The Guardians of the Galaxy were never really major players in the Marvel Universe. Originally created as superheroes of the future in order to do more science fictiony stories in 1969, they showed up as guest stars in various comics over the years, including Thor, The Defenders, and most notably Avengers during the Korvac Saga, one of the three or four greatest Avengers stories of all time in 1978 (issues #167-177).
Even the reboot of the Guardians in 2008 by Dan Abnett & Andy Lanning wasn’t a huge success, only lasting 25 issues. But then this movie came out in 2014…
The Guardians being part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe only actually happened because Nicole Perlman, who had enrolled in Marvel’s screenwriting program in 2009, chose the Guardians to write about for her screenplay assignment. She wrote two drafts before James Gunn was brought in to rewrite and direct.
The original Guardians were a motley crew of humans and aliens, including a 20th-century human named Vance Astrovik, who was in suspended animation until he was revived in the 31st century and joined the Guardians, who also included Starhawk, Aleta, Yondu, Martinex, Nikki, and Charlie-27. (The younger version of Astrovik would become the superhero Justice, a member of both the New Warriors and the Avengers.) The Guardians’ adventures often involved time travel, with either the heroes going to the 31st century or the Guardians coming to the 20th.
When Abnett & Lanning rebooted the team, they brought in a bunch of different “cosmic” Marvel characters: Star-Lord, Rocket Raccoon, Gamora, Drax the Destroyer, Groot, Quasar, and Adam Warlock. The former five were used by Perlman and Gunn for the movie, with the only original Guardian showing up being a reworked version of Yondu. (Versions of the rest of the original Guardians will appear as Ravagers in the 2017 sequel to this movie.)
Star-Lord was originally created in 1976 by Steve Englehart in Marvel Preview, and he appeared throughout the 1970s as a contemporary human having science fictional adventures in space. (It was a series of Star-Lord stories that first brought the creative team of Chris Claremont, John Byrne, and Terry Austin together, the trio that would later rise to fame on Uncanny X-Men in the late 1970s and early 1980s) Rocket Raccoon was initially created for a backup story by Bill Mantlo and Keith Giffen in a 1976 issue of Marvel Preview, but first came to prominence in The Incredible Hulk #271 (the character’s 20th anniversary issue in 1982) by Mantlo, and was inspired by the Beatles song “Rocky Raccoon.” (Rocket had a similarly Beatles-inspired sidekick named Wal Russ who was, as you might imagine, a talking walrus.) Gamora and Drax were both created by Jim Starlin in the early 1970s as part of the cosmic storyline he did mostly in Captain Marvel and also in other titles involving the ongoing battle against Thanos. Gamora was the last of her kind and raised by Thanos to be a weapon. She later betrayed him and joined the fight against the mad Titan. Drax was a human named Arthur Douglas who was killed by Thanos along with his wife when they saw him on Earth. The Titans resurrected Douglas and transformed him into Drax the Destroyer, whose sole purpose was to kill Thanos. (Douglas’s daughter survived, and was raised on Titan, and became the telepath Moondragon.) Groot predates the Marvel superhero renaissance, originally a plant creature who invaded Earth in a 1960 Tales to Astonish story by Stan Lee, Larry Lieber, and Jack Kirby.
Abnett and Lanning brought these characters, along with Quasar and Adam Warlock, together during the Annihilation: Conquest crossover event, and they briefly got their own series. They were all pretty much D-list characters, with only Warlock, Gamora, and Drax having any kind of history together (all three regularly faced off against Thanos).
