Marvels Phase 2 is coming to a close, Guardians of the Galaxy finally hit UK cinemas leaving just the Avengers 2 to complete phase 2.
This film was a bit of a risky one, Introducing people to a talking tree, a foul mouth talking racoon and numerous other alien races in space was a bit of a gamble. But the introduction of other worlds in previous Thor films and Avengers made this transition into the Marvel Universe a lot easier. It’s also one of the more important films in the Universe so far as it really begins to explain the power of the Infinity Stones and just what could happen if Thanos should get his hands on them all. Just to recap if you weren’t sure, The Tesseract from Thor, Captain America and Avengers 1 is considered an Infinity Stone, it’s got alot of power that in the wrong hands could be devestating, the second one we’re aware of is the Aether from Thor 2. We see at the end of this film sif hand the Aether over to the ‘collector’ who features in GoTG, but insists that the Tesseract stay on Asgard as the Infinity stones should be kept as far away from each other as possible. Right up to scratch? Here we go then…
The soundtrack was fantastic, Hooked on a feeling while in the prison scene was brilliant, it’s just an awesome 80s soundtrack that somehow worked with futuristic space material, I don’t know how it worked but it did. I imagine alot of the impromptu dancing scenes helped too, and yes there were quite a few with one particular one being hilarious given the situation that it was taking place in.
Quill was really convincing in scenes he needed to be, pretty much the scenes you were supposed to feel emotion, you did, he truly brought that out. And of course he has no problem making people laugh, and this was evident in the cinema while watching. As mentioned Drax was a highlight, but it was an unexpected one as he was just so damn funny. Being called walking thesaurus and taking insult to it gives you a little hint to what kind of character Drax was. Groot was one of the friendliest convicts you could find always looking out for the team, and constantly amazing the other guardians with tricks he could do. He may only have said 3 words over and over but he felt like a big part of the team. Rocket was just what you wanted him to be, a loud mouth, bad attitude and very easily offended character. He brought the majority of the laughs given his little outbreaks of sarcasm which didn’t get old. Gamora was the quiet one of the gang, but this was meant to be the case given her relation to Thanos and her ambition throughout the film. Fortunately all of them clicked perfectly togehter. They make an excellent crew.
I think it’s done a great job in making people aware just how dangerous Thanos can be, how dangerous the Infinity Stones can be in the wrong hands, and really blows the Marvel Cinematic Universe right up. And it needed to do this. It now makes sense as to having it the final part of Phase 2 (other than Avengers 2). From what we can gather Avengers 2 will be all about Ultron, and this film did nothing to hint at any Thanos connection to the Avengers 2. But it’s wrapped up 2 more of the infinity Stones, and given us our look at relams beyond what we saw in Thor 2. In other words it’s created a bigger picture for after Avengers 2.
So, the film was amazing. Drax was a real highlight. Groot brought a calmess to the team despite being a maniac in one scene smashing guards everywhere then ending it with a huge smile. Rocket stole the show as predicted. It felt like a very special film to watch. Like it could be the start of something big. I can only hope it brings in the bank it deserves as it’s a brilliant entertaining space flick.
One thing that got me thinking during certain scenes were just how the hell is Star Wars VII going to top it? With Star Wars and Marvel all under house mouse now they can borrow ideas from each other, but this was some space film. Epic battle scenes, incredile aliens, and it was hilarious to boot.
The following is a summary of the film featuring MAJOR Spoilers –
The film starts off as one of the most sad scenes from a Marvel Universe film ever, And I don’t mean sad as in crap, I mean sad as in someone was chopping onions in the cinema while we were watching. Very strong start to the film.
From there within 5 minutes we see our first space ship and the time is fast forwarded. We introduced to an older Peter Quill who is traveling alone on deserted planet looking for something. He puts his head phones on giving a serious look the camera and then breaks out dancing. Killing smaller creatures with a smile on his face dancing away, picking one up and using it as a microphone and singing away all the while getting closer to his target, so this is what this film is really like, the opening act was just one off scene (or was it?)
