Guardians of the Galaxy (2014)

SPOILER WARNING!!! This post spoils movie Guardians of the Galaxy (2014).

It will be interesting to see how well this movie does. It has everything what makes Marvel so good. Characters have flaws. There is humor. Movie doesn't take itself too seriously. There are sad moment, but over all movie is fun. We are discussing about destroying the planets, but this never goes to Man of Steel like disaster porn. I wouldn't call this best movie ever, but it is among best comic book movies. It didn't feel like I have to go to see it again tomorrow. I can wait for home release, which costs about as much as ticket to cinema. Tickets are too damn expensive. With cheaper tickets I would see this again at cinema. Maybe matinée during my summer vacation. If there is any.

Movie was about third infinity stone. We saw more Thanos than before. I wonder which group will go against Thanos in Infinity Gauntlet story. In this movie everyone knows who Thanos is. In Avengers we just briefly saw him and no-one knew him. In comics Thanos killed Drax's family. In this movie it was Ronan. At the end of the movie Drax set his target on Thanos. So I assume Guardians will meet Thanos at some point. Is it with Avengers? Infinity Gauntlet is hyped so much that it could be with both team and some others we haven't seen yet. To be honest I am not sure they can meet the expectations in Infinity Gauntlet. It already has four movie build up and there will be at least three more.

Movie didn't follow comic's origin story and characters are bit different from in comics. Star-Lord is thief, who betrayed his pirate buddies to get old orb. Pirate buddies put bounty on him. Rocket the Raccoon and Groot want that bounty. Nebula want to have the orb. She has buyer for the orb. All four end up fighting each other and get caught. In prison they meet Drax the Destroyer. Drax want to hang with others because it would lead him to Ronan. Others hang together to get the orb to Nebula's buyer. When they find what orb can do, they want to give orb to someone, who doesn't want to destroy the world with it. All this time they are hunted by Ronan and Star-Lord's pirate buddies. I liked how heroes were like real persons, not someones, who do good things to make good things and how even bad people could fight for good if it served their goals.

I was bit disappointed what they did to Ronan. He wasn't as interesting as in comics. Character was faithful to comics, but it could have been more like in comics. In comics he was driven by justice and love for his race. In movie he was driven by revenge. It would have been easy to make his motivation to be his twisted view of justice. Character didn't do anything he wouldn't have done in comics, but it could have been more. At times he felt like Thanos' assistant. Gamora was also bit disappointment. She wasn't such elite assassin as in comics and she was toned down otherwise too.

Drax wasn't killing machine he was in comics, but I liked what they did with his character. Here he was dump muscle, who doesn't understand a concept of metaphor. In comics he was better with tactics and smarter. This change made Drax and Gamora feel more different. And it made movie better when Drax had his comical moments. Comic's Drax was more serious. In comics Star-Lord was doing good to do good. Here he is more in it for money and women. Rocket and Groot were like in comics. Rocket's test animal past was brought more here, but otherwise he was like in comics. In comics group was intergalactic task force operating from their base Knowhere. In movie they are group of friends adventuring together and Knowhere is Collector base.

Michael Rooker was great as Star-Lord's former pirate buddy Yondu. He was in similar role than bounty hunters in Chronicles of Riddick, but unlike them he wasn't a joke. Nebula was in smaller role than I expected. I follow few Doctor Who  groups in Facebook. That may have give me expectation of larger role for Doctor Who Actress Karen Gillan. We will probably see more of her in upcoming movies thanks to Nebula's connections to Gamora and Thanos. Prison scene should have had tons of cameos. I only saw Lloyd Kaufman. Maybe because he is only one I have seen live. Marvel studio's post credit scenes often introduce something from upcoming movies. I hope that is not the case with this movie.

Upcoming Star Wars movies will be measured against this movie.  Movie had spirit of original Star Wars trilogy with visuals of prequel trilogy. It felt prequel trilogy should have been more like this. It remains to be seen to what heights Guardians of the Galaxy will rise. End credits promised more. I surely want more. I hope others want too. It is not perfect movie, just one of the best summer block busters I have seen. Unlike most cgi heavy movies, this had interesting story and characters.

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