Guardians of the Galaxy (James Gunn, 2014)

The superhero film production line has now reached Marvel's lesser-known heroes in its hunger for material to feed the mill, but it has to be said that this succeeds a whole lot better than many of the big-name vehicles. It's basically Serenity pushed through a Space Jam filter, which sounds awful but ends up not a million miles from Men in Black in overall tone, or, if you like, very close to what the dire TV series Farscape should have been. The reason I cite all these references is because there is nothing new here as such, with an Earthman and his band of disparate alien chums fighting a megalomaniac set on annihilating life as we know it, but it's zippy and quite funny in places too while providing solid popcorn thrills without having to resort to excesses of gore.

6/10