(re)Search my Trash

<body> <div align="left"> <table border="0" cellspacing="0" width="800" cellpadding="0" height="100%"> <tr> <td width="100" rowspan="3" background="../stylepix/square.gif" valign="top">  </td> <td width="4" rowspan="3"></td> <td width="592" valign="top">  </td> <td width="4" rowspan="3"></td> <td width="100" rowspan="3" background="../stylepix/squareright.gif" valign="top">  </td> </tr> <tr> <td width="592" valign="top">   <table border="0" cellspacing="0" align="left"> <tr> <td width="100%">  </td> </tr> <tr> <td width="100%"><img border="0" src="../stills/phantom5x5.gif" width="5" height="5"></td> </tr> <tr> <td width="100%">  </td> </tr> </table> <p>Somewhere in the universe: All masterthief Peter Quill a.k.a. Star Lord (Chris Pratt), master thief, planned to do was to steal a certain orb and sell it to a potential buyer ... but then the buyer calls off the deal since the orb has attracted the interest of intergalactic dark overlord Ronan (Lee Price) and thus spells danger - and before Quill knows it, he has a group of associates - Gamora (Zoe Saldana), Ronan's erstwhile assassin who wants revenge on him, Drax (Dave Bautista), who wanted to kill Gamora to hurt Ronan but now wants to kill Ronan to hurt him, the racoon Rocket (voiced by Bradley Cooper) and the tree Groot (voiced by Vin Diesel) -, and they are all thrown into a jail-rocketship  ... but do manage to escape thanks to a messed up plan by Rocket, that works by accident rather than by design.<p>Learning about the destructive power of the orb, Quill and company decide to deliver it to the leader of Nova Prime (Glenn Close) to keep it out of the hands of Ronan - but Ronan is very determined to get the thing, and he's also one who doesn't like to be killed, so he brings a large army with him, plus a special foe for Gamora, her assassin sister Nebula (Karen Gillan). But Quill and company have a plan - perhaps not a very good one, but ... well, it ends happily of course.<p> <p>Adapting the comicbook <i><b>Guardians of the Galaxy</b></i> for the big screen and handing over the directing reigns to James Gunn sounded like one big gamble: For one as <i><b>Guardians of the Galaxy</b></i> is one of the lesser known <i><a href="../research/resultprodlinks.shtml?Marvel Comics">Marvel</a></i> comics, and then director Gunn has so far been known for his efforts for <i><a href="../research/resultprodlinks.shtml?Troma">Troma</a></i>, his biting superhero satire <b><a href="super(2010).shtml">Super</a></b>, and of course his webseries <b><i>PG Porn</i></b> - so hardly someone who's perfect mainstream material, but one who likes to be subversive. Plus, he has never handled a big budget movie before. And in a way, James Gunn doesn't disappoint here, he hasn't lost his edge because money's thrown at him, he refuses to deliver a straight forward space opera and instead fills the movie with eccentric characters, over-the-top creations, many a sight gag even in the most exciting of action scenes, a general tongue-in-cheek approach, all wrapped in all-around craziness ... and it works like a charm, <b>Guardians of the Galaxy</b> is an extremely entertaining movie with plenty of action but even more laughs that stays clear of being moronic and also avoids most comicbook adaptation clichés or tackles them only fleetingly (like the totally superfluous origin story that takes up next to no screentime) - and the gamble paid off, too, doing very well at the box office, showing quite a bit of staying power, and generating the need for a sequel with Gunn at the whelm. And if whit might not be saying anything else, it at least proves there is room for subversiveness in mainstream cinema, something Hollywood normally tries to shun like rabies.<p>  </td> </tr> <tr> <td width="592" valign="top">  <SCRIPT LANGUAGE="JavaScript"> currentyear = "2015"; </SCRIPT> <SCRIPT language="JavaScript" src="../scripts/endcredits.js"></SCRIPT> <SCRIPT LANGUAGE="JavaScript"> dosworsdonn(); </SCRIPT> </td> </tr> </table> </div> </body>