Guardians of the Galaxy

*****
UK Release Date: August 1st 2014

Light years from Earth, 26 years after being abducted, Peter Quill finds himself the prime target of a manhunt after discovering an orb wanted by Ronan the Accuser.

Director: James Gunn (Slither, Super)

Starring: Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana, Dave Bautista, Vin Diesel, Bradley Cooper, Lee Pace, Karen Gillan, Djimon Hounsou, Glenn Close, Benicio Del Toro  John C. Reilly

Guardians of the Galaxy is as weird as it is wonderful, a powerful blockbuster that's as shocking as it is surprising.

Marvel have delved into some risky business with this incredibly fantastic sci-fi. Take five oddball characters, give them all a disturbed past, put them together and they've put together something quite magical.

Chris Pratt may have been in a number of films where his characters cannot be taken seriously, and it's exactly the same in GOTG, but done in a manner that makes his protagonist appealing. 

When a successful looting mission for a mysterious orb goes awry, Peter Quill (Pratt) ends up with some of the most hardened criminals in the galaxy after him. 

Ronan the Accuser (Lee Pace), one of the bad-ass criminals after the orb, sends out Gamora (Zoe Saldana) the Assassin to do his dirty deed. After a long scrap between Quill, Gamora, a feisty, wisecracking raccoon named Rocket (Bradley Cooper) and his walking tree friend, Groot (Vin Diesel), they all end up in prison. Making up the unlikely team is Drax (Dave Bautista) a muscly dimwit whose one and only ambition is to seek vengeance on those who murdered his family. 

The quintet are a stand-out group with plenty of character, more so than 2012's Avengers in Avengers Assemble. The greatest acting doesn't come from Pratt or Saldana like we'd expect, but from the other three. Cooper voices rocket brilliantly, Vin Diesel, although unrecognisable in voice and physicality, handles Groot's lumbering oaf well, even if he's stuck with a vocabulary made up of three words ('I am Groot'). Dave Bautista shines most. His sarcastic yet blase personality holds the most comedy.

GOTG is a tribute to classic sci-fi films (notably Star Wars) and some of the best music to come out of the 80's. The younger generation will love this new Marvel film and those who were brought up in the 80's will embrace it with open arms.