3.5 stars (out of 5)
Cherry-picking ideas and characters from various incarnations of GOTG comics and the whole Marvel universe (or ‘multiverse’ or ‘Marvelverse’ or whatever you want to call it), co-writer/director James Gunn’s comic action-movie-cum-Western-ish-space-opera is great fun, no matter how certain fans might rave and drool.
Shortly after the death of his mother in 1988, young (and human) Peter Quill is abducted by alien mercenary types, led by Yondu Udonta (Michael Rooker, star of Gunn’s Slither), and we pick up now when he’s a rather goofy adult (gorgeously played by Chris Pratt) who insists he be called ‘Star-Lord’. Defying Yondu, Quill is seen in the opening credits as he goes about stealing a mysterious orb in a jokey manner that would have outraged Indiana Jones. Once he has his hands on it, Quill is attacked by Korath (Djimon Hounsou), who works for feared supervillain-sort Ronan (Lee Pace), but Quill makes it back to Xandar, where he runs afoul of tree-creature Groot (voiced by Vin Diesel), genetically-engineered Rocket Raccoon (voiced by Bradley Cooper) and Gamora (Zoë Saldana, green rather than Avatar-blue here), all of whom want to collect the bounty on his head. After attracting too much attention, the four are duly thrown into space prison ‘The Kyln’, where they form an uneasy alliance with vengeful, tattooed hulk Drax The Destroyer (wrestler Dave Bautista) and join with him in breaking out. And, after a meeting with The Collector (Benicio Del Toro again), the five must work together again when Ronan’s forces attack Xandar, resulting in a mighty action finale set to the tune of The Runaways’ classic Cherry Bomb (Quill was kidnapped with his ‘80s Walkman, you see).
Always undercutting and mocking itself with amusing wisecracks and cheeky wit, Gunn’s filming of a once-thought-unfilmable project is a blast, with pleasingly fanciful FX, a soundtrack of rock classics, a streak of pleasing emotion and a large cast who are all obviously having as much fun as the audience. And the decision to steer clear of big stars (like a Tom Cruise or Will Smith) in favour of eccentric, comedy/character-type players pays off: Saldana and Bautista (“Never call me a thesaurus again!”) are strong, while Rooker, Pace, Doctor Who’s Karen Gillan (as evil robot Nebula), John C Reilly, Glenn Close (as Nova Prime) and Josh Brolin (uncredited as Ronan’s ominous superior Thanos) all have their moments. But Pratt steals it as the show-off, slightly cowardly but sweet Quill, and he’s allowed some of the very best gags – yet not the one that comes, of course, right at the very end of the long final credits, yet again. Marvel purists might not be happy but hey, they never are!
I Wake Up Screening 