Guardians of the Galaxy.

It’s rare to experience a film that offers you pure entertainment from beginning to end as well as an exciting action packed story involving ‘out of this world characters’ that you can completely empathies with - including a raccoon!  Based on the 2008 relaunch of the Marvel comic, Guardians of the Galaxy (2014) is a live action movie directed by James Gunn, who also assisted Nicole Perlman with the screenplay. Perlman had been enrolled in Marvels screenwriting program in 2008 and it was her wish to bring this particular story to the screen.

 

Peter Quill 'Starlord'

Gamora.

Not as well known as some of the other members of the Avengers Assemble included in the Marvel Cinematic Universe like The Incredible Hulk, Iron Man or Captain America but these more galactic-based characters are nonetheless welcome. Firstly we have Peter Quill (Chris Pratt) who we first see being abducted from earth by an alien spaceship when he was just a young boy in 1988. Taken under the wing of Yondu Udonta (Michael Rooker), a space pirate and leader of the Ravagers, we meet Quill again 26 years later on the planet Morag where as Star Lord he is in the process of stealing an orb, an object of great power and very much in demand none more so than by Ronan the Accuser (Lee Pace) whose race, the Kree has just signed a peace treaty with Xandar, home of the Nova Corps Galactic Police Force. With the power of the orb Ronan can destroy Xandar along with its world peace treaty. Someone needs to stop him and to this end the space pirate Star Lord teams up with the genetically engineered raccoon Rocket (voiced by Bradley Cooper) and his bounty hunter partner Groot a tree like humanoid (voiced by Vin Diesel), powerful Drax the Destroyer (Dave Bautista) and Gamora (Zoe Saldana) a female assassin with special powers and adopted daughter of supervillian Thanos.

 

Rocket the Raccoon

I am Groot!

A great part of the ingenious soundtrack is provided by a collection of pop songs recorded before Peter Quills mother died of cancer and given to him on a cassette tape on her deathbed, which along with his beloved Walkman accompany him on his travels. Although full of great space battles and thrilling set pieces the best thing about this movie is the extremely well drawn and engaging characters and its humour. The cast may not be very well known but with a sequel due in the summer of 2017 this could change. Highly recommended for fans of the Marvel franchise, and even if your not it’s a good place to start.   

Drax the Destroyer.......