Guardians of the Galaxy (12A)

Directed by James Gunn
Starring Chris Pratt, Bradley Cooper, Vin Diesel, Zoe Saldana, Dave Bautista, Karen Gillan, Lee Pace, Glenn Close, Djimon Hounsou, Michael Rooker

Hugely popular, this film made a stack of money, and I stil don't get it! Below is my original review just after I saw it and I still rate it way below most of the other MARVEL movies. I tried re-watching the other day and I think I fugured out why - it is the MCU aimed at the YOUNGEST audience! Guardians is the most cartoon-ish, with a racoon and a tree as main characters and the charming, amiable man-child Chris Pratt leading the way. It is also a non-Earth bound film for the most part. Chris Pratt jets around the galaxy like a teenager, listening to pretty lame music on a walkman that really should have worn out by now (anyone remember trying to fix broken casette tapes??) and tossing off quips. He is likable, he is cool, he is ridiculously (and unecessarily) buff!
All of the characters are cartoons, lacking in any depth or subtlety and all so damn colourful!! To me it remains a kids film in the way the other MCU films don't.

Not as bombastic as other recent Marvel movies, Guardians of the Galaxy is the nerdy little brother of Iron Man, Captain America and the other big boys. Is that a good thing? Well maybe if the baddies were more interesting than a Scooby Doo villain. Whoever thought painting everyone but Chris Pratt weird colours would make it wacky was mistaken. Zoe Saladana goes from Avatar blue to bright green here, and poor Karen Gillan can do little - she went bald for this!!? Her blue stripey baddie is particularly two dimensional.
However, Parks & Rec's Chris Pratt is a very likeable hero and this is a very fully realised world. The plot is just idiotic but it bowls along merrily enough. Nerdy teenage boys will probably find it super cool, but it was just a bit too obscure cult comic book for me. Some good moments but cardboard villains, over convoluted plot and the CGI raccoon and the tree creature didn't do that much for me.
5/10

July 2014