Guardians of the Galaxy - Review

The Guardians of the Galaxy are not a well known group of characters from the Marvel universe. For this reason, many were sceptical of how successful this film could ultimately be. As someone who was incredibly excited about this film from the moment the first trailer was released, I’m happy to say that those naysayers were wrong to doubt the abilities of James Gunn and the rest of the cast and crew of Guardians of the Galaxy. This is not only my favourite Marvel film of the year, it is probably the best film they have ever made.

The Guardians looking awesome!

For those who are unfamiliar with this particular side of the Marvel universe, Guardians of the Galaxy is easiest to describe (but perhaps not most accurately) as the outer space equivalent of the Avengers. The premise of this film places Peter Quill (Chris Pratt), a space outlaw who was kidnapped from Earth as a child during the 1980s, in a situation where he must team up with four other criminals: Rocket Racoon (Bradley Cooper), Groot (Vin Diesel), Gamora (Zoe Saldana) and Drax (Dave Bautista). All of the central characters were played well by their respective actors. I’d like to mention Chris Pratt in particular who is relatively inexperienced in this kind of film. His portrayal of Peter Quill was hilarious whilst still serious when he was needed to be.

Chris Pratt as Peter Quill 

Zoe Saldana was able to be intimidating and forceful whilst still having comedic moments. Bradley Cooper and Vin Diesel were both playing fully animated characters and both did an excellent job. Particularly Cooper who’s role as Rocket was absolutely the heart of the film. A large portion of this success is down to James Gunn’s brilliant script which was able to take an inexperienced actor like Bautista and help him to deliver some of the funniest and most intense moments of the film.

Further credit must be given to Gunn for introducing an entirely new ensemble of important characters and still managing to produce a film in which none of them felt underdeveloped. There was a well measured mix of dialogue, character development and action as well as ensuring that the continuity from previous films was upheld. The action sequences were tense whilst being dotted with just the right amount of humour to uphold the film’s comedic tone. This tone was further enhanced by the brilliant soundtrack of 70s and 80s pop songs from Quill’s childhood. These songs never felt out of place and at many points in the film, really improved the experience.
My only real gripes with Guardians of the Galaxy came from its villains. The villain to whom the film paid the most attention was Ronan the Accuser (Lee Pace). This was the only character in the film that seemed underdeveloped. He was presented as a religious fanatic with a great many anger issues, but he never felt scary or all that intimidating. Fortunately, the villain to whom he answered – Thanos (Josh Brolin) - was far scarier and never felt underused, despite him only being in one scene.

Lee Pace as Ronan

This film excites me for two reasons: Firstly, it opens up the Marvel Cinematic Universe to a whole new side of the universe in the comics. Secondly, it shows that as long as they maintain this level of quality, Marvel no longer has to be afraid of using less well known characters as the subject of their films. Guardians of the Galaxy was so enjoyable that it makes me nervous about any future films Marvel can make. This reaction is similar to the one I had after seeing The Avengers; can anything be as good as this?

9.4/10