Great New Franchise

Rating: 8/10 (1 August 2014)

I saw "Guardians of the Galaxy", starring Chris Pratt-Parks and Recreation_t.v., Wanted; Zoe Saldana-Columbiana, Avatar; Dave Bautista- Riddick, The Man With the Iron Fists; the voice of Vin Diesel-the Fast & the Furious movies, Saving Private Ryan and the voice of Bradley Cooper- the Hangover movies, Alias_t.v.
This is the start of a new franchise for Marvel Comics. It's based on a lesser-known book that was started in the 1960's, got canceled and then re-launched over the years. This movie is based on the 2008 version of the books. The story starts in 1988, when a little boy named Peter Quill loses his mother to cancer and is then abducted and raised by aliens. Chris plays the older version of Peter, or as he becomes known as, Starlord. Chris has become a thief and is after a mysterious orb that several other people are also after. Zoe-Gamora-is one of those other people and she is also the adopted daughter of Thanos-remember him from the end credits of the Avengers? Vin voices Groot, a sort of living tree with a very limited vocabulary-'I am Groot' is all that he ever says-and Bradley voices Rocket, a highly intelligent raccoon that has been surgically altered with cybernetics and can also talk. Thanos hires Ronan the Accuser to also go after the orb after Zoe fails in her attempt and the newly forming Guardians run into their latest member Dave-Drax-who has a need to kill Ronan for his own personal reasons. The Collector from the end credits of Thor makes an appearance, too. Chris uses a cassette Walkman to play music-there is a reason he uses it, instead of some more modern device-and there is a lot of 1970's & 1980's songs heard throughout the film. Stan Lee does make his cameo as well as a few others. I saw the IMAX 3D version and it was well worth it. The effects are great, the story is good, the actors look the parts and there is plenty of humor, along with the action-the whole vibe sort of reminded me of the old t.v. show called Firefly. There is a scene just as the end credits start, plus another scene after the end credits-and the second one involves a different Marvel character that had his own movie, back in the 1980's. It's rated "PG-13" for violence and language and has a running time of 2 hours & 1 minute. This is a good origin story and I really enjoyed it and would buy it on Blu-Ray.