Ever get the feeling that a movie ain’t as good as you think it is? Halfway through the third action sequence I was sick of the “Awesome Mix” concept, sick of the shoot em ups and plainly a little bored. It starts off great, the child Peter Quill’s Mom has just that second died of cancer when Peter runs out of the hospital like Ryan O’Neal at the end of “Love Story” and gets whisked away on a spaceship.
Twenty years later and Peter is now Chris Pratt and goes by the name of Star-Lord while he steals and thieves his way round the Universe like Hans Solo without the Harrison Ford. He steals some kinda death machine orb, double crosses his partners in crime, hooks up with the chief villain’s daughter Zoe Saldana (who looks great), a talking raccoon, a talking tree, and a man mountain, in a wild bid to save the Universe.
This is Marvel but it is more like Marvel when Spidey used to be a bemused, amused superhero, and the heavy weight Thor and Iron Man of latter years. And it is alright, though it isn’t anything compared to Star wars -not even the bad Star wars. Star wars had a Joseph Campbell type proto-myth stuff going on, there is nothing much underneath this story. it is a nice ride but it doesn’t last.
Directed by James Gunn -who did the great 2006 “Slither”, this is a pretty good action adventure comedy that people over react to so they can excuse themselves for raving over the last Iron Man movie…
Grade: B
