of his mother (beautifully illustrated in the opening scene) and his abduction from Earth, preventing him from putting down roots or taking anything seriously. Gamora’s bereavement and displacement at the hands of Kree overlord Ronan (Lee Pace) has made her short-fused, distrusting and mercenary. However, having people they actually like around and having something greater to care about than themselves shakes up their respective worldviews, and watching them respond to that is a treat. However, the biggest surprise is Rocket, an anthropomorphised raccoon who, not being created on earth, doesn’t actually know what raccoons are. Although the comic potential of this is well-mined, his character is painted with subtle strokes and the loneliness of being a unique being in a system crowded with species and racial ties, and of being a fully realised consciousness in a form many see as laughably diminutive, is nicely realised. Cooper’s voice acting supports the excellent CGI work, and is one of the best performances in the film, particularly in the delivery of a drunken tirade in a bar room after one insult too many. Supporting characters Groot and Drax are good comic relief, although the joke of their primary characteristics (Groot can only say ‘I am Groot’ and Drax takes everything anybody says completely literally) is leaned on a little too heavily. Unfortunately the development of a large main team means that main threat Ronan and adoptive daughter Nebula (Karen Gillan) remain a little one-dimensional. We’re told Ronan is a fundamentalist angry at what he views as a castration of Kree powers in the truce with Xandar, but we never find out why he feels this way, or what the conflict between Kree and Xandar was really about. Gillan, too, deserved more screen time, mainly because she was able to imbue Nebula with such otherworldly liquid menace based on a few paltry lines it would have been great to see what she’d have done with more meaningful interactions.
This lack of development of the villains is one of several missteps which prevent the film from being truly brilliant. It feels long at just over two hours, partly because the relentless cavorting around the galaxy passes saturation point, leaving the viewer hungry for a little less action and a little more, well, conversation (space Elvis must be spinning in his grave). Guardians… also seems frustratingly desperate to cling to eye-rolling superhero tropes that the format would have been the perfect opportunity to subvert. The other ways in which Quill is introduced (dancing through the abandoned temple, cheeking Korath (Djimon Hounsou) and the prison guards) tell us he’s a freewheeler, and the fact that he’s a male lead in a marvel movie tells us he’s heterosexual, therefore the oh-sorry-honey-I-forgot-you-were-enjoying-a-post-coital-snooze-in-my-bachelor-spacepad-and-what-was-your-name-again is both unnecessary and disappointingly clichéd. The burgeoning romance between Quill and Gamora also felt a little superfluous in a story that had a lot of interesting things to say about friendship.
However, despite these problems, Guardians… remains amusing, visually rich and refreshingly un-cynical. Well worth a look for fans of the Marvel enterprise.
Verdict: 3.5/5
Quote: “We’re Kevin Bacon!”
Stuck in the Cheap Seats 
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