Dance like Kevin Bacon

Rating: 7/10 (2 August 2014)

Greetings again from the darkness. Get ready for a new brand of Marvel movie heroes. You surely know Iron Man, Captain America, Thor and Hulk, but it's high time you are introduced to Peter Quill, Rocket Raccoon, Gamora, Groot and Drax. Instead of dark, gloomy and super-serious, these guys aren't just funny ... they are actually FUN!
The plot is admittedly a bit simple. Everyone involved is basically chasing a ball (the orb) around the galaxy. Instead of good guys vs bad guys, it's actually kinda bad guys vs really bad guys. See, the heroes of our story are for the most part criminals themselves. The main difference is, they aren't after intergalactic super power and mega destruction like Ronan (Lee Pace). Ronan makes for a pretty menacing villain, especially with a voice that shook the theatre!
The band of misfits thrown together by circumstance actually provide much entertainment. Chris Pratt ("Parks and Recreation") is the self-nicknamed Star-Lord, better known as Peter Quill. The film begins in 1988 as Quill's mother dies and he is abducted by aliens. His criminal activity has him crossing paths with Gamora, a green assassin played by Zoe Saldana; Rocket, a brilliant, wise-cracking raccoon voiced by Bradley Cooper; Rocket's bodyguard Groot, an unusually mobile and talented tree voiced by Vin Diesel; and the hulking, knife-wielding Drax the Destroyer who is bent on revenge, and played by WWE star Dave "The Animal" Bautista. It's a rag-tag group of heroes unlike anything you have seen before.
Despite the lack of familiarity with these characters most viewers will bring, writer/director James Gunn (Slither) works wonders in having us quickly connect and even groot ... err, I mean ... root for these guys. Quill's possession of a Sony Walkman to play his mother's mix tape from the 1970's and 80's gives the film a very different flavor, as the familiar songs pop up at just the right time.
Pratt does an admirable job in the lead, and though compared to the GQ Tony Stark/Iron Man he is more Mad Magazine, his Quill is funny and easy to like. The best comparison I have for Quill is Han Solo, and for the film I would say it hearkens back to 1978's Superman ... both very high compliments. It's also the first time I have been completely caught off guard and laughed outloud at a Jackson Pollock reference.