Film Review: Guardians of the Galaxy

With one great film, you get many others trying desperately to emulate the style, or humour, feeling of that one film.

Sometimes its the same makers, whenever they make a sequel. Or try to.

One obvious example of a great one, is Shrek. One of the reasons this was so well loved and its style copied, was because of its humour and its focus. It took the mickey out of fairy tales, but cleverly. It didn't do too much and topple under the weight.

This film, has heart. It is a great comedic story, if you ignore the opening scene and has the added bonus of being set in, for the most part - space. Its a movie to watch with friends, as its a fun movie to do that, and that is the main theme of the whole story, something that is strangely missing from most films these days. Shrek fans, rejoice, someone has not copied, but has been inspired by one of the greats.

Chris Pratt's character, Peter Quill, also known as Star Lord, a nickname he is desperate to have stick, introduces us to this mad world and his life which is haphazard and yet also a fun wild ride, which of course is his main goal. During the film he allies himself with a motley group, Rocket (voiced by Bradley Cooper), Gamora (Zoe Saldana), Groot (voiced by Vin Diesel) and Drax (Dave Bautista) and they have a very simple (and yet not) object.

Saving the world.

Yes, a concept we have seen time and time again, but in the hands of those who know how to make a great film, you easily forgive the plot and instead just enjoy yourself. The cast know full well what kind of film this is, but they still give their all to their characters.

The supporting cast are no less great, John C Reilly, Glenn Close, Lee Pace, Peter Serafinowicz, Djimon Hounsou, Benicio Del Toro, Michael Rooker, Karen Gillan, Sean Gunn and Laura Haddock.

Those who have seen Thor: the Dark World (or more specifically the first scene after the credits) will recognise a few characters and be reminded that this film is part of the Marvel Universe and as such, there will be sequels.

Comments

  1. Film & TV Commentator23 September 2014 at 01:38

    This quote comes from, strangely a sequel that manages to keep the style and humour (also quality) of the first one.

    “Roy: Guys, do whatever you want to the kid, but that's my watch you're holding.
    Fagin #1: Well, there's a load of us, and only two of you, so piss off!
    Roy: Easy fellas, you lost one war this way, don't make the same mistake twice.”

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Film Review: Moneyball

Most of the sports films that have been made, have had very Hollywood plot lines. It was almost a recipe. Underdog team/coach/player/ whatever, trying to do something. A few montages of things going badly, then a winning formula, or new coach/player that tells them "they just have to believe in themselves" or teaches them how to work together with a few gimmicks. Which means, when you watch a well written film like Moneyball, you are completely unprepared by the realism and length of film that really tells you the true story. Or close to it, at least. With Aaron Sorkin and Steven Zaillan (Mr Zaillan wrote screenplays for The Interpreter, American Gangster and Clear and Present Danger) writing the screenplay, Brad Pitt portraying the character listed and the direction is tight and without any excess scenes, Bennet Miller was nominated for an Academy Award for his work with the film Capote - its a film worth watching for the all of the above and the finished product that
Read more

Film Review: Theater Camp

 In the middle of year six, I started attending Helen O'Grady's Drama Academy. Typical education sneakiness of actually teaching kids the skills to enable them to be confident out in the "real world" and with the fun bonus of how to project your voice while simultaneously messing about on the "stage" and acting out improvisation prompts and at the end of each year, a whole play. Nearly seven years, growing and learning in community buildings, after school during term time.  Good times all round. And it was definitely part of the draw card for me, for this new film, set at a summer theatre camp that beautifully illustrates the allure of performing on stage, telling stories and bringing them to life, for both the kids that attend and the teachers - and it's hard to tell who is the more committed or passionate about the craft. It's clearly a labour of love for Molly Gordon, Ben Platt, Noah Galvin and Nick Lieberman - all four wrote it, the first three a
Read more

TV series reviews: The Bear & The Newsreader

 For your consideration today, two reviews for the price of one. The Bear and The Newsreader.  Not only do both series have a strong cast and gripping scripts for each and every episode but both also open the curtains for us to have a peek behind the scenes of a world usually off limits for mere mortals. We only see the finished product but here we see the shouting matches fuelled by emotional energy, impassioned speeches, tears, hugs and luck of the moment that brings it all together to make it work, that of a high end restaurant and the newsroom respectively. Both worlds also have that sense of the "other" family bond, strengthened by joint victories and triumphs and sour moments of failures made less painful by those in the room, bonded together through thick and thin to make a perfected dish or news television broadcast.  And indeed, they are not only fighting each other but up against the world, nameless - if not faceless, critics, ever judging, never silent and always o
Read more