Fun family film

Rating: 7/10 (15 August 2014)

As could possibly be expected, fighting over earth was always going to become a little repetitive so now the galaxy needs to be defended, or guarded as it were by a ragtag collection of miss-fits called simply enough the Guardians of the Galaxy.
These guardians are a collection of lost souls led by earthling Peter Quill (although he prefers the more swashbuckling moniker, Star-Lord); the green skinned and highly dangerous Gamora; a vengeance fueled warrior Drax with his blue muscular body adorned in red tattoo's, a psychotic yet industrious raccoon called Rocket and his side-kick the walking tree named Groot. They are brought together by accident and happenstance to save a planet (not earth, surprisingly) from the villain of the piece, Ronan the Accuser.
The story is part Star War, part Raiders of the Lost Ark which I would prefer to consider an homage while some are suggesting a blatant rip off (although the Guardians in comic book form actually predate Lucas and Spielberg's respective films). What happens? Well in a nutshell, Quill finds an item Ronan needs. The hero is compelled to work with Gamora, Drax, Rocket & Groot to get out of trouble and before you know it we have a team with the best parts of each malcontent brought to the fore.
As far as performance is concerned who were my favourite characters? Groot and Rocket Raccoon, the animated characters voiced by Vin Diesel and Bradley Cooper respectively. Some would say Mr Diesel had the simpler challenge as his walking tree didn't say a lot, in fact hardly anything. But he conveyed his emotions using only a few words which made for a truly intriguing and amusing character. Bradley Cooper continues to go from strength to strength in every role he inhabits on the screen and again here he was as lively and interesting as he was in American Hustle or Silver Linings Playbook.
Former WWE wrestler Dave Bautista acted about as well as anyone you would expect with that kind of background but his character is meant to be a moron so he's believable. Zoe Saldana as the assassin Gamora was competent as both a fighter and the romantic interest. The term "coloured actress" is never more accurate then when describing Ms Saldana given her (blue) role in Avatar and (green) in this film. Surely she would be begging her agent to find her a role in a black & white film so she can avoid arriving at the make-up trailer before sunrise? The lead and hero of the film is the "Ravager" Peter Quill (or Star-Lord) played by Chris Pratt of Parks & Recreation fame. I was surprised to see Pratt in the role as he has always seemed more of a side-kick or comic relief kind of actor. In Parks & Recreation he plays a no-hoper but I suppose he did it pretty well if I assumed he was just that? According to his bio, Chris worked out and dieted for 6 months to lose nearly 30 kilos for this role which left him with 6 pack abs and the ability to flog his exercise regimen on late night TV for the rest of his life... but I digress. In this role he was okay. Perhaps they specifically wanted someone a little rough around the edges or basically unknown? Who knows what Matt Damon or Johnny Depp could have done with this character? Alright they probably would have done it better but Chris tried hard.
Overall the acting (from the human characters) was okay but could have been better. I actually blame the director & writer James Gunn as it felt for at least half the film the actors were compelled to deliver lines with Shakespearean passion and it wasn't until the second half of the feature that they were allowed to loosen up. Special mention should go to Michael Rooker, Glenn Close and John C Reilly. The veterans played their small roles comfortably and with a charm the lead players weren't afforded.
If I have a major complaint it's with the villains. Ronan the main baddie for this effort and his superior Thanos (presumably the bad guy for the sequel) are so dreadfully one dimensional that it's impossible to understand why they would have any supporters. Why would their battalions of soldiers fight for them? Just to defeat people they didn't know? To destroy planets and ruin the lives of anyone who comes near them? Sure it's why people join the US Republican Party or the NRA but this is a fantasy realm. It's completely impossible to imagine the bad guys being anything than exactly that so as soon as we were introduced to the evil doers the result of the film was obvious. If there was a saving grace for the bad guy team it was Nebula (played by former Dr Who side-kick Karen Gillan) who as the half-sister to Gamora gave us the only evil character we could imagine changing sides and having any empathy.
The Guardians of the Galaxy is a quirky picture with plenty for everyone. There's plenty of colour and movement with loud bangs and explosions for the younger generations along with a few good laughs for the rest of us. Was it motion picture history? No. Does it stack up against the great Sc-Fi or adventure films? Not really but myself, my wife and two teenage daughters happily repeated our favourite moments on the way home from the cinema so we certainly got our monies worth from an action film that didn't take itself too seriously and will more than likely do it again when the sequel hits our screens.