Guardians Of The Galaxy (2014)

'Guardians Of The Galaxy' is Marvel Studios' 10th film set in their cinematic film world. Instead of heroes such as Iron-Man, Captain America, Thor or the Hulk, who have now been established in several films, Marvel now uses lesser-known characters from their comic treasure chest and literally reaches for the stars with the 'Guardians Of the Galaxy'.

In 1988, shortly after the death of his mother from cancer, little Peter Quill is kidnapped by space pirates. 26 years later we see the adult Quill (played by Chris Pratt) - who modestly calls himself 'Star-Lord' - as he, quite in Indiana Jones manner, a mysterious artifact under the nail. Then he is pursued by the alien extremist Ronan, who wants to use the power of the artifact to bring the galaxy under his control. To prevent this, Quill must make truce with a troop of disparate outsiders. The talking raccoon(!) Rocket (voiced in the original by the charming Bradley Cooper), the tree-like Groot (Vin Diesel in his best role), the assassin Gamora (sci-fi veteran Zoe Zaldana, now assisting a third franchise alongside Avatar and Star Trek) and the vengeful Drax (played by wrestler David Batista).

When Marvel Studios began their in-house exploitation of their comic books in 2007 with Iron-Man, no one could have guessed that a B-hero like the playboy Tony Stark with his iron armor would achieve as much notoriety through film as the comic book heroes Superman, Batman or Spider-Man. But not only through the interpretation of the character by Robert Downey Jr, but also through the interplay of plot, humor and heart in the book and direction, Iron-Man and film consorts became a similar poster child for class suitable for the masses as previously only the productions of the animation forge Pixar, which also belongs to the Disney group.With the 'Guardians', Marvel is fortunately taking a similar risky path as it did at the beginning with the iron man Tony Stark. Again, it is not the A-series of heroes of a blow like Spider-Man (which right-wise also no longer belongs to Marvel and is therefore currently driven by Sony in one bad film version after another through the multiplexes) but rather the C-category of Marvel heroes. But again, film chief Kevin Feige of Marvel proves the right hand. A superhero team with a talking raccoon can not do without self-irony. Therefore, it was important that again an Indy director like James Gunn takes the 'comic book' in hand and directs it with the necessary wink.To make a long story short - The coup works out for Marvel again this time. 'Guardians Of The Galaxy' is the movie that skims almost all the points in the nerd category 'Almost as nice as a Star Wars movie of the old trilogy'. With its charm and wit, its loving details and the joy of all the actors, it's easy to get over the somewhat too simple plot and the unfortunately too one-dimensional antagonist (an unfortunately typical Marvel movie disease). But even J.J. Abrams' reboot of the Star Trek film series didn't have the strongest villain to offer in the first part, and yet Star Trek (2009) was a successful film. It's a similar story with 'Guardians'. The interplay between the quirky heroes makes up for minor flaws in the script. James Gunn has succeeded in creating a furious space opera that whets the appetite for further adventures with the Guardians of the Galaxy.