Guardians Of The Galaxy is a comic series that I have had no idea about till very recently. I must admit that I was never that much into comics as a kid and kinda stopped being interested in reading the superhero comic books and cartoon series by age 13. Ofcourse I was a fan of the big ones like Superman, Batman, Spider-man etc but beyond knowing the names and superpowers of some of the rest, I knew very little. With the success of the recent spate of Marvel superheroes coming to life on the big screen (and one fine tv series) in a big way, I am atleast interested in learning much more about the Marvel universe. And also, I prefer to call these as Science fiction movies with action themes, as that’s basically what they are. So, Guardians Of The Galaxy is a 2014 American superhero film based on the Marvel Comics superhero team of the same name, produced by Marvel Studios and distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures. The film was directed by James Gunn, who wrote the screenplay with Nicole Perlman, and features an ensemble cast including Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana, Dave Bautista, Vin Diesel, Bradley Cooper, Lee Pace, Michael Rooker, Karen Gillan, Djimon Hounsou, John C. Reilly, Glenn Close, and Benicio del Toro.

What’s cool about this film? First of all let me take a minute to praise the casting. Chris Pratt’s time is now and he is making big bucks in big movies and will go on to be a big star for years. Dave Bautista was actually pretty decent in his role as Drax the Destroyer though he does look and behave a lot like like a wrestler who has been “pained”. But it works here. The voice of Bradley Cooper, thought not really recognizable as him, works well for the character of Rocket the genetically engineered racoon. Groot ofcourse has captured a lot of hearts and launched the “I Am Groot” saying and seems to be a fa favourite. Zoe Saldana plays the orphaned assassin Gamora who was sent by Thanos to work for Ronan and does justice to that role. Lee Pace is ok as the main villain of Ronan as does Karen Gillan as Nebula, the other adopted daughter of Thanos, and the female villain. Michael Rooker is awesome in his “not a bad man, not a good man” character of Yondu Udonta. John C Reilly, Glenn Close & Benetio Del Toro are good as always but why waste Del Toro in a small role?

The movie is quite light hearted in nature, even when compared to the other superhero movies of late, this is probably the most hilarious one with lots of jokes. I think the cast gelled well and there is a lot of chemistry between them. The special effects are awesome and I just love the scenes in space and the spaceships fighting. The scenes in the dead planet of Morag looked awesome as does the planet Xandar which is awesome looking. Some of the aliens and alien technology looks great as well. Designs of the ships, spectacular! Buildings – great. But what is even better was the choice of the music. As a young kid back in 1986 Peter had a walkman with a cassette tape of his mum’s favourite songs and he keeps that with him and we hear the songs playing throughout the film as part of the soundtrack. The dancing and miming to the song on Morag is fun to watch. I think the choice of music is big factor in the fun element of this film.

So overall how good is this film? I give it an 8 outta 10, thoroughly enjoyable though the villains are mostly predictable and a bit stale. I felt that they could have done more with the villains and perhaps utilized Del Toro a bit more. The revelation of Peter being half-alien – I could have seen that coming a mile away and about the time the mother died (please note I know nothing about this character prior to this movie) and Yondu remarking that it turned out well that they did not deliver Quill to his father per their contract. Makes me think what plans they have for Peter’s heritage being revealed in further movies (“Peter, I am your father”, “NO!”). Lol, maybe or maybe not!