Guardians of the Galaxy review: Marvel presents the ultimate comic book hero ...
As far as this summer's blockbusters go, nothing so far has come close, and calling Guardians the new millennium's answer to Star Wars really isn't an exaggeration
If you thought Avengers Assemble was the ultimate comic book hero mash-up, wait 'til you get a load of this.
Marvel's new sci-fi fantasy is a near-perfect mix of action, humour, imagination and wondrous special effects.
Most of all, it's great fun.
As far as this summer's blockbusters go, nothing so far has come close, and calling Guardians the new millennium's answer to Star Wars really isn't an exaggeration.
The film's unlikely hero is Quill (Chris Pratt), an eccentric gunfighter in the Han Solo mould who we meet stealing a metal orb coveted by the evil warlord Ronan.
When he dispatches his top assassin, the green-skinned Gamora (Zoe Saldana), to recover the artefact, the pair find themselves locked up, along with the galaxy's most unlikely bounty hunters - a gun-toting raccoon (Bradley Cooper) and his sidekick (Vin Diesel) who just happens to be a walking tree.
©Marvel 2014
Unlikely bunch: Marvel's Guardians Of The GalaxyJoining forces, the adventurers then find themselves the subject of an intergalactic manhunt.
Much of the film's charm lies in its droll, often surreal sense of humour.
While Quill is the hero, he's also a bit of a plonker who wants everyone to call him 'Starlord' (nobody does) and who engages in laser combat while listening to disco tunes on his Sony Walkman.
It's the same sort of anarchic fun we saw in Hellboy or the Firefly TV series.
The effects are even more impressive as the ragtag band of heroes fly from one beautifully-rendered planet to the next.
There are spectacular dogfights between spaceships and a terribly impressive final face-off that makes this a film that really demands to be seen in 3D.
But what really sets Guardians - which also features Glenn Close, Benicio Del Toro and John C Reilly - apart from your standard blockbuster is the imagination that's gone into it.
Much like the Star Wars city of Mos Eisley, the planets contain a dizzying array of alien lifeforms while, in an inspired move, one sequence takes place in the giant, disembodied head of a celestial being floating through space.
It all serves to give the impression of a fully-realised universe.
Prepare to be blown away.
Guardians of the Galaxy, certificate 12A, running time 121 mins - released July 31 Did you know we have a TV & film page on Facebook? Check us out here.
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