Film review - Guardians of the Galaxy

The story of tender-hearted Peter Quill (Chris Pratt) who, immediately after his mother dies, gets sucked up into a spaceship and—26 years later—is living the life of the outlaw ‘Starlord’ (which is way cooler in his own mind than anyone else’s) in the outer galaxies of space.

Soon Quill is in prison with an odd band of mainly mutants: a talking raccoon called Rocket (voiced by Bradley Cooper), a humanoid plant (voiced by Vin Diesel), the powerful Drax (wrestler Dave Bautista) and orphan turned assassin Gamora (Zoe Saldana). The five combine to get their hands on a mysterious orb, which leads to a truly fantastic prison break scene.

And ‘fantastic’ is the most fitting word to describe Guardians. The worlds, characters, costumes, spaceships and literally every scene are all spectacularly imaginative and hardly ever sensible. See the movie in 3D to best appreciate the amazing creativity at play.

A mix of higher and lesser aims motivate Quinn’s group: revenge, monetary reward, the desire to save a planet from total annihilation, and loyalty. But eventually, the tough exteriors forged by tortured backgrounds break down and a common quest emerges.

Draz admits, ‘All the anger, all the rage was just to cover my loss.’ To which Rocket cynically replies, ‘Boo hoo, everyone’s got dead people.’ Which is true of this ensemble—all are wrestling with their own sad backstories. But as Quill says, ‘When life gives you a chance, step up and sacrifice for the good of others, for what you know is right.’ And so the Guardians band together, as we always knew they would, and heroism comes to the fore. Unused to such selflessness, Quill takes a moment to reflect: ‘I found something inside of myself—something incredibly heroic. I mean … not to brag.’

The soundtrack is epic, thanks to the mix tape cassette that Quill endlessly plays on his ’80s Walkman, a relic from planet Earth that carries all of his mum’s favourite songs. This provides some hilarious musical moments ... along with a few Footloose references.

Guardians of the Galaxy has been in the cinemas for a while. If you haven’t seen it there, plan to catch it from video stores. The violence is significant, so this isn’t one for younger viewers, but as you’d expect from the comic-book movie genre, there’s not much blood or gore. Characters that should have been dead within moments bounce back with little more than a bruised head.

One of the wittiest Marvel comic movies of recent years. For a work of fiction, Guardians of the Galaxy heralds the most profound of facts: we make the most sense together. 

Review by Christina Tyson

Guardians of the Galaxy 3D
Genre: Sci-fi/Comedy/Adventure
Director:  James Gunn
Rating: M (violence, language, drug use)
Run time: 2 hours 2 mins