DIRECTOR: James Gunn

CAST: Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana, Dave Bautista, Bradley Cooper (voice), Vin Diesel (voice), Lee Pace, Karen Gillan, Michael Rooker, Djimon Hounsou, John C. Reilly, Glenn Close, Benicio del Toro, Josh Brolin

REVIEW:

And now for something completely different:  Despite being an adaptation of a comic series, Guardians of the Galaxy represents a risk and a departure for Marvel by basing a major summer would-be blockbuster (and hopefully a new film franchise) around a band of heroes who aren’t household names, and sending Marvel’s film adventures into space.  The resulting product is sufficiently quirky and far off the beaten path to leave it to be seen how well mainstream audiences will take to it, but Guardians of the Galaxy is engaging for the most part, and also represents something different from your run-of-the-mill comic book superhero movie.  There’s maybe a dash of Star Wars, and at least in the oddball tone, maybe a pinch of a more coherent The Fifth Element, but overall this isn’t that much like anything we’ve seen before. Continue reading →