Another review! Woo! I think last month wasn’t particularly the best with movies, but in August there are two films plus a TV episode in cinemas that I want to see and I’m reviewing one of them now. Those with ‘no-spoiler’ syndrome are advised to stop reading until they eat some popcorn and watch the film.
The unknown-by-most-until-now GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY! After a cunning plan to steal a mysterious orb, Peter Quill ‘Star-Lord’ is arrested as well as three other individuals; Gamora – a soldier, assassin and murderer. Rocket – a genetically engineered racoon with anger issues and his ‘muscle’, Groot – an intelligent large tree-like creature who only knows how to say “I am Groot.” In the prison they meet Drax ‘the destroyer’ who has sought out revenge ever since his wife and daughter were murdered by the film’s nemesis, Ronan. The five of them assemble (!) to escape the prison, sell the orb and split the money. “What a bunch of A-holes”, until they realise what is actually inside the orb. An infinity stone – one of few capable of destroying planets which Ronan manages to get his hands on. The five of them agree that facing Ronan means death, but decide they must stop him before he uses the stone to destroy the galaxy. And overall we learn that having friends is good, and wee bit of hukuna matata.
My wee brother and I went to see the film at the Saltcoats Premier Cinema; I haven’t been in a while so needed a reminder of how good it is compared to other cinemas, and it is actually not bad! The seats were ok; not as much room as Vue, but more room than Odeon! So one-up to them. There are no premier seats; you pay and choose the seats that are available. So we came early and got the best seats, right in the centre! We were there for the five o’clock showing and unlike most cinemas, the film actually started at 5:00 with adverts starting ten minutes prior. Convenient for customers, but risky for companies trying to advertise. The sound was ok; it wasn’t louder than Odeon or Vue, but it was acceptable. The picture quality was great; felt quite immersed in the film, but maybe that’s because we were quite close to the screen. And the ‘Pics Prick’ award goes to…the Late-Comers!!! They were 5 minutes late so it wasn’t that big a deal, and the remainder of the film was distraction free.
And we got straight into it! Peter Quill’s mother dies, he runs away and gets abducted. Then we get the new 3D Marvel logo again! It’s so epic; I always have tingles when it plays. I was the same way when the Disney 3D logo was first used in films. It’s a phase. I’ll tell you right now honestly – I didn’t have high expectations for this. I didn’t think it would be better than the independent Marvel films let alone the Avengers Assemble film, because it was more sci-fi than superhero, but I did think that it’d succeed considering how good the others were. And it blew my socks off! Loved the whole 80s theme with it; the ‘awesome mix’ soundtrack (definitely getting it), the old Walkman (I’m a 90s kid so I did manage to savour the last few years of tapes before the compact disks came along) and all the jokes and one-liners from that time. I’ve never seen Footloose but I got the joke. There was a great cast as well; we had Chris Pratt from The Lego Movie, Bradley Cooper from The Hangover, Karen Gillan from Doctor Who, and so many more! Groot, Rocket and Drax were brilliant; they supplied the humour and had the guns, while Gamora and Quill were more the heroes who fought the villains with fists and wit. And as usual the baddy at the end thinks he’s won and starts monologuing while the heroes still have another trick up their sleeves…and Chris Pratt starts dancing to “ooh-ooh child”. Gamora is still no dancin’ with you!
I was hoping there would be more reference to the Avengers films though; there was the Tesseract and Thanos, but that was it. The Guardians of the Galaxy and Thanos are not going to feature in the Avengers: Age of Ultron, but considering it is last film before it, I was hoping to get a wee teaser at the end at least. I guess the clip we got with Captain America: The Winter Soldier is all we’re getting. I’m happy that Groot lived to dance another day, but yet again Marvel doesn’t fully grasp the concept of ‘death’. When Groot sacrificed himself, I suspected he would survive somehow. It was the same with Agent Coulson in Avengers Assemble. And Pepper Pots in Iron Man 3. And Loki in Thor 2. And Nick Fury AND Bucky in Captain America 2. It’s trended so much that there is always the nagging thought that they’ll be brought back somehow, so we can’t ever sincerely believe they are dead. Except Thor’s mum; she’s definitely deed. …Or is she? Ahh!
The sequel to Guardians of the Galaxy was confirmed even before the first film hit cinemas. It is due for July 2017, after Avengers: Age of Ultron, Ant-Man, and Captain America 3 have released. Meanwhile with DC, after they eventually release the Batman vs. Superman film, they have NINE (!!!) untitled films planned. Oh…“untitled”…sounds great… That being said, I am looking forward to the TV series, Gotham and the videogame, Arkham Knight. Batman’s the best! For you hard-core fans out there, this film has hinted largely towards the “Infinity Gauntlet”; a golden glove that enables the wearer to basically control the universe by uniting it with the infinity stones. The ‘Tesseract’ from Captain America and the ‘Aether’ from Thor 2 are to be 2 equivalents of the stones and we see the purple infinity stone in this film; there are 3 more according to the comics. Eventually the Guardians will combine with the Avengers, presumably by the hand of Iron Man since (in the comics) he is a member of the Guardians. Also for you hard-core fans, you will have appreciated seeing Howard the Duck at the end of the credits. It was no bad; I wasn’t that familiar with him so didn’t really get it until I saw the caption afterwards. Ironically I thought I was a hard-core fan staying to see the post-credit clip…I thought wrong.
Right, Saltcoats cinema was great; the sound could have been a little bit louder and the seats were ok, but overall it was no bad! The film is brilliant! Totally bet my expectations and is probably my favourite besides Avengers Assemble. The story was great, the action and humour were well balanced, the soundtrack was an awesome mix, and the variety of characters were great. Well that’s me for another film review. Until next time, I am Groot!
GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY: 8/10
SALTCOATS PREMIER CINEMA: 8/10
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