Movie Reviews: Guardians of the Galaxy

The latest Marvel-inspired blockbuster, Guardians of the Galaxy (12A) opens in 1988, when young Peter Quill is abducted from Earth on the very day his mother dies. A couple of decades later we catch up with Quill (Chris Pratt), who is now a scavenger rambling around the far reaches of outer space.

When Quill comes into possession of a precious orb (‘it’s an Ark of the Covenant, Maltese Falcon vibe’) coveted by Ronan the Accuser (Pace Lee), he finds himself pursued by a host of mercenaries, and quickly realises that the fate of the galaxy rests on his ability to keep the orb out of Ronan’s hands. Gathering around him a motley crew of guardians — Gamora (Zoe Saldana), Drax (Dave Bautista), the walking tree Groot (voiced by Vin Diesel) and the gun-toting racoon Killer (voiced by Bradley Cooper) — Quill goes to war against Ronan the Accuser and his homicidal legions. That all sounds like fairly conventional space opera material, but what distinguishes the latest superhero to leap from the pages of a Marvel comic-book is his distinct lack of heroism. While all around him take themselves very seriously indeed as they try to destroy / save the galaxy, Peter Quill comes on like a goofy Han Solo, a happy-go-lucky mercenary given a charmingly self-effacing read by Pratt. Directed with verve by James Gunn, the movie careers along at a tremendous pace, and while it is for the most part entertainingly action-packed and funny, it’s also at times suffocatingly stuffed with incident, reversals and cameo appearances as the makers establish the host of characters that will feature in future sequels.

French director Michel Gondry is no stranger to whimsy, having previously directed Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004), The Science of Sleep (2006) and Be Kind Rewind (2008), but Mood Indigo (12A) is by some distance his most whimsical offering to date. Set in a surreal Paris, it centres on Colin (Romain Duris), a wealthy inventor — he’s currently working on a cocktail-making piano — who falls in love with Chloe (Audrey Tatou). A whirlwind romance ensues but on the night of their wedding a tragedy befalls them, when a strange flower begins to blossom in Chloe’s lungs. It’s a potentially intriguing set-up, but at this point we’re already almost an hour into the story, and most of what we’ve seen has been drenched in surrealist absurdity — door bells that scramble down off the wall to alert the inhabitant; TV chefs reaching out of the television to correct a recipe — and it’s very difficult for the viewer to adjust to the potential poignancy of Chloe’s bizarre illness. That’s a pity, because the inventive flair of the first hour is some of the most delightful nonsense seen on a big screen in years, a joyous celebration of the possibility of cinema delivered as a kind of febrile dream. Duris and Tatou initially make for amiable company as they lead us through Gondry’s wacky wonderland, but when the mood turns darker even their fine performances struggle to convince us we should care about Chloe’s fate.

The Nut Job (G) opens with greedy squirrel Surly (Will Arnett) being exiled from his parkland home by the park animals’ leader, Racoon (Liam Neeson). Struggling to survive in the big bad city, Surly discovers a nut shop, and believes he has stumbled upon the hoard to end all hoards. !! Unfortunately, the nut shop is simply a cover for a human gang, led by King (Stephen Lang), that is planning to rob the bank next door, and soon Surly is battling against humans and his former animal colleagues as he tries to keep the hoard for himself. Directed by Peter Lepeniotis, who earned his stripes as an animator on Toy Story, The Nut Job is a fast-paced tale that offers an endearingly old-fashioned quality of animation and a rather conventional plot in which Surly, courtesy of the noble efforts of his fellow squirrel Andie (Katherine Heigl), eventually learns the value of cooperation (older viewers who have seen Over the Hedge might experience an occasional déjà vu). While it’s all very straightforward, there are some very nice touches to be enjoyed here, including Surly’s touching relationship with his best friend, the mute rat Buddy, and the delightfully rendered human characters, all of whom are grotesque exaggerations drawn from 1940s B-movie film noir.