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Of course, after this movie was a huge hit, the Guardians became a lot more prominent in the comics…
The movie uses several elements from the comics storylines, including Star-Lord’s being only half human (which he doesn’t learn until the end of the movie—his search for his father drives the plot of Volume 2), Thanos as a powerful manipulator who wants to gather the Infinity Stones, and Ronan the Accuser as an antagonist. In the film, Ronan is a servant of Thanos, and also is a rebel against the Kree mainstream rather than being the face of Kree justice. Gamora is still Thanos’s surrogate daughter, and we also get his other daughter, Nebula, introduced in the comics in a 1985 Avengers storyline by Roger Stern and John Buscema as Thanos’s granddaughter. We also get the world of Xandar, as well as the Nova Squadron. Created by Marv Wolfman in 1976, they were super-powered protectors of Xandar in the comics—including one human, Richard Rider, who headlined the Nova comic book. In the movie they’re non-powered, but still the protectors of Xandar.
Gunn cast Chris Pratt as Star-Lord, reworking him as younger, snottier version of the square-jawed hero Englehart created. Zoë Saldana was cast as Gamora, with Dave Bautista as Drax, reimagined as an alien whose family was killed by Ronan. Rocket and Groot are both rendered via CGI, with Sean Gunn providing the motion capture for the former; Bradley Cooper and Vin Diesel, respectively, voice the pair. Gunn also plays Kraglin, Yondu’s first mate, while Michael Rooker plays Yondu. Lee Pace, who auditioned to play Star-Lord, plays Ronan, while Karen Gillan plays Nebula and Djimon Honsou plays Korath. Glenn Close plays Nova Prime, with John C. Reilly, Peter Serafinowicz, and Sharif Atkins as other members of Nova Squadron. Christopher Fairbank plays the Broker, Melia Kreiling plays Bereet, Gregg Henry plays Star-Lord’s grandfather, and Laura Haddock plays Meredith Quill, Star-Lord’s mother. Vocal talents are also provided by Nathan Fillion (an inmate), Rob Zombie (the Ravager navigator), and Seth Green (Howard the Duck).
Back from Avengers are Alexis Denisof as the Other and the character of Thanos now played by Josh Brolin (who will play the role henceforth). Back from Thor: The Dark World are Benicio del Toro as the Collector and Ophelia Lovibond as Carina.
Pratt, Saldana, Bautista, Cooper, Diesel, Gunn, Rooker, Gillan, Henry, Haddock, and Green will all next appear in Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 2. Brolin will next appear in Avengers: Age of Ultron. Del Toro will next appear in Avengers: Infinity War. Pace and Honsou will next appear in Captain Marvel.
“I am Groot…”
Guardians of the Galaxy
Written by Nicole Perlman and James Gunn
Directed by James Gunn
Produced by Kevin Feige
Original release date: August 1, 2014
In 1988, a young boy named Peter Quill watches as his mother succumbs to cancer. He runs away from the hospital after she breathes her last, clutching his Walkman with the “awesome mix” tape inside it that Peter’s mother gave him as well as a wrapped present from her. Outside, he is kidnapped by aliens and taken away from Earth.
Twenty-six years later, Quill calls himself “Star-Lord,” and we see him stealing an orb on the planet Morag. While approaching the orb, he puts on the headphones of his Walkman and dances to “Come and Get Your Love” by Redbone.
His thievery is interrupted by Korath and his thugs, who work with the Kree renegade Ronan the Accuser. They have never heard of Star-Lord, to Quill’s disappointment, but he manages to escape anyhow. As he breaks atmosphere, he’s surprised to see that Bereet, a woman he slept with, is still on his ship. They watch a news report about the treaty that was just signed between the Kree Empire and Xandar, which is interrupted by Yondu. The leader of a group of Ravagers, Yondu is the one who kidnapped Quill in ’83, but he took Quill in and made him part of the gang. Quill working solo doesn’t sit well with Yondu at all.
Quill heads to Xandar to the broker who hired Yondu for the job. Korath reports to Ronan what happened. With Ronan are the two daughters of Thanos, Gamora and Nebula. Thanos charged Ronan with retrieving the orb, and in exchange Thanos will destroy Xandar. (Ronan objects to the treaty with Xandar and has been attacking Xandarians for weeks. Nova Prime appeals to Kree authorities to rein in their renegade, or at least officially condemn him, but the Kree think Xandar should be happy with the treaty and shut up.) Ronan sends Gamora after Quill and the orb.
