Those loveable space buccaneers Peter Quill, Drax, Gamora and co. busted out of astral prison to spend the evening with their public last night as **Guardians Of The Galaxy **celebrated its UK premiere in Leicester Square. Cunningly, Marvel worked around the challenge of representing its two CG characters – Rocket and Groot – by inviting along an actual racoon and putting Vin Diesel on stilts.
To top off something of a family affair for Disney, Chris Hemsworth and Joss Whedon took a break from Avengers: Age Of Ultron to join director James Gunn, Zoe Saldana (Gamora), Chris Pratt (Quill), Diesel (Groot), Dave Bautista (Drax) and Karen Gillan (Nebula) on the red carpet. Bradley Cooper was unavailable due to filming commitments on Adam Jones in New Orleans, so the RSAG (Raccoon Screen Actors Guild) sent along unofficial cast member Oreo. Presumably because this guy was busy.
The intergalactic caper's story, for anyone who might still be unaware, goes a little like this: in space-prison, Chris Pratt's Peter Quill – who would prefer to be known as Star-Lord – meets an unusual suspects line-up of extra-terrestrials including Gamora, a green-skinned assassin; Drax The Destroyer, a hulking warrior; talking tree Groot, and gruff warrior Rocket.
Though they couldn’t be more different – or less keen to help anyone out of the sheer goodness of their hearts – these unlikely anti-heroes will have to band together to save their little corner of space from threats so huge even the mighty Nova Corps, the galactic police force, are worried. See for yourself when Guardians Of The Galaxy arrives in cinemas on July 31. Read Empire's review here.