Guardians of the Galaxy

Marvel expands its cinematic clout with this new colorful potential franchise featuring a ragtag team of intergalactic adventurers. Headed by Peter Quill (Chris Pratt), aka Star-Lord, the quintet includes the green-skinned warrior Gamora (Zoe Saldana), vengeance-seeking Drax the Destroyer (WWE star Dave Bautista) and two endearing CGI characters: clever, cybernetically-enhanced, gun-slinging Rocket Raccoon, voiced by Bradley Cooper, and Groot, a humanoid-ish self-regenerating tree whose one line of dialogue (“I am Groot”) is uttered repeatedly--with different intonations--by Vin Diesel. A 1988 prologue finds grief-stricken, 9-year-old Peter--whose cancer-ravaged mother has just died--abducted from Earth and zapped into the cosmos. Now thirtysomething, Peter still carries his Walkman and earphones, bopping to a mixtape of funky ‘70s songs. Piloting his own spacecraft, Peter is an intrepid mercenary, scavenging once-populated-but-now-deserted planets, working for a blue-skinned Ravager (Michael Rooker). Dispatched after a mysterious silver Orb, Peter discovers that it's also coveted by a villainous warlord (Lee Pace) who wants to trade it in exchange for the power to destroy Xandar--home to the Nova Corps, the space militia at war with the evil Kree, a race headed by the all-powerful Thanos. Completing the ensemble cast are Benicio del Toro as The Collector, Glenn Close as Nova's Defense Minister, and John C. Reilly as her Corpsman. Humorously adapted from the Marvel comic book series, director James Gunn's Guardians of the Galaxy is an origin story full of irreverent one-liners and running gags. Serving up goofy, energetic, space-faring fun, this is recommended. [Note: DVD/Blu-ray extras include a trailer for the upcoming Avengers: Age of Ultron (2 min.), a deleted scene (2 min.), and other trailers. Exclusive to the Blu-ray release is an audio commentary with director James Gunn, a “Guide to the Galaxy with James Gunn” featurette (21 min.), a visual effects featurette (7 min.), a gag reel (4 min.), and additional deleted scenes (2 min.). Bottom line: a decent extras package on the Blu-ray release for this franchise-launching hit.] (S. Granger)