Gamora ambushes Quill on Xandar, but Rocket (a genetically engineered raccoon) and Groot (a plant creature whose only way of verbally expressing himself is to say, “I am Groot”) are also there looking for easy money. They scan various folks on Xandar (including an old man who looks just like Stan Lee hitting on a younger woman), and find the bounty that Yondu has put on Quill.
The four of them tussle, with Gamora and Quill both trying to hang onto the orb and Rocket and Groot trying to nab Quill, and all four of them getting arrested by Nova Squadron, the protectors of Xandar. They’re sent to Kyln Prison.
Gamora is persona non grata in Kyln, as she works with Ronan, and a lot of people dislike him in Xandar space. Gamora insists that her intention was to betray Ronan and not give the orb to him. Quill loses his shit when he sees the personal effects guy listening to “Hooked on a Feeling” by Blue Swede on his Walkman.
One of the prisoners is Drax the Destroyer, whose wife and child were killed by Ronan. Quill convinces Drax not to kill Gamora because Ronan will probably come for her, and then Drax will get his shot at the Accuser.
Rocket plans an escape. He tells Gamora and Quill what he needs, including a prosthetic leg from one prisoner, an interface that the guards have implanted on their forearms, and a battery. But the battery has to be last as removing it will set off an alarm—which Groot sets off when he grabs the battery, as he went off to do that before Rocket gave his warning. They improvise, with Drax helping them. Gamora gets the interface and Quill gets the leg—though it turns out that part was a joke on Rocket’s part.
Once they escape—Quill diverting to retrieve his Walkman from the personal effects guy—they head to Knowhere. According to Gamora, the Collector will pay good money for the orb, which makes Quill, Groot, and Rocket happy. Drax just wants to kill Ronan, and Gamora just wants to keep the orb out of Ronan’s hands.
The Collector explains that the orb houses one of the Infinity Stones. He already has the reality stone (entrusted to him by Sif and Volstagg in Thor: The Dark World), and now he has the power stone. (The space stone is in the Tesseract on Asgard, as of the end of Avengers, and the mind stone is in Loki’s scepter, which will go from being in Hyrda’s hands to powering the Vision in Age of Ultron.) Then the Collector’s slave, Carina, grabs the stone, only to have it consume her and explode.
Drax doesn’t care about the stone, he just wants Ronan, so he goes ahead and tells the Accuser where they are. A nasty fight ensues, exacerbated by Yondu and the Ravagers showing up as well. Ronan leaves Drax for dead after beating the crap out of him, and he’s only saved by Groot. Gamora is left drifting in space, and Quill gives away his position to Yondu so they can be rescued.
Ronan has the orb now. Rather than give it to Thanos, he’s decided to destroy Xandar himself. He renounces Thanos, having already killed his lackey the Other, and heads to Xandar.
Quill has a plan to stop Ronan from destroying Xandar. The Ravagers help, as no one wants to see that world destroyed, but Yondu makes Quill promise to give him the orb when it’s all over.
Aided by Nova Squadron—many of whom are killed—the gang manages to keep Ronan occupied long enough to allow the city to be evacuated. Gamora gets into a brutal fight with Nebula, with the latter eventually escaping. Ronan’s ship plummets to the surface of Xandar, Groot expanding his form to protect the rest of them from the crash. He dies in the process, and his last words are, “We are Groot.”
Ronan is going to use the stone to destroy Xandar, but our heroes manage to distract him long enough for him to drop it, and Quill grabs it. It somehow doesn’t consume him, and Gamora, Drax, and Rocket join hands with him, and they’re able to use the stone to destroy Ronan.
Quill gives Yondu the orb, but it has a toy in it. The actual Infinity Stone is given over to Nova Squadron, who keep it in a safe. Rocket saves a sapling of Groot, which grows into a new baby Groot.
