Space traveller, adventurer and sometime criminal Peter Quill (Chris Pratt) becomes the subject of a galaxy-wide bounty hunt after he steals a mysterious and powerful orb. Sought after by Ronan the Accuser, (Lee Pace) a powerful villain with ambitions that threaten the entire universe, Quill is forced into an uneasy truce with a quartet of disparate misfits, attempting to keep the orb from being used for evil.
On the roll call for the Guardians of the Galaxy in addition to Quill, who would much rather you call him Star Lord, is Rocket (Bradley Cooper) a crafty raccoon with a chip on his shoulder, Groot (Vin Diesel) a tree-like humanoid and Rocket’s sidekick, the notoriously fierce assassin Gamora (Zoe Saldana) and the revenge-driven Drax the Destroyer, (Dave Bautista.)
Will the Guardians be able to stop Ronan, return the orb to its rightful place and save the galaxy?
We say, “It’s fun, funny and action-packed, but not as light-hearted as it seems.”
TAYLOR: I enjoyed this film, but I felt a little guilty afterwards. I seem to be in the minority, there’s a small group of us who think that killing large numbers of people (or aliens) is not something to be taken lightly. Yet here is a film, like so many other comic book films, where our heroes dispatch countless life-forms with obligatory quips and light hearts. I understand it’s their job and I guess I can’t blame them for having fun doing it. Perhaps killing people becomes monotonous, too.
HOWE: Guardians of the Galaxy took me a little by surprise. We’ve been seeing the trailer for this for at least six to nine months, so it gets a little repetitive. Yet saying that, unlike other movies they didn’t show the best bits in the trailer. The film is loud, fast-paced and there’s so much action crammed into just over two hours that the time flew by. This is the best summer blockbuster so far this year.
TAYLOR: I agree. Big, loud, fast, funny, exciting, somehow simultaneously cute and violent. Don’t take your six-year-old, thinking this is gonna be appropriate because it has a talking raccoon in it. Kids are going to have to be capable of handling both “good” and “bad” deaths, plus there are myriad characters to get to know. Some of them, (the baddies) will be known to those of you familiar with the Marvel comics universe. But even those of us not well- versed, like myself, are still going to be able to enjoy the half-explained back stories and will be able to learn more when they finish Guardians of the Galaxy 2.
HOWE: That’s the other thing that the younger audience won’t get, the complexity of the storyline. It’s not just about good versus bad, but who is fighting alongside each other, who is related to whom and how the bonds of friendship are built. I thought it was very well-written, filmed and acted, plus Star Lord’s mix tape was awesome.
— Howe gives Guardians of the Galaxy 4 robotic eyes out of 5.
— Taylor gives it 3.5 pop culture references from the ‘80s out of 5.
