Ever since the Guardians of the Galaxy movie was announced, I have been interested in finding out more about it. I had never heard of the Marvel comics that the movie is based on, but a story about a ragtag bunch of ne'er-do-wells helping save the universe sounded pretty good to me. Fast forward to the trailers coming out with "Hooked on a Feeling" blaring in the background and I knew I wanted to see it as soon as I could. Each subsequent trailer has increased my interest. Yes, I know you can be burned by good trailers being made from bad movies, but luckily Marvel has a built up a bit of credibility via their string of solo superhero and Avengers movies.
I can rip the band-aid off right now, Guardians of the Galaxy, co-written and directed by James Gunn, is as good as the trailers led me to believe. It is a lot of fun, visually stunning and has a little bit of a plot thrown into the mix. All good things. The start of the story is Peter Quill, aka Star-Lord, (played by Chris Pratt) a human abducted from Earth in 1988 is seen in the future recovering an artifact from ruins on a desolate planet. From there we have lots of people trying to get hold of the artifact. Along the way, Peter gets involved with a colorful cast of characters including a sentient plant, Groot (voiced by Vin Diesel), an angry bio-engineered raccoon, Rocket (Bradley Cooper), a muscle-bound inmate, Drax the Destroyer (Dave Bautista), and an assassin, Gamora (Zoe Saldana). Action, mayhem, destruction and fun ensues. To say anymore would ruin the experience of watching the movie for yourself.
Rocket and Groot
What Guardians does well is mixing completely out of place in space 1980s pop-culture references, 1970s music and more than a bit of humor in with action and spaceship battles. The special effects are top notch and the story is more than serviceable at introducing the various characters without being slow and boring. Each of the main characters are distinct visually and emotionally that you can easily keep up even if you have no background in the Guardians of the Galaxy universe from the comic books. Plus you get a number of stunning locations in the film, oh and some space ships and space battles too. Having just re-watched 1984's The Last Starfighter last night before seeing Guardians of the Galaxy it is amazing how far film-making and special effects have come.
I am glad that the movie is doing so well at the box office so that we will get to see more Guardians in the future. Unlike other comic book inspired movies, this feels more space opera and fun than the current run of gritty violent films we typically get. If you like science fiction movies, or generally like action-comedies then jump on over to the theatre and watch this one, you'll be happy you did. Or be like my family and wait for the DVD (which is fine with me 'cause I will get to see it again). Guardians of the Galaxy gets 5 Mick Happies. In my mind Rocket is basically what I think my chihuahua would be like if he had been engineered to talk and hold weapons…lots of fun. As always, stay until the very end of the credits to get a little extra snippet.
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