Guardians of the Galaxy

This review may contain spoilers!

Marvel accomplished what I thought would be impossible, they made a stand alone film that was better than the Avengers. I would give Guardians of the Galaxy a 9/10.

Guardians of the Galaxy was a beautifully constructed cinematic masterpiece, with wonderful CGI and motion capture effects. To look upon this film, you realised what modern science fiction can look like, it made me completely forget the recent Star Trek series completely. Furthermore the music within this film is one of a kind, as the sound within this film acts as a character of it's own. But it is this wonderfully written story, this journey of outcasts coming together to become friends is heartwarming, and exceptionally funny. Guardians manages to hit all the right notes in an incredibly satisfying way.

Chris Pratt, who plays Peter Quill, steps up as the force of strong comedy and is very relateable within the film; he also becomes a leader and character that feels a lot more natural than other Marvel leaders like Captain America that have been quite forced. Vin Diesel, who voiced Groot, was a character that melted your heart, he was nothing but adorable and brought an innocent quality to the film. Bradley Cooper, who voiced Rocket, was really quite enjoyable and hit every comedic note throughout the film; however we saw a strong display of emotion from him at several point s throughout the film that really hit hard. Lee Pace, who played Ronan, had a strong and terrifying presence and quickly became a strong Marvel baddie; his introduction of bringing his hammer down on the head of a prisoner was brutal to say the least. Michael Rooker, who played Yondu Udonta, gave one of the best performances of the film as he went full space outlaw; this guy had a lot of gravitas and also was a classic anti-hero. Karen Gillan, who played Nebula, strikes me as a character that will be quite popular in future films as far as side characters go; she was intimidating but also had a defiant and original air to her that made her outshine some of the other villains. Josh Brolin, who debuted as Thanos, was everything I had hoped him to be, smug, powerful and bonechilling in the way he spoke; I can't wait to see more of him.

I was quite divided when it came to my personal favourite performance within the film and my choice isn't going to be everyone else's favourite I'm sure, but Dave Bautista, who played Drax, gave the best performance in the fil. Bautista is a wrestler and as such there isn't much to be expected in his performance but brute strength. Yet Drax was not just limited to his strength but also a deep, tragic backstory, a comedic flair and a heartwarming discovery of friendship that essentially encaptured all the best parts of the film.

But like every film there were always going to be some downsides. Little things like the effects slipping in places, the opening planet was not the best thing I have ever seen. Furthermore things happen quickly within this film and sometimes without context, Thanos being in this film was very sudden when we hadn't seen him or heard about him since Avengers. Everyone developed bonds with one another quite quickly, even for a film. The fight choreography was good but it didn't really become a focus and so the movie had to rely upon it's spectacle to shadow over some rather disappointing fight sequences.

Zoe Saldana, who played Gamora, was not the most exciting heroine I've ever seen, a backstory that felt forced to give Thanos a bit more elbow room was completely unwarranted; frankly she was a bit stale and acted merely as a mold for Peter Quill. Djimon Hounsou, who played Korath was about as minor as a villain can get; he basically yelled a lot and didn't do much more than what you see in the trailers. John C. Reilly, who played Corpsman Dey, shouldn't have been in the film frankly; he was so hopelessly redundant that him being in the film took up valuable screen time. Glenn Close, who played Nova Prime, was not a very strong or inspired leader figure; nor did I feel the Nova Corps was very well explained in the film. Benicio Del Toro, who played The Collector, is a joke of a character, a parody of the source material at best and a confused and poorly acted character at worst.