"Guardians of the Galaxy" is the latest offering from the current giants of Hollywood 'Marvel Studios'. It's an engaging space adventure romp, funny, exciting and well written but again the worldwide praise for it is slightly concerning.
I think it's a clear example of how bad summer blockbusters can be if this is being hailed as the benchmark of summer entertainment. It's essentially "Firefly and "Serenity" crossed with a dash of "Star Wars" and a sprinkling of "The Avengers". Having a cool 80's soundtrack and having throw away 80's movie references does not make for a fantastic film. There are great scenes, most notably in the first half, and one prison escape is handled with style and visceral ingenuity but again like all of Marvel's recent offerings the final half hour is a cliché ridden aerial assault that we have seen so many times before. I don't know if I was particularly tired that day or not but I did start to nod off for a second in the last action sequence.
Chris Pratt is great as the self proclaimed 'Star Lord' and maybe just maybe we have a future star on the horizon. We shall see next year as he headlines "Jurassic World"....
People are forgetting what a great blockbuster is in my opinion, we are getting used to the mediocre, and it seems to me that every year we get 2 or 3 summer films that can truly be regarded as 'great'. Guardians I'm afraid isn't one.
3.5 out of 5