All of their criminal records are expunged, and now calling themselves by the name Ronan gave them ironically, the Guardians of the Galaxy, Quill, Rocket, Gamora, Drax (who now wants to go after Thanos, as Ronan was Thanos’s lackey), and baby Groot go off into space to try to maybe do some good. Having come frighteningly close to dying, Quill finally, after two-and-a-half decades, opens the present his mother gave him before she died: it’s another awesome mix tape. Later, Baby Groot dances to the Jackson 5’s “I Want You Back,” but only when nobody’s looking.
On Knowhere, the Collector sits dolefully in the shambles of his collection. Howard the Duck shares a drink with him.
“I am Groot!”
On the one hand, Guardians of the Galaxy shouldn’t work. These are D-list characters, even less well known than Iron Man was before 2008. Hell, the incarnation in this movie is one that deliberately brought together a bunch of characters that very little had been done with.
On the other hand, the movie follows a pretty standard and popular space opera formula—the ragtag group of people from different backgrounds who come together to have adventures on a spaceship. We’ve seen it in Andromeda, in Farscape, in Firefly and Serenity, in Blakes 7, in Cowboy Bebop, and so many other places.
There are a number of reasons why it works here, and this is in spite of a script that, when you actually take a look at it, isn’t all that great. Quill saving Gamora’s life in the prison is an important moment, but it doesn’t really feel earned, as Gamora mostly just beat the shit out of Quill. The transition from criminals out for their own gain to heroes who save a planet also never really feels earned, either from the nascent Guardians or from Yondu’s Ravagers. (Well, okay, Quill writes a note to the Nova Squadron saying, “I may be an a-hole, but I’m not a total dick,” which I guess is enough? And it does give us the great line, “They got my dick note!” Also, the moving target of acceptable profanity continues to baffle me, as they can say “shit,” but not “asshole,” apparently.) Gamora says they’re a family more than once, but they’re mostly a family because they got to that part of the script. It’s following a very strict formula, one that’s so strict that Gunn doesn’t even bother to justify the tropes.
But the movie is still charming and delightful and wonderful, and it’s primarily on the strength of the acting and directing and soundtrack. The latter is not to be undersold, as the use of music is phenomenal in this. It’s the one thing that keeps Quill sane and grounded, living away from his homeworld, it tethers him to his mother, and it also provides some of the best moments in the movie, from Quill nearly blowing the entire operation to get the Walkman back during the prison break to Baby Groot dancing to the Jackson 5.
And the acting is simply superb. Zoë Saldana plays Gamora with a brittle intensity that is very compelling. Dave Bautista is hilarious as the literal Drax, without ever losing sight of the character’s tragedy—you believe in his anger both times he attacks Ronan. Glenn Close is stellar in her brief role as Nova Prime (it feels like a science fictional version of her magnificent Captain Monica Rawling on The Shield), and John C. Reilly and Peter Serafinowicz are both tremendous fun as two other Novas. (I was disappointed that Sharif Atkins, a favorite actor of mine from his time in the casts of ER and White Collar, didn’t have more to do.) While I was initially annoyed by the casting of Michael Rooker as Redneck Yondu—a characterization that is 180 degrees from the comics character—Rooker brought me around with his wonderful performance.
And Chris Pratt is a pure delight as the center of it all. The tone for his character is perfectly set over the opening-credits (and thank you James Gunn for putting the opening credits in the opening of the movie where they’re fucking supposed to be) as he dances to “Come and Get Your Love” while going into the cave to steal the orb.
The one place the acting can’t overcome the poor writing is with most of the bad guys. Lee Pace does the best he can with Ronan, but he’s just a cardboard bad guy who wants to kill people. Snore. (Let’s hope Captain Marvel does better by an actor and a character who deserve better.) Djimon Honsou does a great job with the confused “Who?” when Quill identifies himself as Star-Lord, but is wasted otherwise. And both Alexis Denisof’s Other and Josh Brolin’s Thanos come across as ineffectual and pointless here, after both were forces to be reckoned with in Avengers.