He finally finds the orb he’s searching for but he’s not the only one looking for it as we discover Ronans sent people to the planet looking for it too. The introduction of “Star Lord” and a quick battle, we see Quill make a good escape and get his ship out of there, eventually after a small issue with the ship being blasted into the air, and an awkward scene where a woman that was on Quills ship, who he had forgotten her name interact.
The news of Quill retreiving this item instantly makes him a wanted man and a bounty is placed on him, Also Ronan is now pissed and is intending to send Nebula (daughter of Thanos) to track him down, but Gamora (Thanos other daughter and eventual Guardian) insists and takes the job.
Back on planet Xander Quill is making his way to sell off this orb for some money, he gets rejected by the prospected buyer as he’s put off by the fact that Ronan and Thanos are both after this orb, he wants nothing to do with it. Gamora is waiting outside the shop to ‘take’ the orb, but prior to all this he is spotted by Rocket Racoon and Groot (who had a charming introduction) With that chaos commences as Gamora takes the orb, Rocket and Groot get involved and eventually the 4 members of the Guardians of the Galaxy are arrested.
Gamora is not safe in prison being Thanos daughter, Thanos has pissed off alot of people in prison and she’s a target, one person in particular that wants her dead is Drax the destroyer. But he wants her dead as Ronan killed his daughter and wife, he believes killing Gamora will get him closer to Ronan.
Alot of hilarity takes place in the prison scenes and eventully they break out, Alot does happen in the prison but i’ll keep it breif to move onto the introduction of the collector.
So out of prison and now aware that the orb could fetch alot of money from the collector, the 5 members of the Guardians of the Galaxy are on the same page now with money the only thing apperently keeping them together. They are told to wait till the collector is ready. We get a scene with Gamora and Quill discussing Footloose and Kevin Bacon, and a drunken bar fight between Rocket, Groot and Drax.
I feel I should mention this here.. Drax is hilarious in the film. I thought being played by a WWE Wrestler that it’d be a bad character, but he is awesome. And yes unexpectadly funny.
Back to it, We see the true power of this orb in the collectors room. It’s worth looking around his place as he has a few Marvel Easter eggs here, I caught a Dark Elve from Thor 2 captive here.
Once the true power is revealed and ends up blowing the collectors room to bits, the guys decide leaving this item to the collector is a bad choice if he moves it onwards to Ronan or Thanos, so decide it needs to get back to Nova Corps on Xander.
While this was taking place, after the bar fight from earlier Drax in a drunken rage sent a message out to Ronan telling him of their location. So Ronan arrives and we have an awesome scene seeing the team try to escape with the orb and Drax trying to kill Ronan.
Ronan ends up with the orb / gem and defies Thanos authority and merges the gem with his weapon thus making him one of the most powerful people in the universe, he decides he doesn’t need Thanos and carries on with a plan to try to destroy Xander. Nebula switches alligence from Thanos to Ronan based on the fact that if Ronan can kill Thanos she needs to back the right horse. Lot of loyalty there!
Now another pact takes place which is meant to be serious moment with the team all standing saying they accept a potential suicide mission to get the orb back and kill Ronan, This seriousness is broken by Rocket who stands up last with the comments “Fine I’ve got a short life expectancy anyways, look at us, we’re all standing now, we’re all jackasses standing up”
Quill gets a message out to Nova Corps on Xander to warn them of Ronan, and to tell them not to shoot them down as they plan on helping them out with a team of Bandits (who I’ve only just mentioned for the first time here, woops). The message that is sent is also hilarious. “I am an A-hole, but I’m not 100% a dick”, to which Corpsman Day (Played by John C Riley) is asked if he believes Quill, he replies “yeah, no one is 100% dick”. It was very funny in the cinema.
So the final acts are Ronan attempting to destroy Xander, Guardians teamed with bandits lead by Yondu (who was the the person that abducted Quill all those years ago) trying to stop him and eventually assisted by Nova Corps. A few more sad scenes take place and I shall spoil no more.
The end credit trailer was nothing to do with continuity of the marvel universe, but a hilarious easter egg which you either got or didnt. The people that did get it in the cinema were in stitches, myself included, the people that didn’t were left asking what did they just watch, this category my wife fell into.
– Murr
