Galaxy Quest Best
When the day eventually comes that harkens the end of the
Marvel movie empire, and mournful fans look back on its halcyon days, people
will not remember Iron Man, Captain America or even the Avengers. Instead, they
will recall Guardians of the Galaxy and wonder how on Earth the comic book
studio managed to pull off its greatest triumph.
It was a gamble so daring that even the nerd community
gasped in disbelief. A talking raccoon, green and blue aliens straight out of
Captain Kirk’s fantasies, and a bunch of heroes nobody outside of Forbidden
Planet had ever heard of: could the producers, with mastermind Kevin Feige at their head,
really get away with it? Apparently so, because within the ongoing glut of
comic-book adaptations, this is by far the best piece of entertainment.
Inspired choice or scraping the barrel of their canon? Honestly, when the
results are this fun, I don’t care.
After his mother’s untimely death, Peter Quill (Chris Pratt)
is abducted by extra-terrestrials. We join him decades later working as a
high-tech thief in the outer reaches of the cosmos. During a spell in a prison which looks too much like
the one from The Chronicles of Riddick
to be a coincidence, Quill A.K.A. Starlord hatches an escape plan with an
assassin (Zoe Saldana), an intelligent raccoon (voiced by Bradley Cooper), a
muscle man (Dave Bautista) and a humanoid tree.
For once 3D is worth having for a major blockbuster. Marvel’s
artists really earned their latest pay check with some incredibly imaginative
locations and character design. A complete sense of environment is rare in
science-fiction but on this occasion the exteriors have countless layers of
detail beyond the vague post-apocalyptic wasteland vibe. One society is
ingeniously introduced through a character’s binocular lens as he
voyeuristically spies on people in the street.
These visuals are matched by a cast that really gels when it
comes to the quick fire banter between them. It’s an unashamedly funny script,
which is probably why the sitcom regular Pratt got the nod for the starring
role.
Alas, no comic-book film is perfect, Guardians of the Galaxy being guilty of the same weaknesses found in
many of its predecessors. Frankly, there is no punchy jeopardy. Batman works because he is the ‘caped crusader’; his
fight against crime is a personal war in which he has a dark motivation. In
Quill’s case, though, he simply wants to do a good deed whilst having a laugh
with his friends. It just does not have the same audience pull, even if the
light relief is a pleasant aspect of the story. I want darkness, despair and
the ending from On Her Majesty’s Secret
Service, not a jolly holiday escapade.
Then there is the pussycat villain. The scriptwriters
obviously knew they had a problem with this dull baddie because they deliberately
force him to do so many gruesome bad-guy things early into the film. But when
his skin is blue and his personality is blander than your average Bond megalomaniac,
it is hard to take him seriously. Even the hapless evil Empire from Star Wars
managed to blow up Alderaan. The allegedly supreme Ronan has no such look against
his foes in this 12A. Bad bad-guys are an ongoing trend in the Marvel catalogue
and repeatedly hints that DC has a better array of antagonists than their great
rivals. Ooh, controversial!
Otherwise, Guardians of the Galaxy is the highlight of the
summer season. Get yourself down to the cinema and have some fun with it.
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