Making up for all that, though, is the bravura performance given by Karen Gillan as Nebula. The tragedy and anger and bitterness and fury of Thanos’s second-favorite daughter is etched on Gillan’s face, even through all the prosthetics and makeup. I can’t help but think the movie would’ve been better off focusing more on her than Ronan. (Volume 2 will make up for this.)
Gillan is an absolute rock star in this, and with all that, she’s the third-best character, because the main reason why this movie is beloved and revered and an absolute joy to watch are Rocket and Groot.
While a lot of the credit has to go to voice actors Bradley Cooper—who attacks Rocket’s unapologetic obnoxiousness with gusto—and Vin Diesel—who manages to make every “I am Groot” distinctive—these characters are true collaborative efforts. Sean Gunn’s motion-capture work on Rocket and the CGI animation team’s work on Groot’s facial expressions are a big part of what make the characters work. Yes, Cooper’s fuck-you attitude helps, but the expressiveness of the CGI racoon face—from his annoyance after the decon shower (when Quill sees the implants on his back) to his barely contained laughter at trying to get Quill to take a guy’s prosthetic eye to his fury while shooting his big gun to his anger and sadness after Groot sacrifices himself—is what makes the character three-dimensional. And Groot’s unswerving loyalty—first to Rocket, then to the whole team—is very compelling, giving us one of the movie’s best moments when he declares “We are Groot” right before the ship crashes. The two completely take over the movie and make it sing. (Pun for a movie with a great soundtrack intended.)
This movie had everything going against it, starting with a mediocre script about characters who are far from the top run of Marvel’s extensive pantheon, and dammit if they didn’t make it work.
Next week, we finish off Phase 2 with an Edgar Wright film that Edgar Wright wound up not actually doing, Ant-Man.
Keith R.A. DeCandido is Groot.
Scariest 4 words in the galaxy- Quill has a plan
Both times you quoted “We are Groot” I pretty much burst into tears. Love this movie.
One thing that annoyed me is that Drax’s (and the screenwriters’) literalism seems to be selective. Gamora is not actually a “green whore,” as he claims. And when Drax asks Quill what it is they’ve been given a chance to do, and Quill answers “To give a shit,” Drax just looks thoughtfully reflective like everyone else, instead of screwing up his face in disgust (or, uh, complying literally with Quill’s suggestion). If you’re going to make a character take everything completely literally, maybe it’s worth combing over the script a few more times to make sure he’s saying things (and reacting to things being said) in line with that trait.
This is the only MCU movie I went to twice in the theater (although I’ve watched others more than twice on streaming) and it was because of the opening credits/song – I just wanted to see it a second time while knowing what came next,
I have to admit the songs where right in my alley – being 60+ years old and really into comics until they got to be 75 cents a copy and above my budget. Was not aware of Guardians of the Galaxy and but was definitely aware of Iron Man so back when Iron Man 1 came out went to see it and stayed for the aftercredits due to a rumor I had heard online. I was the only one in the theater (in Sitka Alaska) when it played. Now (almost) everyone waits for the aftercredits.
Until I rewatched it, I forgot just how much of this film was about bringing Thanos and the Infinity Stones to front & center.
I think this one suffered from unfair expectations. I wasn’t intrigued by the trailers and so I put off seeing it. When I did go see it, I was primed by lots of people saying how hilarious and good it was. So… I was very disappointed with the poor script and humor that is largely sophomoric in nature and thus hit-and-miss. I have watched it once since then and didn’t mind it as much, but it is still probably in the bottom 3 or 4 of the marvel movies for me.
I know summaries can be a pain, but man, you could have elaborated a little more on this. It was one of the more dramatic moments of the movie and one of my personal favorites.
My wife fell in love with this movie, giving me an excuse to pull her into watching Farscape, so I’ll always be grateful for that!
