In amongst the usual disaster zone that is my life, I made time a the other week to go see Guardians of the Galaxy, and let me tell, it kicks many levels of arse.
Unlike Avengers Assemble, which was also very excellent, I wasn't that familiar with the characters. We haven't had a series of films to set everything up, instead being thrown into the life of one Peter Quill, self-appointed "Star Lord", a human adventuring in space due to circumstances best seen on screen. Through his usual reckless thieving, he ends up with more misfits on his case: Rocket (a Raccoon type animal genetically and bionically modified to speak like Bradley Cooper), Groot (a walking tree) and Gamora, a green skinned alien who is the adopted son of the rather nasty Thanos, who was the bad looking dude seen at the end of the Avengers flick. She has been tasked with recovering a relic by Ronan, a lacky (OR IS HE?) to Thanos to whom Gamora is working for alongside the big man's other daughter, Nebula.
It all ends with them locked up in clink for scrapping, where they meet the musclebound Drax the Destroyer, left extremely violent after his family were murdered, from which it all goes off and, plot spoilers aside, becomes very entertaining indeed.
I honestly couldn't find much to criticise about the whole affair. It looks great, has plenty of laughs, great music and for the main part, the casting is top notch. I've seen some jibes at the casting of pro wrestler Dave Bautista as Drax - personally, I found him excellent in the role, offering up some fine comic timing. I'd never seen anything of Chris Pratt before (having given up on Parks and Recreation before his character arrived), but I give the dude his dues: his playing of Quill was most excellent. People have been saying he's a Han Solo for the 21st century, which makes a lot of sense. Indeed, if Marvel play their cards right on this one, this franchise could well be the Star Wars for this generation - an opinion shared by a friend of mine who took the seven-year-old son of a friend to check this out, and was met with a demand to see it again right away.
Right now, it's impossible to give anything but kudos to Marvel: I've seen this and Captain America: The Winter Soldier in recent times and had nothing but a brilliant time, left eagerly wanting more of the characters I've seen. Anyone reading this who hasn't seen Guardians of the Galaxy should consider it, unless they can't stand the whole genre.
In other related news, I did get very excited when I saw some test footage for Deadpool reboot, all CGI with Ryan Reynolds voicing your favourite Fourth Wall breaker. However, it turned out to be from 2011, leaked for whatever reason. Reynolds played a Wade Wilson created in a rather regrettable fashion in X-Men Origins: Wolverine, and as a huge fan of the character, has been trying to make amends ever since, bless him. A Deadpool film done like the footage we have already seen would be a total hoot and I wish a plague of genital warts on whoever has not green lit it so far.
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