Before I get to recapping the movie I have to come clean. Before seeing the Avengers movie and doing that whole crash course beforehand I wasn't exactly in this for the long haul. I figured that all of Phase one was just a fluke and that after The Avengers the MCU would just slowly lose interest with the general public and would quietly go away. So while I did see Iron Man 3 in theaters I skipped Thor the Dark World and Winter Soldier, but when Guardians of the Galaxy was announced I was like "ok this is where the ride stops." This was the first time everybody thought this was the movie that would be the end of the MCU.
Mostly due to the previous movies using some of Marvels most iconic heroes, we were all like "who the hell are the Guardians of the Galaxy?" Admit it, we all thought this was where the general public would just drop this whole MCU fad and move on with our lives. The director of this movie wasn't exactly giving me a lot of confidence either. All I knew about James Gunn was that he was responsible for Tromeo and Juliet, and the two god awful live action Scooby-Doo movies. (This was before I learned who Raja Gosnell was.)
So what else could I think of this movie other then a freaking disaster, but then the reviews came in, I saw it and declared Guardians of the Galaxy one of my favorite MCU movies. This convinced me to stick to the MCU like glue because if they can make this great of a movie with such an obscure source material and make them into household names, there's got to be some kind of magic going on here. So it's because I saw this movie that I resolved to follow along with the main MCU for good and for ill, basically without this movie I wouldn't be doing this retrospective. Personal mushy stuff out of the way it's back to the normal format. Speaking of personal mushy stuff, this movie starts off rather odd as we open in 1988 with a young Peter Quill at his mother's death bed.
She asks him to take her hand in her last moments, he's too scared, she dies, he runs away into a nearby field sobbing and bam he gets abducted by aliens! No I did not make that up, it's like if you were watching Sesame Street and their special guest was Marilyn Manson, its nuts! After that tonal whiplash we come back to Peter 26 years later where he's now played by Chris Pine, calling himself Starlord and is a member of the Ravagers, basically space outlaws. (Speaking of Ravagers, its definitely a better fitting name for a group of outlaws then a Superhero team, way to use the old grey matter DC!) Quill was carrying out a job to retrieve an orb on the planet Morag when he's attacked by Korath (played by Djimon Hounsou).
Peter manages to escape and get off the planet but gets a call from his boss Yondu (played by Michael Rooker) who's not too happy with his old protege skipping the deal so he puts a bounty on him. Korath reports back to his boss, the Kree fanatic and terrorist Ronan the Accuser (played by Lee Pace) about Quill's theft of the orb. Ronan in turn sends down Thanos' daughter Gamora (played by Zoe Saldana) to get it back. She encounters Quill on the planet Xandar and nearly gets away with the Orb but their fight draws the attention of a pair of bounty hunters, a cybernetically and genetically enhanced raccoon named Rocket (played by Bradley Cooper) and his partner/muscle/Banzai tree Groot (played by Vin Diesel). After the four cause enough trouble Xandar's police force; the Nova Corps arrive on the scene to arrest them they're then transferred to the prison known as the Kyln.
Ronan is summoned to the throne of Thanos who's not happy about his failure to retrieve the Orb and the betrayal of his favorite daughter, much to the irritation of his other daughter Nebula (played by Karan Gillan). Thanos makes his distain for Ronan clear and reminds him of their agreement, if Ronan cannot retrieve the Orb then Thanos will not destroy Xandar for him as revenge for the Peace Treaty between the Kree and Xandarian peoples. Back on the Kyln Gamora doesn't get the warmest of welcomes due to her working for Thanos and Ronan, especially with Drax the Destroyer (played by Dave Bautista) whose family was killed by Ronan. Quill manages to convince him not to kill her and that they can lead him to Ronan, so after some shenanigans the five escape and head for Knowhere, where Gamora can meet with a broker to sell the Orb and get away from Thanos and Ronan. They meet up with the broker, who is revealed to be the Collector who reveals what's inside of the Orb, one of the infinity stones!
Before more elaboration can be made on the stone the Collector's slave grabs the stone in an attempt to gain its power but she just gets blown up by the stone's overwhelming power. And that's when Ronan and Nebula's forces invade Knowhere, how did they know where they were? Drax literally called them out in a drunken rage to try and kill him as revenge for his family.
Unsurprisingly Drax doesn't stand a chance and gets his big, grey ass kicked. While that was going on Gamora and Peter try to escape from Nebula and wind up nearly dying in the vacuum of space with Ronan's forces getting the Orb and the Stone. But Peter manages to save them both by surrendering himself to Yondu and the Ravagers. After some smooth talk Peter manages to convince Smurf Merle to help stop Ronan from destroying Xandar while convincing Rocket and Drax that the Ravagers are on their side. Speaking of Ronan he now knows what's in the Orb and decides to cut out the middle man and destroy Xandar himself with the stone, and Nebula is all onboard since, like her sister she despises Thanos' rotten guts for what he did to them both.
So the forces fight with Ronan and his forces destroyed save for Nebula who escapes. The Guardians have their criminal records expunged and Peter learns that he's not fully human, that his father was an ancient being that payed Yondu and his Ravagers to bring him to him in the first place but Yondu decided not to since "the guy is a jackass". The Power Stone ends up under the protection of the Nova Corp, our protagonists are off to do whatever, and they start growing a new Groot. While the Collector is left to stew in the remains of his collection with a cosmonaut dog and the most valuable piece, a cinematic version of Howard the Duck (played by Seth Green) that's actually funny!
Like I said before this was the movie that convinced me that the MCU was worth my attention and it's easy to see why. After spending so much time on Earth or Asgard going into the depths of space was definitely a breath of fresh air. The humor is great, the characters are endearing, the action sequences awesome (hell the scene with Yondu killing all those guys at once with his arrow is worth the price of admission alone) and the soundtrack is kickass. Hell even Ronan is a pretty detestable villain but for all the right reasons. If not for his motivations but just from the shear power he held and willingness to work with the mad titan to achieve his goals shows how this guy is plenty dangerous, even though he really is just a petulant child compared to Thanos.
While not a major point of this movie but just something I felt the need to point out is that aside from the traditional Stan Lee cameo there's a cameo from James' former boss, Bizzaro world Mel Brooks, AKA Troma founder Lloyd Kaufman. A nice touch and way of saying thanks to the guy who gave him his big break. As for the negative thing about the movie aside from Thanos still not really doing anything is the scene in Knowhere were Rocket gets in a drunken fight and just suddenly starts griping about his backstory. It honestly felt like they just had nowhere else to put that scene and dialogue so they just decided to cram it in there. Honestly it's just a minor complaint but I kind of feel like I have to as a sort of balancing act, that unless I point out one negative thing about something I'm reviewing I'm not really doing my job.
But yeah, Guardians of the Galaxy is my favorite Phase 2 MCU movie. It has good action, great comedy, cool setting and is just an all around good time. Also since it reveals another of the Infinity Stones for the main continuity hounds this is required viewing. But sadly we won't be seeing Starlord and his band of misfits again till much later, because it's back to Earth again. Once we continue the March to Infinity you'll know and see, there are no strings on me!
Special thanks to my Patreon backer Jesse for his support.
Guardians of the Galaxy is owned by Marvel Studios and Walt Disney Motion picture studios based off "Guardians of the Galaxy" created by Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning.
Marvel's The Avengers is owned by Marvel Studios, Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures, Joss Whedon and Kevin Feige. Based off the comic by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby.
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