Review of Guardians of the Galaxy (2014) by Foxgrove — 31 Jul 2014

It was memories of a joyless screening of Captain America that made me approach this new Marvel adventure with caution. A caution borne of years of instinctive experience of crass movies aimed at the lowest possible denominator. I make it a rule never to walk out of any film, but in between admiring the face of my watch and battling yawns with as much zeal as our eclectic on screen heroes were battling each other, I very nearly succumbed to breaking with this self enforcement. The film starts badly and never recovers. One of the most mis- judged elements is the vein of humour running throughout that is puerile, lacking the benefit of any real wit or genuine laughs.

The story may be simple but there is so much superfluous chatter to draw out the running time that it becomes a language unto itself, which is probably only decipherable by teenage boys or others interested in all things 'Star Wars'. Trying to emulate that 70's classic, and I use the term loosely, the film has its own double act comprising of a very vocal racoon and a selfless tree who are clearly modelled on the characters of R2D2 and C3PO.

The cast enthusiastically inject more energy into the material than it deserves, but one remains baffled as to what actors of the calibre of Glenn Close and John C Reilly are doing participating in this nonsense.

Technically the film is outstanding. Cinematography and Special Visual effects are on the money and the Production Design is striking even if one set looks suspiciously like it had previously been used in 'Elysium'. Furthermore the Make-Up should easily walk away with an Oscar next year. However, excellent production values do not a good film make and as a movie the force is just not with it.