The galaxy needs protection and these heroes are perfect

Rating: 9/10 (26 December 2014)

In 1988 a young Peter Quill is by his dying mothers bedside, the last thing she wants to do before she passes on is give her child a final gift and say her goodbyes, but the emotion running through Peter is so strong and surreal his mother's dying wish to just hold his hand is never met. So as some kind of talisman the gift Peter receives is shoved into his backpack and never opened. Emotions run high as his mother's last breath leaves her body and young Peter runs out of the hospital and into an open field where he is suddenly beamed up and onto a spacecraft. Jump forward 26 years and a few galaxy's away and the young Peter Quill now known as Starlord as he likes to call himself is on an adventure of relic hunting, he picks up a strange orb which we discover is a treasure he has been commissioned to find and comes with a very lucrative reward attached. Starlord takes the orb back to the buyer who has offered the cash prize but once the buyer learns that Starlord was actually approached Ronan a madman who is intent on destroying the planet they stand on the deal is quickly shutdown and nothing is exchanged but a few awkward words. Starlord is then met by Gomora the assassin a stolen daughter of Thanos now working alongside Ronan who attempts to steal the orb away. Rocket a bounty hunter raccoon who can talk and who has been genetically modified to be a kind of gun tooting engineer and his bodyguard Groot a humanoid tree learn that Starlord has a bounty and attempt to go after it. Soon after the four characters are picked up and thrown into prison on an inescapable compound where the four meet Drax the destroyer a warrior who had his family slain by Ronan and wants nothing more than revenge. The five decide to team up and escape the prison to then go on and sell the orb to "the collector" a man who does exactly what his name states; he collects things. The group eventually learn that what lies within the orb can wipe out the universe and do whatever they can to ensure not Ronan nor Thanos the warlord Ronan works for do not get their hands on the orb. I cannot tell you how much I loved this film, I loved it from start to finish. I loved how it opened with such a powerful image and I loved how it ended with one much the same. It was funny, but not just funny ha-ha, it was hilarious, some of the dialogue was so natural in its delivery it all worked so well. The film never takes itself seriously unlike a few other films released it's just great fun. The CGI and visual effects are inspiring, the score is gorgeous and the 70's soundtrack worked so well with the entire film. There wasn't much you couldn't hate in this film. The characters were so real and believable (well as much as possible anyway) The cast were fabulous, I loved every one of them the standouts for me though were Ronan in my opinion one of the best bad guys to ever be given life! And Rocket, a Racoon with anger management issues is brilliant. Then of course Starlord who just holds everything together. Directed by James Gunn who is relatively an unknown he also helped write the script, I now believe he has a huge career ahead of him. Starting Chris Pratt as Peter Quill, Starlord, Zoe Saldana as Gomora, Bradley Cooper as the voice of Rocket, Vin Deisel as the voice of Groot, Dave Bautista as Drax, Lee Pace as Ronan, Michael Rooker as Yondu, Karen Gillan as Nebula and a handful of other quite well-known names made for an amazing cast. So now onto what I would have liked to see differently, the only thing I really hope they do is some origin films, nothing else, for once I didn't care there were no back stories on who these people were or where they actually came from but I would love to eventually see origin stories for each and every one of them. Guardians of the Galaxy is the must see film of the year for me so far, so go out and see it on the big screen before it finishes!!!