Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10
Cast: Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana, David Bautista, Karen Gillan, Lee Pace, Vin Diesel, Bradley Cooper, Michael Rooker, Djimon Hounsou, John C. Reilly, Glenn Close, Benicio Del Toro, Laura Haddock, Sean Gunn, Peter Serafinowicz, Christopher Fairbank, Wyatt Oleff, Gregg Henry, Stan Lee, Melia Kreiling, Alexis Denisof.
When an American summer blockbuster film uses music by the outstanding British band 10cc in its opening sequences, then surely there can be no argument that it already grabs the attention of the viewer. Graham Gouldman’s and Eric Stewart’s timeless masterpiece only enhances the power to come as the latest tale of heroism from Marvel, The Guardians of The Galaxy, comes out to capture the summer cinema audience.
With almost every major character to have stepped off the drawing board at the creative offices of Marvel either having appeared, or soon to appear, in a big screen adaptation, it was only time that prevented Guardians of The Galaxy from making the transition; time and a screen writer or two worth their unlimited salt in which to bring together arguably the oddest group of renegades and creatures, excluding the highly debateable Howard The Duck, to film.
For the Marvel fan, even for comic book fans in general, Guardians of The Galaxy could have gone either way. It could have been as unbelievably bad as winning a pay your own one way trip to Hades on early closing day when it was raining or it could have been as superb as being told to just grab a passport and get ready to have the time of your life on a world-wide cruise, all expenses paid and the chance to chat to Stan Lee for more than five minutes and being told that you are to play Captain America or The Black Widow in Avengers 3. Thankfully Hades wasn’t an option.
In a film of many, many highs, from graphics to a well thought out story line, the only possible let down was the chronic underuse of Karen Gillan as adopted daughter of Thanos, Nebula. Much was made of the former Doctor Who companion being in a Marvel film and yet you can’t help but feel that any actress could have played the part. For Karen Gillan this is a shame, for those with heightened expectations of a truly meaty part for her post Doctor Who, a part in which she could show off her incredible depth, they could only feel disappointed.
With Chris Pratt and Zoe Saldana portraying the parts of Peter Quill and Gamora to perfection and Bradley Cooper providing a great voice for the unforgettable Rocket Racoon, it was left to the highly underrated Michael Rooker to give an exceptional performance as Yondu Udonta and Lee Pace as Ronan the Accuser once more showing his superb versatility as an actor that he first showed on the all too soon cancelled American black-comedy Pushing Daisies.
Guardians of The Galaxy brings back something that was lost in the unsatisfactory Thor 2, it reinstates the fun element needed in any comic book or graphic novel adventure, it re-establishes the fact that films don’t necessarily need to be grand in ideal to work properly, what they just need is to breathe and have a goal. Guardians of The Galaxy has that in abundance. With only Sin City Two to come, Guardians of The Galaxy is surely in a constellation of its own in 2014.
Ian D. Hall