Guardians of the Galaxy

We have seen the usual plethora of summer big-budget, explosive, adventurous, high adrenaline fare since the season began. What with "Captain America: The Winter Soldier", "The Amazing Spider-Man 2", "Godzilla", "X-Men: Days of Future Past", "Edge of Tomorrow", "Transformers: Age of Extinction", "Dawn of the Planet of the Apes", and "Hercules" in that order so far, this next film called "Guardians of the Galaxy" is, by far, the most impressive movie of this genre thus far--bar none.

After stealing a mysterious orb in the far reaches of outer space, Peter Quill/Star-Lord (Chris Pratt), a half man/half alien is now the target of a manhunt led by the villainous Ronan the Accuser (Lee Pace). To help fight Ronan and his cohorts and save the galaxy from his power, Quill creates a team, or it just sort of happens due to certain circumstances, known as the 'Guardians of the Galaxy' consisting of Gamora (Zoe Saldana), Drax (Dave Bautista), Groot (Vin Diesel) and Rocket (Bradley Cooper) to save the world, or in this case, the galaxy.

Others to round out the cast are Michael Rooker as Yondu Udonta, Karen Gillan as Nebula, Djimon Hounsou as Korath, John C. Reilly as Corpsman Dey, Glenn Close as Nova Prime, Benecio Del Toro as The Collector, Laura Haddock as Meredith Quill, Sean Gunn as Kraglin/On Set Rocket, and Peter Serafinowicz as Demarian Saal.

This was directed by a man who has much more TV under his belt than that of feature films which was James Gunn ("Slither" '06, "Super" '10, "Movie 43" (segment "Beezel") '13), but one must start somewhere in order to pay dues. Considering this guy's limited experience in feature films, this was far better directed than most seasoned directors could muster up. The different emotions this guy was able to exude out of each character was amazing. But you will see more of his work in the already announced "Guardians of the Galaxy 2" coming up in '17. It was written by Gunn and Nicole Perlman which was based on the comic book by Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning. This is where it gets real interesting and juicy, because this actually had an interesting, well thought-out and entertaining premise which is more than I can say about most films of the same genre. This film had me riveted from frame one to last, and there aren't many films that can do that during the summer season. The cast was eclectic, but perfect in every way. Pratt's new sculpted body obviously helped him in this, and he has found his niche as far as genre, however he's still talented in comedy, which a lot of this was. Cooper's Rocket character probably stole the show, but then again it's Bradley Cooper. And the visual effects which were predominantly created by ILM (Industrial, Light & Magic), SPI (Sony Pictures Imageworks) and MPC (Moving Picture Company) were seamless, but you'd have to be living under a rock not to know this.

Trust me when I say, you will not have more fun at the movies all summer when you go to see this film. Where else can you go and see something that has humor, adventure, action, great visuals, even with a great message all rolled up in a neat 3D format? Not many places. Enjoy!

Out of 4 Stars: 4                             Rated: PG-13                                122mins.