Author: Beau Tardy Artist

Blockbuster marries cult.

Star Wars meets Blade Runner meets The Watchmen. Like riding the Shinkansen high on LSD, this movie is a psychedelic trip the likes of which Ridley Scott and George Lucas could only dream of making back in the dark ages.

A sexy green girl and a sexy blue girl (Zoe Saldana & Karen Gillan), a wiseass raccoon (Brad Cooper), a tree with limited vocabulary (Vin Diesel) and some apocalyptic villains will make you want to strap into the Milano and shoot off some plasma blasters.

Guardians of the Galaxy just put James Gunn’s number on the red phone speed dial and made Chris Pratt every teenage girl’s screensaver.

Cool factor: after watching this movie you will be scouring Ebay for a Sony TPS-L2 Walkman. While you’re at it, go ahead and download “I’m Not In Love” by 10cc and “Cherry Bomb” by Joan Jett and The Runaways. Yes young ones, we know, we where there…

Only downer – soundtrack could have been tons better. The late 70s and early 80s had much better music to select from and any true Walkman sporting hypester would have been listening to the Dead Kennedys or Run DMC, but I digress.

Dead weight: John C Reilly and Glenn Close just feel like ballast brought on board to steady the ship when in fact they should have been jettisoned.

Did I mention mind bending special effects, the toroid shaped Dark Aster mothership, Benicio Del Toro, faceless necro-soldiers, an Infinity Stone (‘an item of immeasurable power that destroys all but the most powerful beings who wield it’ says Wiki), fighting girls, Cosmo the Soviet space dog and Benicio Del Toro?

AND IT’S ALL IN 3D! In the future it will be cool to have seen this movie in the past.

Review by Feeney Last

Director & screenwriter: James Gunn
Camera: Ben Davis
Starring: Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana, Karen Gillan Brad Cooper and Benicio Del Toro.
Effects: Framestore, Moving Picture Company; Luma Pictures; Method Studios; Lola VFX; Cantina Creative; Sony Pictures Imageworks; CoSA VFX; Secret Lab; Rise Visual Effects Studios; Technicolor VFX; Industrial Light & Magic.