Movie Review --Guardians of the Galaxy

Today we have the new Marvel movie starring Chris Pratt and Zoe Saldana: Guardians of the Galaxy. I'm here to tell you if you should go see it.

The story takes place far from Earth. Peter Quill, AKA Starlord (Pratt), a charismatic criminal, is exploring an ancient ruin when he finds a mysterious orb. Suddenly, armed strangers show up and accost him. He manages to fight them off and make his escape with the orb. He has no idea what it is, but it seems valuable so he arranges to sell it for a very high price.

Meanwhile, the Kree empire signs a peace treaty with their longtime enemies the Xandar (fans of the comics may recall the Kree are also longtime enemies of the Skrulls). This does not sit well with Kree warrior Ronan (Lee Pace). He hates the Xandar with a passion and, working with Thanos (Josh Brolin, according to IMDB, though he's uncredited here), he schemes to obtain the orb to wipe them out once and for all. Ronan sends Thanos' adopted daughter Gamora (Saldana) to get it from Quill on the Xandar homeworld, but aliens Rocket (Bradley Cooper) and his servant Groot (Vin Diesel) intervene because they want the bounty on Quill's head. Xandar authorities get involved, and the foursome find themselves in prison where they meet muscleman Drax the Destroyer (WWE's Dave Bautista) who has his own score to settle with Ronan. Quickly realizing they need to work together, they hatch a plan to escape and safeguard the orb. Unfortunately, Drax's thirst for vengeance gets the best of him, and he makes a move that could doom billions of people. Can these guys (and girl) get on the same page before Ronan carries out his genocide?

The Guardians of the Galaxy are a motley crew of very capable yet very dysfunctional heroes who threaten one another more than they threaten the bad guys. Sound familiar? Yep, they're basically The Avengers in space. If you liked that movie, you'll like this one. If not, it will do nothing to change your mind. It is refreshing to leave Earth and explore Marvel's rich universe of aliens and the Infinity Gems, Ronan is a cool villain (visually at least) and the rampant humor kept me chuckling throughout, but it's nothing you haven't seen before. There are predictable fights and predictable chases, and you probably already know whether or not you like these things. The film remains entertaining from start to finish, and I look forward to the already-announced sequel. However, I'm much more looking forward to the next Avengers.

"Do not call me a thesaurus!"