Marvel’s ‘New Kids on the Block’ impress on their debut outing.
I went to see Guardians of the Galaxy with the strong expectation of seeing half a great film…
With most sci-fi adaptations, it usually takes some considerable screen time to sufficiently cover enough initial back story to set up the main plot. Iron Man, for example, seemed like forever before getting out of the ‘prototype’ stage. Not so with Guardians. After a brief opening scene to introduce our young hero, Peter Quill, we are thrown into the thick of it; abductions, betrayals, enemies, allies, more enemies… it certainly doesn’t mess about.
This is something of a double edged sword is some ways. On one hand it allows for much more of the film to be made up of the juicy bits; jail breaks, space battles, mini-gun toting raccoons and so on, and is faster getting to them. On the other, there is sometimes little or no exposition of what is happening at the time, or why. You just have to go with it and accept that, “yes, that grieving small child is being zapped into the night sky without warning or provocation, I’m sure he’ll be fine.” For the most part, these events are clarified later on down the line. But for the moment, it’s probably best to just to sit back and enjoy the ride.
The main benefit to this style of screen play seems to be that there are very few lulls in the action. The scenes are such that there is pretty much always something going on. For example, our heroes barely have time for a customary “just getting to know you” inter-species brawl before they’re all shipped off to space prison, where the inmates are dressed in bright yellow jump suits and tasered, before being systematically hosed down with Tango.
Whilst defying all this death, Quill (Chris Pratt), the happy-go-lucky swashbuckling self entitled Star-Lord, assembles his mismatch crew of unlikely companions, including WWE wrestler Dave Bautista as Drax; the tattooed, muscle bound ex-con, intent only on seeking revenge for the murder of his family. Zoe Saldana as Gamora, the obligatory ass-kicking-but-still-relatively-attractive-for-a-person-with-the-skin-tone-of-a-crayon sidekick. Bradley Cooper voices Rocket, a partially psychotic but surprisingly tech-savvy racoon, which really is excellently done and manages to be the centre piece of any scene he’s in. And, finally, Groot… He’s a tree… But don’t worry, it’s much cooler than I make it sound! Also, he’s voiced by Vin Diesel. So, much cooler than I make it sound!
Once assembled, it’s down to Quill’s charismatic leadership skills to turn this bunch of miscreants from “let’s sell out the universe to make a ton of hard cash” ne’er do wells into a trusting group of heroes willing to lay down their lives to protect the galaxy. However, I can’t help but think his whole crew has something of a Firefly-esk feel to them: I can certainly see some similarities in the crew. The comparisons to other sci-fis doesn’t stop here, for example the common comparisons to classics such as Star Wars. I’m pretty sure the designer of a certain monolithic interstellar battleship in Guardians must have seen an H.R.Giger sketch or two in their time.
One of the things Marvel has succeeded in doing over the years (whilst translating their epic comic book universe onto the big screen), is tying the different story arcs together with appearances from crossover characters. Guardians is no exception to this with a couple of minor characters having made appearances in other Marvel films. This can provide some insight to those in the know (and those with a Google search engine) as to what plots we can expect to see unfold in the future. As usual, waiting until the end of the credits will get you a sneak peak of what is likely to follow. Indeed, so confidant is marvel about the success of Guardians they have already set an estimated release date for the sequel. The only disappointment for me is that I’ll have to wait three years to see it. Until then, I’ll have to make do with re-watching Guardians of the Galaxy on at the cinema and on Bluray… a purchase I’m sure I’ll be making, once it’s released.
Author – Andy, Prestwich store
