Escape

Rating: 5/10 (25 April 2015)

With Guardians of the Galaxy, Marvel has gone to the C list of their comic book heroes. Otherwise who the hell are these people unless you truly are a comic book geek.
In 1988 a young Peter Quill soon after his mother's death is abducted from Earth by some space pirates. 26 years later Quill is now also known as Star Lord and also a space pirate steals a powerful orb and forms an uneasy alliance with a group of extraterrestrial misfits who are being pursued by Ronan the Accuser.
I watched this film twice, the first time I was underwhelmed with it but the kids liked it who were keen to watch it on the big screen. On my second viewing I appreciated the film more. Its an entertaining and anarchic B movie, fast and frenetic but it also felt messy and incoherent and also tricky to get into.
Having watched the other Marvel characters where you are introduced into the world of Thor or Iron Man or Captain America here you sometimes feel that you have ended up in someone's party uninvited and no amount of 1970s music will make you feel at home. Its difficult to work out the motivation between some of the characters and the antagonism such as Quill and Yondu.
The film takes it cue from some post modern Star Wars mixed with Indiana Jones in space. The CGI characters Groot and Rocket just about work in the film. I still not sure whether its Bradley Cooper voicing it as he sounds so different because he plays him as a more lovable Joe Pesci gangster type.
However a bunch of misfits who argue and mistrust each other before putting away their differences and uniting to fight a common foe was played out in The Avengers film.