Guardians of the Galaxy has never attracted the fanaticism enjoyed by better-known Marvel properties. Far from a disadvantage, this gives director James Gunn (the brilliantly subversive Super) a lot of room in which to manoeuvre. And so he does. The irreverent intergalactic journey serves as hyperactive kid brother to Avengers, imbuing the action with irresistible self-awareness.
As charmingly cocky Quill, Chris Pratt heads a band of freaks, geeks and criminals, who meet Usual Suspects-style, and band together to save the universe from a destructive orb not unlike Avengers’ Tesseract. The motley crew includes Vin Diesel as the word-shy but big hearted man-tree Groot; rebellious bad girl Gomorrah (Zoe Saldana); muscle man Drax (Dave Bautista) and sarcastic raccoon Rocket, superbly voiced by a deadpan Bradley Cooper.
More family-friendly than previous Marvel outings, Guardians combines broad humour, clever innuendo for adults and nostalgic humour courtesy of a funky ’70s soundtrack.
But the slapstick comes at the price of limiting the action. Karen Gillan, Lee Pace, Benicio Del Toro, Glenn Close, Djimon Hounsou and Michael Rocker all tussle for screen-time, but we never really get to know any of them. Marvel’s rich tapestry of alien beings and worlds is more successfully evoked by the exciting visuals, from pastel-coloured prairies to floating Foucault prisons.
Flawed but undeniably fun.