Fun With a Capital F, This is How You Do a Summer Blockbuster

Rating: 9/10 (12 August 2014)

Somehow, the hype train didn't roll straight over this one. It's just as good as advertised. With so many chiseled jaws and grim, determined brows crowding the superhero scene over the last ten years, I think we really needed a film like this to remind us of how much great, loose fun the genre can still be. In fact, even calling it a superhero movie may be something of a stretch - it spans a number of different classes, plucking fitting elements from each and packing them down into a beautifully odd, curious, colorful bouquet. It's as much Star Wars or Indiana Jones as it is Thor, a glowing hunk of sci-fi and adventure with no taste for restraint and a ticklish funny bone that really sets it apart. Having read comics for most of my life, I know how uncommon it is to see a filmed adaptation that even nears the kind of boundless imagination possible on the printed page. In this, too, Guardians of the Galaxy is a gust of fresh air - at all times, the screen brims with rich detail, superior dashes of inconsequential world-building and oodles of hints and winks. It's as close as I think Hollywood has ever come to flashing the sense of joy and wonder inherent in that medium to a broader audience, a real treat to drink in and enjoy. I can't help but admire the balls it took to go this far into left field, to create something so wholly different from the present status quo. Admire, that is, and appreciate. What a ride.