The biggest gamble Marvel Studios has taken to date turned out to be a smart one, because at the time of press, Guardians of the Galaxy has raked in $420 million worldwide. With many forecasting the film to have "box office bomb" written all over it due to its quirky subject matter and lack of a rooting in familiar material, Guardians has instead gone over gangbusters with both audiences and critics, and fans of unique, exciting cinema everywhere should rejoice. Is James Gunn's film perfect? Absolutely not: the plot is pretty piecemeal for the most part and Lee Pace's Ronan the Accuser is a mostly ineffective villain, but the movie's sheer charm allows it to easily overcome these flaws. Chris Pratt cements himself as an A-lister with his outrageously entertaining performance in the lead role of Star-Lord, and his rag-tag team of comrades aren't exactly far behind either: particularly impressive (and surprisingly so) is Dave Bautista as the straight-laced Drax the Destroyer. A marvelously-assembled space opera with plenty of attitude to boot, Gunn has taken a story that includes a sentient tree and a talking, cybernetically-enhanced raccoon among its ranks and made it a box office smash. Now, of course, we just have to wait and see when Star-Lord and co. will end up meeting Tony Stark. Whenever it happens (likely in The Avengers 3) it's sure to be glorious.
Stay at home dad who spends as much time teaching his kids the merits of Martin Scorsese as possible (against the missus' wishes).
General video game, TV and film nut. Occasional sports fan. Full time loon.
