[Film] Guardians of the Galaxy

Marvel have become something of a cinematic giant in the last five years or so. First there were the X-Men and Spiderman films, then Daredevil, then Hulk, then the Fantastic Four. Then they took matters into their own hands with Iron Man, Captain America, Incredible Hulk, Thor, and Avengers Assemble. After building the 'Marvel Cinematic Universe' they carried on at full speed, and the second round of releases is by now well established. We've had Iron Man 3, Thor 2, and Captain America: Winter Soldier. That's not mentioning the Amazing Spiderman and X-Men: First Class series, which although Marvel properties aren't controlled directly by Marvel.

So far it's all been established characters and franchises. Stories that the general audience will at least have a vague idea about. But there are increasing signs that Marvel is starting to branch out from this set of 'core' properties. The first of which is the release of Guardians of the Galaxy.

"What a bunch of A-holes". Maybe a bit harsh, but they're certainly an odd bunch. (Credit: ultimateclassicrock.com)

I'll be honest, I wasn't too bothered about seeing this film when I first heard about it. I didn't know anything about the Guardians of the Galaxy, and when I saw that two of them were a talking Raccoon and a walking tree I was even less bothered. But then I started seeing trailers, and I became intrigued. It seemed like it was going to be offbeat, slightly kooky, and way more 'out there' than any of the other Marvel films. The only link to Earth and humanity is that one of the Guardians is a human, abducted from Earth when he was a child. That's it. This is Marvel's space franchise, and as a sucker for a bit of Science Fiction (or even Space Fantasy), not to mention some stupid jokes, I decided that actually I was quite keen.

It turns out that my impression from the trailers was entirely correct. This is indeed a very oddball film, and (in my opinion) hilarious. Not for the wrong reasons either, but because of the dialogue, characterisation, and presentation of the entire thing. There are serious moments of course, and the heroes (does that word really apply?) have to save the day from the big bad guy. But the overall tone was, to me, very much one of fun and wonder. In that way it more resembles the Iron Man trilogy than the Thor duology; the former have a rich vein of humour running through them, albeit black humour, whereas the latter are more serious. But Guardians of the Galaxy is fun. I lost track of how many times I laughed during the film, and it has to be one of the most quotable films I've ever seen:

"I am not some starry-eyed waif, here to succumb to your pelvic sorcery."

"Metaphors go over his head."" Nothing goes over my head. My reflexes are too fast...I would catch it."

"We're just like Kevin Bacon."

etc. etc. Genius.

"I am Groot." He's a big softy really, and actually a pretty well rounded character for someone that can only say three words. (Credit: businessinsider.com)

The film isn't a complete success. The aforementioned big bad guy, Ronan, is barely interesting. He's basically a crusading nutcase, but that's as far as his background goes. He's almost incidental to the film, except as a plot device, which is a shame. In some ways I felt the same about the villain in Thor 2, but he's three dimensional compared to Ronan. We're also given little reason to feel bad about the planet that he's attacking. We know almost nothing about them, except for the fact that they're good, and he's bad. That's pretty much it. Oh, and the good guys have cool technology, and a lot of very good actors splitting a tiny amount of screen time between them.

There's also the classic Marvel device of the Maguffin, some magical artefact that's super powerful and in the wrong hands will destroy everything. In Captain America and Avengers Assemble we had the Tesseract. In Thor 2 it was the Aether. Here it's the Infinity Stone. By itself it's not very interesting, but it's an important part of Marvel lore that has me very interested to see where they go with the third Avengers film. The third act does descend a little into action-sequence chaos at times, but that's pretty typical for this type of film, and by no means a black mark against it. In fact, even during the fast paced final showdown there are some comedy gems, and moments of pathos.

The Milano is one awesome spaceship. In fact the designs in this film are all quite cool. (Credit: cinemablend.com)

In the end though, this is a film about the five main characters. How they meet, how they become involved with each other, and how they become friends. Plus the somewhat outrageous escapades they get up to along the way. The film does suffer a little having to build five characters at once (here Avengers Assemble has the advantage, with the characters each already having had their own film to set things up), but it's mostly successful thanks to some excellent performances from the five leads, aided and abetted by a great script. Marvel have another hit on their hands.

Oh, and did I mention that the soundtrack is awesome?

He's so cute! This is right at the end of the film, and is a bit of a spoiler, but it's too good not to include. (Credit: Marvel Entertainment on youtube)