Thursday 31 July 2014

Film Review: Guardian of the galaxy

Genre: Action Adventure Sci-Fi 

Cert: 12A

Director: James Gunn

Screen writer: James Gunn , Nicole Perlman , Dan Abnett , Andy Lanning

Starring: Chris Pratt , Zoe Saldana , Dave Bautista , Vin Diesel , Bradley Cooper , Lee Pace , Michael Rooker , Karen Gillan , Djimon Hounsou ,  John C. Reilly  , Glenn Close , Benicio Del Toro , Laura Haddock , Sean Gunn , Peter Serafinowicz , Christopher Fairbank , Josh Brolin

Running time: 121 min

Parents advised to read before viewing film as some scene may contain scenes unsuitable for younger viewers.

Sex & Nudity: We briefly see Gamora putting on her jacket. Breasts are partially visible for 3 seconds.
Drax is shirtless throughout the whole movie.
Gamora's outfit shows some cleavage.
Star Lord is seen in his underwear briefly in one scene

Violence & Gore: Offscreen. Ronan hits another man with his giant hammer.
Some fist fights including punching, kicking and head locking.
Offscreen. One of Ronan's guards stabs a prisoner and we later hear a loud scream.
Ronan strangles a guard to death.
A lizard eats another lizard.
A woman touches the inside of an orb. She soon screams in pain and the orb starts to burn her skin. Afterwards, we hear an explosion offscreen.
The fight scene with Nebula and Gamora features weapons like spears, swords and knives. Nebula falls off a cliff and dies offscreen.
Drax strangles Korath and his skull starts to crack. Korath later falls onto the floor dead.
Groot sacrifices himself to save the titular group but because of his regenerative powers, he is grown back in a pot from a piece of his remains.

Profanity: Star Lord mouths the F Word in one scene.
Infrequent uses of 'shit,' 'dick,' 'asshole,' and 'prick.' 


Alcohol/Drugs/Smoking: According to the rap sheet, Star-Lord is counted for public intoxication.
Drax and Rocket go to a bar and get intoxicated.


Frightening/Intense Scenes: Young Peter Quill is waiting outside the hospital to see his mother, when a man comes up to him and he can go visit her. We seen him walk in the room and we seen his mother very pale and with no hair. His mother later dies in front of him. Some viewers will find this upsetting.
Drax tells the Guardians that Ronan tortured his wife and daughter in front of him.
The film has a witty and gritty tone, something director/writer James Gunn is known for. The violence can be dark and disturbing.



Story: After stealing a mysterious orb in the far reaches of outer space, Peter Quill, a half human/half alien is now the main target of a manhunt led by the villain known as Ronan the Accuser. To help fight Ronan and his team and save the galaxy from his power, Quill creates a team known as the 'Guardians of the Galaxy' to save the world.

Likes : I'm quite a casual fan of Marvel movies not that much of a hardcore fan like most people are , so I didn't know much about Guardians of the Galaxy nor was I expecting much from this film although it did look good from the trailer.
The blend of action and humour is fantastic really set a tone of soft humour with a serious tone, which I think  balanced this film out quite well, The opening scene is a bit emotional & dose hit you hard with the mother & son you can see through out the film why Chris pratt character is the way he is.
The comedy especially was actually hilarious in places with the sarcastic comments & one liners you really will laugh your head at, this is mainly was down to great script writing in the film which is very rare in film i was glad to see perfect script writing for once.
The fact that the characters were so thoroughly well established, with each character having decent screen time none of them felt underdeveloped and you felt connected to all of the main cast, good thing as well is even if you don't know who these characters were its easy to follow & understand them through the film as you get a background of each character which give you an understanding of them which makes this a brilliant stand alone film as well as a fan movie you can easily follow.
By and large the acting was outstanding, by far the character that stands out Chris Pratt. A very strong performance as well as delivering on the comedy, This movie was hinged on him as a central protagonist,he pull off a brilliant performance  & leading the narrative as a character in his own right.
Even former wrestler Dave Bautista did a good job play Dax . He didn't exactly have a huge range of acting in this film surprising held his own, delivering the serious parts but also pretty funny in places. The writers definitely played to his strengths which showed on screen which didn't give him this out of place character which happens sometime with script writer not playing to a actors strength in acting.
It is a well structured film, and is kept moving along at a reasonable pace. The dialogue is expertly written, with brilliant gags and jokes delivered in great timing.
The cinematography and visual fx were outstanding, easy to watch and choreographed is brilliant done,It had a brilliant blend of Sc-fi almost Spielberg-esque visuals, which I think gives the film a distinctive look from the other Marvel movies.
The CGI despite what people think about it was brilliant done & not over the top very. Groot and Rocket especially looked fantastic who had there own characteristic with humour & one liners which were funny as hell Vin diesel & Bradley cooper done well with the voice overs to bring the character to life.
 The only downside to this film here was you can tell that the large portion of the effort gone into the film was spent on the main characters CGI (and rightly so), but it means that tertiary CG characters tended to be a bit lacking and not look up to standard but thankfully this is not the case in this film.
Unfortunately i did feel like Lee Pace's performance as main villain 'Ronan' to be quite one dimensional and wooden he didn't really come off as a bad a** menacing villain. He shouted way to much, it felt like the voice was being forced but the presence that was built up around his character I felt fell flat when he actually started speaking i don't think he should of been casted for that role, i think someone else could of done better.
I was surprised to see Glen close in this film playing the head honcho Nova Prime, Zoe Saldana moves quietly throughout the film as an unstoppable force as "Gamora." with some Kick-ass fight sequences he dose a fantastic job in her role, brilliant actress, as well as Karen Gillan seriously held her own in this film fair play to her for playing such a big role as Nebula the daughter of thanos, who (spoiler alert) dose appear in person in a brief cameo voice by John brolin.....ive got say thanos looks impressive & menacing at the same time so well done marvel you have made a worthy look for thanos.
The the music is a nice touch although a bit out  of place for the theme of the film, but for those that grew up in the 80s will recognize the music. This is a film i recommend watching at the cinema as of watching it in 3D, i think there is to much going so i would suggest watching it in 2D as your get a better look at the film.


Dislikes : Just Lee pace felt out of place as a villain really just wasn't that great, it was like Alan broody in predator just wasn't a great fit.

Overall : Brilliant visual effect, spot on humour moments, great acting, fantastic film

Rating: 5 out of 5 for entertainment / 10 out of 10 for Concept & scripted writing




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