Guardians of the Galaxy (film series)

GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY (12)

D: James Gunn

Disney/Marvel (Kevin Feige)

USA 🇺🇸 2014

122 mins

Science Fiction

W: James Gunn & Nicole Perlman [based on characters created by Dan Abnett & Andy Lanning]

DP: Ben Davis

Ed: Craig Wood, Fred Raskin & Hughes Winborne

Mus: Tyler Bates

Chris Pratt (Star-Lord), Zoe Saldana (Gamora), Dave Bautista (Drax), Vin Diesel (voice of Groot), Bradley Cooper (voice of Rocket), Lee Pace (Ronan the Accuser), Michael Rooker (Yondu Udonta)

One of the most successful summer movies of 2014 and easily one of the most fun.

Based on a rather obscure series of comics from Marvel, you'd be forgiven for not being too familiar with the source material (I wasn't), but it doesn't matter too much as the film doesn't take too long to immerse you into the universe of it's original characters.

The plot itself may as well be Star Wars: a power-hungry dark lord wants to assume power over the galaxy and is in possession of a secret weapon with the power to destroy entire planets. Meanwhile, a rag-tag group of misfits, including a talkative raccoon and a not-so-talkative tree, escape from a prison installation and put in place a plan to thwart the bad guys plans.

Comedy weighs into the film just as much as action and science fiction and it's a thoroughly enjoyable watch. Rocket the Raccoon may well be one of the coolest movie characters of the year and the film was nominated for two Oscars (Makeup, Visual Effects), a rarity for a movie with comic book origins. Perhaps the biggest surprise of all is that the director, James Gunn, used to cut his teeth on Troma productions. This is a massive step up.

8/10

GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY VOL. 2 (12)

D: James Gunn

Disney/Marvel (Kevin Feige)

USA 🇺🇸 2017

136 mins

Science Fiction

W: James Gunn [based on characters created by Dan Abnett & Andy Lanning]

DP: Henry Braham

Ed: Fred Raskin & Craig Wood

Mus: Tyler Bates

Chris Pratt (Peter Quill / Star-Lord); Zoe Saldana (Gamora); David Bautista (Drax); Vin Diesel (voice of Baby Groot); Bradley Cooper (voice of Rocket); Michael Rooker (Yondu Udonta); Karen Gillan (Nebula); Kurt Russell (Ego); Sylvester Stallone (Stakar Ogord)

The Guardians of the Galaxy return for this sequel which ups the comedy and action quota, but the story isn't quite as good as the original film.

Recognised as heroes, the Guardians are separated as Star-Lord learns the truth about his parentage, and a new enemy arises for revenge for what they consider betrayal.

As with the original film, the visual effects are top notch and excellent makeup effects & CGI bring the weird and wonderful to life on the big screen.

All the cast are as good as can be, though Sylvester Stallone is wasted in a needless cameo.

The soundtrack is also worth a listen to on its own merits.

7/10

GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY VOL. 3 (12)

D: James Gunn

Disney / Marvel (Kevin Feige)

US 🇺🇸 2023

150 mins

Science Fiction

W: James Gunn [based on characters created by Dan Abnett & Andy Lanning]

DP: Henry Braham

Ed: Fred Raksin & Greg D’Auria

Mus: John Murphy

Chris Pratt (Peter Quill / Star-Lord), Zoe Saldana (Gamora), Dave Bautista (Drax the Destroyer), Karen Gillan (Nebula), Pom Klementieff (Mantis), Vin Diesel (Groot), Bradley Cooper (Rocket), Will Poulter (Adam Warlock), Chukwudi Iwuji (High Revolutionary)

While superhero fatigue has definitely set in post 2019’s Avengers: Endgame, there is the occasional adventure that maintains the standard we’ve come to expect from the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and this third Guardians of the Galaxy outing is just the ticket, although it also isn’t without some faults.

Picking up from events following the 2019 star-studded bonanza, the eponymous team, sans Gamora, are going through the motions on their home world of Knowhere, when they are attacked by interstellar being Adam Warlock, who tries to abduct Rocket the Raccoon who becomes mortally wounded in the skirmish. This sets up a quest where the remaining members try to save their friends life, joined by Gamora for one last hurrah. This narrative is intercut with Rocket’s origin story, which is particular dark in tone and possibly the most difficult scenes to watch in all of the Marvel films up to this point.

The film does follow a rather standard template as it puts our protagonists in the usual perilous situations, but the balance of comedy, along with the charisma of the performers does help it feel quite fresh.

The biggest disappointments, as is becoming a trend with superhero movies, is the treatment of the villains, with the aforementioned Adam Warlock being little more than a bumbling idiot, and the chief antagonist, the High Revolutionary, being fairly menacing as an authoritarian with a God-complex, but this is ruined by the actor’s necessity to shout every single line of dialogue.

Despite the small niggles, this is a better follow-up to the original film than the first sequel and is possibly my favourite MCU movie this side of Avengers: Endgame (where I think it should have concluded).

Disney do need to start reeling it in now though, especially when their cinematic offerings are becoming more and more dependent on other movies and television shows that you shouldn’t have to brush up on just to enjoy an individual movie.

7/10