I am Groot.

Rating: 10/10 (7 August 2014)

Guardians of the Galaxy. For me, one of the most anticipated movies of the year; it's set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe but features characters that the majority of us have never even heard of. I was very excited going in to this so lets review. The basic premise is that a group of criminals, of various degrees, join together to stop a villain from destroying a world, I know, it sounds like a lot of sci-fi films, but that's it! This movie has so many science fiction elements but no where does it ever feel like a rip-off, it is most definitely it's own thing. I'll start with the story, as I just said it covers some familiar ground but it does it so uniquely it is extremely entertaining, from not just a plot view but also nostalgia from the great sci-fi epics you love; you do get a Star Wars feel, and then you start getting a Star Trek vibe and even Indiana Jones for some of it; but because James Gunn does a fantastic job writing and directing it is comprised of brilliantly unique twists and scenes and characters that any comedy/sci- fi fan will love. Chris Pratt as Peter Quill was entertaining, Zoe Saldana was both interesting and fun as an alien assassin; of course the voice work to both Rocket and Groot were top notch with Bradley Cooper and Vin Diesel respectively. Even the wrestler-turned-actor was really good in his role as the very literal Drax bent on revenger for his family and delivered some awesome lines. Talking of lines, the dialogue in this movie is the best; the comedy, the tone, the banter it all works, definitely a few laugh out loud moments. Obviously it's a Marvel movie so the special effects are some of the best you're going to see, with mixing huge real sets with visually stunning CGI of space, and worlds and the colours are very pleasing to the eye. The only bad things I've heard about this movie was that it had a weak villain but for me Ronan had a very powerful presence, I feel that a lot of villains in the MCU have been quite weak (with the exception of Loki and possibly Red Skull) but this guy I enjoyed, he felt like a threat. My personal gripe with the movie was only very minor, first off, the beginning had a very dramatic scene and then literally seconds after it went full comedic which I thought was an awkward transition and secondly was Thanos, he was OK in the plot but Josh Brolin's American accent I felt was very obvious for an alien titan and took me out of the movie slightly. Apart from that Guardians of the Galaxy was, and always will be, AWESOMENESS.