Guardians of the Galaxy

Guardians of the Galaxy is last year’s unexpected blockbuster and it exploded from being unknown to being included on every movie conversation of 2014. The Marvel Cinematic Universe has had an amazing track record with this tenth film in the series and it may be the most ambitious film to date.

A young Peter Quill weeping from his mother’s death is ripped from his home planet of Earth, and is raised by a band of thieves that snatch up artefacts throughout the galaxy for the highest bidders. While the years that passed for Peter were far from home, he had the company of Earth in the form of his mother’s gift of an old cassette player with a tape entitled “Awesome Mix Vol.1”. The cassette holds hits from the 70s which act as a fine storytelling device to break and create tension as well as a relationship for the audience to still feel homely in a universe so strange and different from our own. Like a favourite album you can sit and listen to on repeat the fun begins when Peter plays the cassette tape and again it ends with the cassette tape. Peter finds himself with a group of misfits getting into prison together, breaking out together and attempting to save the world together. The ensemble cast from Peter (Chris Pratt), to the green alien Gamora (Zoe Saldana), to Drax an alien brute (Dave Bautista), along with them is the racoon, Rocket (Bradley Cooper), and Groot the true voiced by Vin Diesel with the single word “Groot”. While the story lacks a bit of depth, you come for the characters and stay to see their hijinks. The director, James Gunn did a great job at making the marvel universe feel like it had a great sense of scope, and if you loved the show Firefly, you’ll love this.

I thoroughly enjoyed Guardians of the Galaxy and name it my favourite film for 2014!

4/5 – Stars

Robert Ring