GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY
Starring Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana
Directed by James Gunn
You know what they say: If a gun-toting, trash-talking CGI racoon pops up on the multiplex screen and sees over $90-million in box office receipts, then we're due for another decade of Marvel blockbusters.
After all, it's one thing to break records with your heavy-hitters like The Avengers. But when you're also able to score big with your benchwarmers, you're obviously a studio that's at the top of its game.
In lieu of the iconic Captain America and legendary Thor, we instead have the sort of no-names who keep Wikipedia busy: planet-hopping bandit Peter Quill (Chris Pratt), emerald-skinned mercenary Gamora (Zoe Saldana), humour-adverse Drax (Dave Bautista), aforementioned procyonid Rocket (voiced by Bradley Cooper) and sentient tree Groot (voiced by Vin Diesel). Thanks to a cosmic MacGuffin of mass destruction, they're forced to band together to save the galaxy. And by the graces of co-writer-director James Gunn's odd sense of humour, this act of heroism is explicitly equated to Kevin Bacon's gallantry in Footloose.
Watching these losers stumble their way through a swashbuckling space opera, it's obvious that there couldn't be a better filmmaker to marshall them than Gunn. A graduate of the Troma school of schlock, he's largely spent his career indulging his bizarre whims (PG Porn) and directing low-budget genre fare (Super, featuring a hammer-wielding Ellen Page). In many respects, he's as much a misfit as his anti-heroes. And just like his motley adventurers, Gunn rises to the occasion here, delivering a giddy two-hour dose of undiluted escapism that succeeds largely thanks to the sheer enthusiasm of a full-blown geek making the most of an opportunity he never thought he'd get.
