As there has already been occasional opportunity to confess, The MacMahonian's love of film was born as most great, true and enduring love does: early and low-brow. Meaning I might elate at the sight of the cinema of Dreyer or Ozu, and I do, but good ole fashioned brainless commercial Hollywood entertainment never fails to bring a smile to my heart of hearts.
Guardians of the Galaxy is the 4h feature film directed by James Gunn, and the 1st big budget one. I didn't see any of the previous films he directed, but information available suggests he is building a canon of established commercial pop film genre spoofs, having tried his hand at, chronologically, horror, porn, and super-heroes. Are we in a presence of the Lawrence Kasdan of the 21st Century? Time will tell.
Guardians of the Galaxy tells a story you'll probably be too busy laughing and thrilling to care about. It follows the guardians, Han Solo clone Peter Quill, (Chris Pratt), super-girl warrior and Quill love interest Gamora, sort of Princess Leia meets Lara Croft (Zoe Saldana), genetically engineered raccoon Rocket (voiced by Bradley Cooper) and anthropomorphic tree-being Groot [voiced by Vin Diesel, who repeats the same 3 words the whole film, in the manner of the celebrated Station of Wayne's World (Penelope Spheris, 1992) fame – I wonder how much he got paid…], a sort of R2D2/C3PO combo mixed with Chewbacca and Tolkien's Ents, and finally Drax the Destroyer (Dave Bautista, still working on this one - was tempted to write he might be an original but I'd be loath to offend the scriptwriters) as they fight against all odds to save the galaxy from evil forces or something.
Guardians of the Galaxy is about 70% Star Wars (George Lucas, 1977), 15% Lord of The Rings (Peter Jackson, 2001-3 )and 15% Dune(David Lynch, 1984), directed in a style that's about 40% JJ Abrahams, 40% McQ, 15% John Carpenter circa 1985 and maybe 5% Quentin Tarantino. For all the rollercoaster thrills (admittedly slightly tiring around half-way through) and suburban teen jokes, the (recently in these pages so-christened) “Spielberg touch” is not altogether absent. Incredible as it may seem, for all the predictability and preposterousity, you do empathize with the characters (all the more remarkable as Chris Pratt, it must be written, could hardly be less charismatic as alpha male protagonist).
Yes, you've seen it all before and that's the way you like it. Not quite up to the highest standards of the genre, Guardians of the Galaxy is however probably the most exhilarating FX comedy action film since Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle (McQ, 2003). May the Force be with the sequel.