Uncross your fingers, stop rubbing that lucky rabbit's foot, cease your prayers to the Dread One Dormammu: Marvel have knocked it out of the park again. Possibly their most daring gamble so far has totally paid off in the form of Guardians Of The Galaxy, a gloriously ramshackle-yet-tightly structured space faring adventure that just so happens to star a talking raccoon, a big tree, and Andy Dwyer from Parks And Recreation as a believable action hero. The way things are paying off for the studio, you'd think they had the whole thing rigged. They must be gaming the system a little bit, at least. This is a big summer blockbuster where half the cast are CGI aliens, the other half are slathered in multi-coloured makeup, the "heroes" are a band of outlaws who just broke out of prison, and the director is best known for a horror-comedy about Nathan Fillion fighting slug monsters. How the heck could they possibly pull this off? We don't have the answer, just the eyewitness testimony that they 100% have. Guardians Of The Galaxy is unlike any other Marvel film so far, except for in one way: it blows all of its competition out of the water. Okay, let's do the basic set up of the plot first, which is easier said than done. First there's this bunch of intergalactic misfits who all end up getting arrested at the same time, because they're after the same thing - a mysterious orb that contains some sort of ultimate power of the galaxy. Most of them just wanna sell it for mad cash, though; there's the human scavenger Peter Quill, the bounty hunter duo of Groot (the tree) and Rocket (the raccoon), alien warrior Gamora, and the aptly named Drax The Destroyer. They team up to break out of prison and stop the contents of the orb falling into the hands of Ronan The Accuser, who plans to exterminate life on a planet called Xandar for some reason. Also, there are dick jokes. To be fair the studio has rigged things, in a way - if hiring interesting and talented people to make their movies counts as "rigging". This time around they assembled a...shall we say interesting cast? Zoe Saldana, who plays the green-skinned Gamora, has already headlined a big-budget sci-fi movie in the form of Avatar. Bradley Cooper and Vin Diesel are usually pretty bankable stars, but here they're voicing the aforementioned rodent and plantlife. Which leaves the heavy lifting to the oafishly charming Chris Pratt, previously known for comedic supporting roles, as our heroic lead Peter Quill, who insists everyone calls him Star-Lord (although nobody actually does). Then again, it wasn't necessarily a safe bet to install the down-and-out Robert Downey Jr as Tony Stark, and he became the linchpin of the entire Marvel Cinematic Universe. Every step of the way the studio have been making interesting choices behind the camera, too, with the Shakespearean Kenneth Branagh tapped for the first Thor and Jon Favreau, best known as that chubby millionaire Monica dated on Friends, helming the first couple of Iron Men. Here the creative choice was putting James Gunn in charge, a man whose previous films have been decidedly less family friendly than Marvel superhero flicks tend to be. His grimy fingerprints are all over Guardians Of The Galaxy. The amorality of the "heroes" is definitely in his wheelhouse and, although things never get quite as wild as in his real-life-vigilante movie Super, this film has some pretty hardcore moments. For the most part the action - and there is a lot of action, and it's totally sweet, rest assured - is your typical bloodless Hollywood affair, but the script? Yeah, there's a lot in there that's NSFW. We're honestly surprised they got away with this much cursing in what we think is meant to be a 12A rated film, and that's before you get to the zero gravity jizz joke. Thankfully that'll sail right over the heads of the younger audience members. That's not to say this is a totally adult film at all. It's pretty identifiably a James Gunn flick, and doesn't have too many tangible connections to the Avengers, but Guardians Of The Galaxy still feels of a piece with the rest of the Marvel movies so far. The humour's a little more risque, but it's not an out-and-out comedy as some of the trailers have suggested; it's just got jokes scattered throughout in the same way that, say, Iron Man 3 had. Maybe heightened a little. That totally suits the tone of the film, though, what with the protagonists being a bunch of cosmic wise-cracking losers. All the kidding around provides a little levity to what, to be honest, would otherwise have been a pretty standard sci-fi plot. Bad dude covets ultimate power, wants to use it to destroy universe for no discernable reason, good guys have to stop him. If there's one weak link in the film it's Lee Pace's Ronan The Accuser - not that Pace is particularly bad, he just doesn't have a lot to do. It's similar to the situation we had with Christopher Eccleston as Malekith in Thor: The Dark World, where the bad guy doesn't have any clearly defined motivation, making it hard to care about the overarching plot and just wanting to get back to the raccoon shooting things. When we say that's the only weak link, though, we mean it. Every other aspect of Guardians Of The Galaxy works, even though it really shouldn't. Groot will probably be one of the most adored characters of the year, Chris Pratt actually is a believable action star, the fluctuating tone never feels particularly messy, the film never overstays its welcome, Dave Batista as Drax proves that wrestlers can act from time to time, and - oh yeah - that soundtrack. Good luck listening to anything but Hooked On A Feeling on your mental jukebox for weeks after you see this. You're welcome. After the relative misfire of the Thor sequel and the dour drama of Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Guardians Of The Galaxy returns Marvel Studios to the tippity-top of the box office ladder. It's sharp, it's hilarious, it's exciting, it's smart, it's dumb, it's fun. It's everything that a popcorn movie should be, with brains and charm to spare. When's the next one out? Have you seen Guardians Of The Galaxy? Do you agree with our review? Share your thoughts below in the comments thread.
Tom Baker is the Comics Editor at WhatCulture! He's heard all the Doctor Who jokes, but not many about Randall and Hopkirk. He also blogs at http://communibearsilostate.wordpress.com/
