Zoe Saldana

News, Reviews & Features

Marvel's Cine-CHAT-ic Universe: Guardians Of The Galaxy (2014)

Movie Feature | Ali Gray, Matt Looker, Becky Suter, Ed Williamson, Luke Whiston | 28th March 2019

It's the regular feature you assumed had been quietly abandoned - but we've got nothing else going on right now! We're back with another scintillating edition of Marvel's Cine-CHATIC Universe: this week/month/quarter, we're talking about James Gunn's Guardians Of The Galaxy, but also, very much other things too.

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Analysing the cast signatures on that Guardians Of The Galaxy support letter

Movie Feature | Ali Gray | 31st July 2018

Touching scenes online this week, as the cast members of Marvel's Guardians Of The Galaxy series banded together in a show of support for fired director James Gunn, by co-signing a letter that almost but not quite called for his reinstatement. Gunn, a former Troma filmmaker and purveyor of questionable humour, was fired by Disney after a bunch of right-wing lunatics, led by lisping dong Mike Cernovich, dredged up a bunch of offensive ten year-old tweets and weaponised their fake outrage in order to punish the director for his outspoken liberal views. It’s all very 2018, but let’s focus on the real issue here: MOVIE STAR SIGNATURES!

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Avengers: Infinity War

Movie Review | Matt Looker | 25th April 2018

In every way that matters – and it matters in every way – Avengers: Infinity War is basically the biggest movie ever. Ten years in the making, producing some of the highest grossing films on record and some of the most recognisable characters and franchises in the world, it’s astonishing that this climactic crossover event combining all of them in one big-screen adventure is even possible. What’s more astonishing is that it somehow meets every single impossible expectation you have for it.

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Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 2

Movie Review | Matt Looker | 1st May 2017

While fans continue to squabble over the correct, surely-soon-to-be-official 'Ultimate Ranking of MCU films' (nearly there, guys! Seriously, you're doing great work), it's easy to overlook the fact that, at this stage, the Marvel movie-making model looks unlikely to ever produce a truly bad film. Sure, there have been Dark Elvish messes and Mickey Rourke-sized hiccups, but Marvel really has its mathematically-safe, formulaic shit together now and, as a result, always delivers an agreeable level of fun and action albeit without taking any real risks. That is, except for Guardians Of The Galaxy, the only property in the Universe that still feels like a gamble, sitting apart from the homogenised Avenger adventures to follow its own completely different set of rules. Which is why it's a shame that this sequel follows them too.

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Star Trek Beyond

Movie Review | Ali Gray | 21st July 2016

The things you remember from Star Trek Into Darkness: the theatrical dramatic pause before the shitty Khan reveal; Benedict Cumberbatch doing that weird over-enunciation thing he thinks makes bad dialogue sound better; Kirk kicking the warp core like a broken printer; the bit where Bones basically cures death; Tribbles; the platform game level at the end where Spock channels Super Mario. The things you don't remember from Star Trek Into Darkness: the good stuff, I guess? I don't recall it being a terrible film, quite enjoyable in the moment in fact, but a post-viewing breakdown revealed the story to have as much structural integrity as a piss-soaked newspaper. Star Trek Beyond, however, rights everything that Star Trek Into Darkness put wrong. It may not be as polished or as ambitious as its predecessor, but it is far truer to the core themes of what Trek is all about; crucially, it's a film that looks to the future, not the past.

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Shock: Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 made by same people as Vol. 1

Movie Feature | Ali Gray | 17th February 2016

Is all this really necessary? Next you'll be telling me Star Wars: Episode VIII features some of the characters from Star Wars: Episode VII. Some but not all. Too soon? Too soon.

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Mad Max: Fury Road, 2015's best film by a thousand miles

Movie Review | Ali Gray | 31st December 2015

I actually watched Mad Max: Fury Road in its week of release, but it was such an overwhelming experience it's taken me all of seven months to mentally unpack it all, like when someone emails you a crazy big zip file which basically nerfs your inbox and you can't do anything until it's properly downloaded. That, with writing. Anyway. This is the best film of the year by a very long stretch, I'm off to watch it again because it got it on Blu-ray for Christmas and oh you've already stopped reading.

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Guardians Of The Galaxy

Movie Review | Ali Gray | 29th July 2014

Just for a second there it looked like Marvel might have let their foothold slip. Edgar Wright's departure had irreparably sullied Ant-Man; Captain America 3's release date clash with DC's Batman V Superman in 2016 seemed like a suicide mission; the suspicion lingered that Thor: The Dark World wasn't actually all that great in retrospect. Momentary blips, all, because Guardians Of The Galaxy is the most confident, daring and balls-out fun Marvel movie of the lot. The last two Marvel releases have been samey sequels, adhering largely to a tried and tested formula, but Guardians Of The Galaxy is one of Marvel's best films simply because it doesn't really feel like it's part of the Marvel universe at all.

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Trailer breakdown: Guardians Of ~~Ga'Hoole~~ The Galaxy

Movie Trailer | Ali Gray | 21st February 2014

You haven't properly seen the first teaser for Marvel's Guardians Of The Galaxy until you've seen my step-by-step analysis, which mainly consists of cries for help, fashion queries and unforgivable inaccuracy. Still, I do know one thing: raccoons are EEEEEEE! (*clutches hands beneath chin in girlish glee*)

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There's someone missing in the first Guardians Of The Galaxy image

Movie News | Ali Gray | 1st January 2014

Disney have released the first official image from their forthcoming Marvel intergalactic adventure, Guardians Of The Galaxy. We can't help but feel there's someone quite important missing, especially given the obvious Usual Suspects homage. Thankfully it was my New Year's Resolution to do more rubbish Photoshopping, so I made amends. Send the cheque to the usual address, Disney.

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