Starring: Chris
Pratt, Zoe Saldana, Karen Gillan, David Bautista, Lee Pace, Glenn Close,
Bradley Cooper, Vin Diesel
Written by: James Gunn and Nicole Perlman
Directed by: James
Gunn
Earth, the 1980’s.
Peter Jason Quill, a young boy going through a rough time, vanishes in a flash
of light. Twenty years later, and he’s roaming the galaxy as the legendary
outlaw ‘Star Lord’ – or at least, that’s what he’ll tell you if you’re willing
to listen. Now though, he’s found himself in possession of a seriously hot
property, and everyone from assassins to bounty hunters to alien terrorists to
near gods want to take it from him. At a time like this, a man needs friends.
Unfortunately, Quill’s friends consist of a psychotic, trigger happy raccoon, a
walking, just-about-talking tree, a literal minded warrior, and a genetically
modified living weapon. And none of them really like him very much.
It’s fair to say that Guardians
of the Galaxy was a bit of a risk for Marvel. Once upon a time, they’d have
said the same about the Iron Man franchise,
citing the relatively B list character, the lead actor more famous for his drug
habits than his screen presence, and the bravery of launching an entire
cinematic universe. Guardians…,
though, is an entirely different beast – literally, in the case of one of its
main characters. For all the differences in Iron
Man, we’re essentially talking a fairly familiar story: man goes through
personal trauma, changes his life and kicks ass doing it. With Marvel’s latest
offering, they’re asking audiences to go and see a wilfully bizarre film that
flies in the face of the common theory about superhero films that grim, serious
and realistic is better. Not only that, but if Iron Man is B list, then the
Guardians are at least D list, possibly even further down.
It’s also fair to say this risk has paid off. At the time of
writing, Guardians is doing fantastic
business, raking in the third biggest opening weekend of the year (a hefty
$94million). However, anyone who has sat through Michael Bay’s Transformers films will be well aware
that successful does not necessarily mean good. And for the Guardians, the
question of whether it’s any good depends on how you look at it.
The plot is nonsense. I’m saying this as a connoisseur of
such nonsense. I’m fairly easy to please; give me a film/book/tv show/videogame
that revolves around a bunch of sarcastic oddballs doing crazy stuff in the
name of something vaguely heroic, and I’m probably going to enjoy myself. But Guardians plot really is nonsense, a
thinly constructed piece about a ragtag bunch of maniacs trying to stop another
maniac blowing things up with a glowing Macguffin. It’s the plot of dozens of
blockbusters; worse than that, it’s essentially the exact same plot as the last
Thor film, bar a few details. This is
not a film that’s going to challenge you intellectually. Furthermore – and in
another similarity with Thor 2 – the
villain is particularly uninspiring. Lee Pace looms dramatically behind a big
hat, a bigger hammer and some make-up that would impress Gene Simmons, but he
has the character depth of a dead shrimp. This is really something that Marvel
need to work on. Thus far, their films have impressed mightily, but their
villains are almost uniformly weak. Lee Pace here, Christopher Ecclestone’s
growling space-elf in the last Thor film, the entire alien race in Avengers Assemble…other than Tom
Hiddleston’s Loki and, arguably, Ben Kingsley’s Mandarin, they have little
other than action scenes to remember them by.
At least in the case of Guardians
of the Galaxy though, you’ll probably be having too much fun to care. I’ve
been to see outright comedies where there hasn’t been as much laughter as in
the majority of this film. The script is sharp, and the performances (mostly)
spot on. Particular mention must go to Chris Pratt, making the emerging
characterisation of Quill surprisingly affecting, and Bradley Cooper’s sterling
voice-work for Rocket Raccon, who almost steals the film with his non-stop
barrage of outrageous lines, ridiculously big guns, and a light touch of
tragedy. Less memorable are Saldana and Gillan, saddled with under-written,
generic roles. To be fair, there was a tougher challenge here than even Avengers Assemble, which attracted a lot
of concern due to having to draw together a bunch of different characters from
different franchises. Here, none of them had even had so much as a DVD extra to
be introduced, and it’s a credit to all concerned that even though many
characters lack real depth, they aren’t quite two dimensional
In between the laughs, there are more traditional
blockbuster pleasures to be had. The action scenes are spectacular, although
again, it’s the fourth Marvel film in a row which climaxes with a lot of
airborne destruction over a city. Chances are this won’t change that much with
the Avengers sequel in 2015, although you never know. There’s some surprising
inventiveness though, particularly with a scene which manages to make whistling
almost terrifying. Presumably, Steven Moffat will be taking notes. And all
these scenes are set against a beautifully vivid space opera background, which
recalls every cheesy SF serial you’ve ever seen.
Like its lead, it’s a film that swings by on charm, wit and
just enough intelligence to surprise. Hopefully, the inevitable sequel will
also have learned the lesson that charm isn’t always enough…but for now, I’m
just going to revel in the most entertaining film since Scott Pilgrim vs. the World.