Sci-Fi

GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY (2014)

GuardiansoftheGalaxy

In 1969 the first comic book version of G.O.T.G. was born into the Marvel universe. Then in 2008 they were rebooted and the main protagonists (and villains) that became the team, containing previous and new members, were brought together to protect the galaxy. We’ll call them the modern team. These are the Guardians that are featured in this fantastic film version of the comics.

Casting is key here, Chris Pratt is perfect as the Starlord, Peter Quill as are the rest of the team. Zoe Saldana, always excellent, is Gamora, Dave Bautista is Drax, Bradley Cooper brings the voice of a fantastic character, Rocket Raccoon and Vin Diesel uses his dulcet tones to bring to life another great character, Groot. The original serial killer, Michael Rooker is on tough guy duties as Yondu, the sometime collaborator of Quill. Lee Pace delivers the bad guy, Ronan the Accuser to life. Bringing up the support are John C. Reilly, Peter Serafinowicz, Djimon Hounsou, the beautiful Laura Haddock and the irrepressible Glenn Close. Special mentions go to Karen Gillan as Nebula and Alexis Rodney as Moloka Dar.

Now, with a cast like this, your acting duties are well taken care of. All you need is a great story, directing, soundtrack and the elements are all in place.
James Gunn directs this wonderful addition to the Marvel canon with aplomb.

Marvel just seems to be getting better and better at delivering brilliant, entertaining superhero films. The last venture being Captain America: The Winter Soldier, which showed that they are beginning to make films worthy of their pedigree. Although the previous films have made a shed-load of money, they have fallen short of artistic quality. With Guardians they are establishing a real understanding of how to do it properly.

This film ticks so many of the right boxes, the set ups, the characters, story, the humour and effects and one would surely be looking forward to the next film in this series.

This is a big budget film with great low budget sensibilities.
The Guardians are Iron Man and the Hulks geekier, less cool, younger cousins.
This one has come out of the gates racing ahead of the race with a rag tag group of reprobates truly kicking the door of the hinges of the Marvel film universe.

The Usual Suspects in space.

BUY THE BLU RAY DVD HERE

DOWNLOAD THE FILM ON iTUNES HERE

4/5

SNOWPIERCER (2012)

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There’s a lot to be said about seeing a film that you know little or nothing about story wise.

South Korea’s Bong Joon ho’s first English language film has been greatly anticipated.
No expectations apart from the fact that it’s bound to be pretty interesting and definitely worth a watch.

Having said that, this film set in a future where the world is too cold to live in and all that’s left of humanity exists on a train designed to keep them all alive. The usual tropes are all here (Alphas/Epsilons/ the power and the people) and it’s amazing how relevant this is in society today.

Bong Joon-ho (Memories of Murder, The Host and Mother) has been directing some incredible Korean films over the last 20 years. He is an artist with some experience of repute.  Critically, he is revered.

So, it is interesting to find out that this film was released in South Korea in August 2012 and still hasn’t been released worldwide.

The reason-Harvey Scissorhands.

He picked up the rights to release the film everywhere else-ish and felt that it couldn’t be a big success without some sort of hair-cut, Joon-ho disagreed and the crux of the sitch is that Harvey Weinstein will release the director’s cut in a few selected cinemas instead of giving it the full treatment publicity and exposure wise.

The film already made its money back within the first week of its release in Korea, over a million people went to see it in the first two days alone.

There are big, established and upcoming, stars in this film, Chris Evans taking a break from Steve Rogers to play the lead here along with John Hurt, Jamie Bell, Octavia Spencer (who does not have the chops people thought she had and really lets the side down), Ewen Bremner, Luke Pasqualino, Alison Pill and Tilda Swinton giving her best Margaret Thatcher as a northerner but the true star of the film is, one of my favourite actors of the moment Song Kang-ho.

Every scene he is in is a joy to watch. His instinct for interesting, naturally/unnatural choices is sharp and always surprising in a beautifully subtle way. Here he acts in his own language getting his own subtitles and more than standing his own ground but making a bold statement with his presence.

Playing his daughter is Ko Ah-sung who also played his daughter in the director’s earlier, classic monster piece The Host. She also brings an interesting element to the table. The fact that they both speak Korean seems natural and unforced and fits in wonderfully to this English language film.

The effects are sometimes inferior due to lack of big budget but that is such a minor criticism when you think of the magnitude of the film.

If you’re a fan of dystopian sci-fi check this out.

It isn’t perfect but it’s way up there.

3.8/5

BUY IT ON BLU-RAY DVD HERE

DOWNLOAD THE FILM ON iTUNES HERE