2014 Films of the Year No 2

No 2 - Guardians of the Galaxy

It's perhaps fitting that the second highest box office success of 2014 should be second on my list. This was also one of the more pleasing surprises of the year. GotG has been on many end of year lists, most recently as The top film of 2014 as voted for by the readers of Digital Spy. All this from a comic hardly known to anyone let alone the occasional  comic book reader.

A group of space misfits band together reluctantly band together to serve their own selfish purposes and would you Adam and Eve it, they realise they need each other and instead rely on team work to thwart a great evil plot to destroy entire worlds.

This group is headed by Star Lord aka Peter Quill aka Chris Pratt of Parks and Rec fame. 2014 has been his year, not only entering the Marvel Cinematic Universe but also by being the best thing about The Lego Movie. It was also announced this year that Pratt would be the lead in 2015's Jurassic World.

And so begins the most fun you'll have (or would have had - it's not on now) in the cinema in 2014. It really was a different experience to the recent offerings such as the sombre Iron Man 3, the political Captain America 2 and ultra moody Man of Steel. This was funny, full of jokes and most surprisingly, extremely confident despite its relatively short life span in comics.

GotG amongst other things nailed the casting on the head more than any other film this year. Major quibbles were made about the appointments of Bradley Cooper and Vin Diesel as double act Rocket and Groot respectively but that turned out to be a masterstroke. Former WWE Dave Bautista, who has to my knowledge no major acting experience (unless you count wrestling as acting) became his character Drax so effortlessly, that Bautista already has his next role lined up in the next Bond film.

There are some downsides but they are mostly minor quibbles. The main villain RONAN THE DESTROYER, feels quite diluted and has a weak screen presence. His boss of sorts, THANOS, still looks a tad dodgy in terms of CGI and I'm hoping it's sorted in time for his next appearance. Finally, it's been quite well publicised if you read up on marvel movies that the final action scene is pretty similar to the last 3/4 installments where a large ship falls from the sky. No more please, ahem Age of Ultron.

Ultimately this may not make some Critics top 10 lists but for the audience, Guardians of the Galaxy would be hitting the top.