Marvel/Disney took a risk letting James Gunn bring his own flair and style to a new breed of Marvel heroes to enter the movie universe, and did he do good? Well let's just say in the voice of Rocket Raccoon 'Oh....Yeah'.

We all know that this movie is going to be completely different from the big Marvel films that have had a bit of a Hollywood make-over, and we were all worried this lower budget (and least well known) comic book franchise might be a bump in the road for Marvel. But it really wasn't, to me it felt like a bit of relief after the endless high-budget action flicks to come out recently.

Now unless you'd read the comics before seeing the movie (which I had done) you would know that this group of heroes are an unlikely bunch to come together and between them they're probably the funniest team I've read in a Marvel comic. So I was really anxious as to how this would come across on screen, would Star Lord be too cocky? Well no, Chris Pratt was the perfect leading man and his sarcasm and quite dry sense of humour was what the film needed, especially along side Bradley Coopers excellent performance as Rocket Raccoon, the pair were brilliant.

As well as these two out-spoken characters, we had the kind hearted yet slightly dim Groot, and very wise Drax the Destroyer (David Batista seemed to shock everyone with his utterly flawless performance!), and then to top it all off we had badass chick Gamora.



Between all the main 5 actors, and the handful of other actors you may know that pop-up the comedy and banter flows perfectly between them, and although this is a made up universe it kind of feels like a friendship between a group of people you may even know yourself.
They meet under some rather hectic circumstances, and they are all pretty self-absorbed only looking out for themselves, but together (besides death threats and many, MANY fights) they pull together to become the Guardians of the Galaxy.

So I'm trying to review this without giving away too much of the story, Quill (Star Lord) finds an Orb which holds a very very powerful stone and this ends up getting all 5 of them into alot of trouble (bringing them together is clearly the most important) while they end up pissing off Ronan The Accuser and his lovely side-kick for the movie Nebula.
To be honest they are basically the complete opposite of The Avengers, but it works (I would kill for a movie starring both teams). And this film is one of the key movies for Marvel knowledge, and pretty much sets in stone what is going to happen for the rest of the movies to come.

All image credit to Marvel/Disney

This film had people in tears of laughter, yet I wouldn't really place it as a comedy film, it is definitely still up their with action and has some of the greatest fight scenes I've seen in quite some time. Most of them involving Groot or Drax. It brings such a mixture of emotions, when you feel like you could shed a tear, a witty line will follow and you'll forget the heartfelt moment from before. It's very well done and the story flows perfectly well. Not only this, but it is a beautiful film for one of the lower budget movies.

I honestly can't get over it, I want to watch it again in IMAX on release. And I totally recommend it for all movie goers, even previous Marvel haters may enjoy it!

Overall the film was perfect for a comic book lover like me, the film is completely silly yet it so self-aware of it's silliness it just works. And it has one of the most kick-ass soundtracks to ever grace us in cinema.