Guardians of the Galaxy (12A) ***
SINCE IRON MAN first donned his steel suit in 2008, I’ve (mostly) enjoyed the superhero adventures that Marvel’s studio arm has brought us on.
Avengers Assemble was the series highlight, an epic, funny and brilliantly staged adventure that brought all of the characters together for the first time to terrific effect.
Guardians of the Galaxy sees the studio taking the knowing humour that worked so well in Thor a step too far. It’s a script overcooked with self-referencing gags and slapstick punchlines in an attempt to paper over what is a very slight storyline indeed. They’re crammed into every scene regardless of whether they’re funny or not.
Many will love the self-conscious zaniness - as evidenced by the giggles at the screening I attended - but I found the forced humour relentless. The jokes simply aren’t strong enough.
Chris Pratt takes centre stage as Peter Quill, aka Star Lord - who we see being beamed into outer space following the death of his mother in the film’s opening scenes.
He makes a living as a career thief in outer space but after stealing an orb by a nasty character named Ronan (Lee Pace), he finds himself on the radar of a bunch of intergalactic warlords.
To evade them, he’s forced to work with a motley crue of fellow misfits. They include the enigmatic Gamora (a very good Zoe Saldana) who’s great at physical combat, Drax the Destroyer, a powerful figure driven by revenge, Rocket the scheming racoon and Groot, a sort of human tree who’s only sentence is “I am Groot”.
Guardians’ contrived efforts to keep us laughing eventually wear very thin, but the cheese helps paper over a convoluted plot.
Mood Indigo ***
Mood Indigo sees French director Michel Gondry return to his native language with this whimsical romance.
There’s some real inventiveness to the film’s production design and visual effects - but what unfolds is too bonkers really resonate.
It’s a shame, because when Gondry succeeds in injecting warmth and heart into his eccentric films, he can create gems like Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind or Be Kind, Rewind.
Set in a modern - and surreal – Paris, the story centres on Colin (Romain Duris) a man whose hobbies include making groundbreaking dishes with his chef friend Nicolas (Omar Sy).
He also likes coming up with zany inventions like the admittedly pretty nifty pianocktail - a piano that mixes drinks according to the type of tune you play.
He’s looking for romance, and finds it when he meets the equally oddball Chloe (Audrey Tautou) at a friend’s house party.
After a first date where they fly in a bubble car across Paris (it’s that kind of movie) they fall madly in love.
But when she develops an illness where a flower begins to grow in her lungs, Colin responds in the only way he knows how - by surrounding her with fresh flowers in a bid to cure it.
Like the more recent films from Terry Gilliam there are some lovely visual ideas but so many of them that they threaten to swamp the film and the sad little romance at its heart.
