Sometimes you’ve got to leave serious movies to the cinephiles and see a movie featuring a talking raccoon and a tree fighting evil aliens.

Guardians of the Galaxy is the latest blockbuster out of the monolith Marvel Cinematic Universe machine. Directed by James Gunn and co-written with Nicole Perlman, GOTG follows Peter Quill (Chris Pratt) who steals a mysterious silver orb coveted by the villainous Ronan (Lee Pace). Quill is forced into an uneasy (and unlikely) truce with a quartet of (loveable) rogues: Rocket, a gun-toting raccoon (voice of Bradley Cooper), his sidekick Groot (voiced by Vin Diesel), assassin Gamora (Zoe Saldana) and Drax the Destroyer (Dave Bautista of WWE fame). As the true power of the orb becomes known, Quill must rally the group to save the galaxy.

Chris Pratt was just so perfect for this role, adding equal parts comedy and boyish charm to create a Star-Lord that’s somewhat of a cross between Captain Mal Reynolds from Firefly and Fry from Futurama. The real show-stealers in this film are his supporting cast though. Zoe Saldana plays a fantastic Gamora, showing what a badass the assassin daughter of a Titan can be. Bradley Cooper as the voice of Rocket was a highlight for me, and the relationship between Rocket and Groot is superb but could break your heart. Vin Diesel gives the greatest five-word performance I’ve ever seen as Groot, and Dave Batista plays Drax literally perfect.

Guardians of the Galaxy feels like a mash up of genres/styles that Gunn played perfectly. The movie gave off a serious Star Wars vibe at times, with the partnership of Rocket and Groot reminiscent of a Han and Chewie partnership (if Han was furry and Chewie was a tree). The opening credits and the perfectly selected soundtrack of 70’s hits were reminiscent of a Tarantino flick, as well as some of the darker humour. The jokes in this film were so on point, perfectly timed and crafted like a Jackson Pollock masterpiece. I was laughing through the entire film (pretty sure everyone hated me). The costumes and set pieces of this galaxy were also fantastic. Each planet looked completely different, from the clean rich worlds of the empire to a dingy little mining outpost in the middle of Knowhere, each one had its own personality on the screen.

Speaking as a pretty big comic book nerd, there were a few things that were pretty exciting about this movie. We get a full front on of Thanos (rumoured big bad in The Avengers 3) and a glimpse of another infinity stone (SO EXCITED). Ronan the Accuser is a Kree, one of the main alien species in the Marvel Universe, so perhaps in a future movie we will get the Skrull/Kree-Skrull war! One thing to keep an eye out for is a sneaky easter egg in the post-credits scene. Something is different from the post-credits scene of Thor 2 that could have major ramifications for The Avengers 3!

Long story short, this is the best Marvel film to date. The Avengers blew away the expectations of what a comic book movie could achieve, before being usurped by Captain America: The Winter Soldier in May. Gunn has created a near-perfect adventure film filled with seriously funny moments that tops the list for me.

Samuel Montgomery

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