Kind of a shaggy movie like you say, but a charming one. That’s not easy to do; I can think of other movies that strain at being witty and charming and just come off as trying too hard. There is so much that could have gone wrong here, but it all works a lot better than it should. Even Ronan has an excellent moment at the end, when his pompous rambling gets interrupted by Quill.
There is some stuff that is easy to nitpick now, years later. Thanos is an idiot–if he wants to gather Infinity Stones, why is he just leaving them sitting around in the galaxy for two-bit thieves to pick up, or handing them out like candy to his least trustworthy minions? It’s not really the point of this movie, just an easy observation to make that comes back to bite us all hard a few years later.
And really, the Guardians are an uneasy fit with the rest of the MCU. They are a little too mean and vulgar. But it works here.
I’d also love to see an actual Nova movie (either Richard Rider or Sam Alexander), but I suppose I’ll have to be content with Captain Marvel.
Rocket was the best thing about this movie for me, and the best thing about the second one, and the best thing about Infinity War. I was completely unaware that the character existed prior to this, and I was completely unaware that Bradley Cooper voiced the character, and I was floored when I found out.
With American Sniper, this, and now A Star Is Born, Cooper has proven himself to have one hell of a flexible voice. He might be a top voice actor if he wasn’t also charismatic with movie star good looks.
This was also my first exposure to Chris Pratt, because I’ve never seen whatever the TV show he was on is called. He was funny and goofy, and it worked, but I’m not a huge fan. Hemsworth, Downey and Evans are far better.
hoopmanjh: Yeah, a Nova movie with Reilly and Close as supporting characters would be awesome. (Serafinowicz and Atkins would be awesome too if their characters weren’t dead. Stupid movie.)
—Keith R.A. DeCandido
The first Guardians is my second favorite MCU movie, narrowly losing out to Winter Soldier.
Which is crazy, all things considered. I had very low expectations walking into the theater. I just didn’t get the trailer. But it wound up be successful enough to facilitate a big shift in the MCU toward the cosmic, including gems like Thor: Ragnarok and Infinity War.
@3, they struggle with Drax a little here, but completely flub him in Guardians 2.
Once again, it’s more efficient just to post the link to my blog review than to list all my reactions here:
https://christopherlbennett.wordpress.com/2014/08/06/thoughts-on-guardians-of-the-galaxy-spoilers/
In sum, it was fun, but not as great as people say. I liked the core story of these losers coming together and bringing out the best in each other through the Power of Friendship. But the plotting was very mechanical — character is given personal failing/hangup that they overcome by bonding with the others, rinse, repeat. After a while I could see the strings being pulled. And there are just too many ideas and bits of worldbuilding that seemed interesting but didn’t have room to be developed adequately. And Ronan is the most superficially written villain in the entire MCU. I’ve seen plastic wrap with more depth and texture.
That screencap of Star-Lord’s arrest record bothers me. “1 count sex crime?” “Illegal manipulation” of a duchess? Okay, the intent was probably that it was a consensual act that was misunderstood or violated some unjust law or something, but it makes it sound like this guy we’re supposed to be rooting for is a rapist. It’s an unfortunate choice of joke to put there.
Really? I thought Gillen’s acting was BAD BAD BAD in this movie. All she does throughout the whole movie is yell and grunt. Like, why can’t Nebula just give orders instead of screaming them at the top of her lungs all the time? While I agree that she is much better in Volume 2, I have never once thought that she anywhere near good in this movie.
Anthony Pero: with very few exceptions, every main character in an MCU movie is derived from a comics character, including pretty much every character in this movie. The only completely original main characters I can think of off the top of my head are Eric Selvig, Darcy, and Phil Coulson. (And Coulson was based on a longtime S.H.I.E.L.D. agent Jasper Sitwell, which made it very confusing when Agent Sitwell showed up, and then turned out to be a traitor.)
—Keith R.A. DeCandido
@krad
John C Reilly is great in any role and even in bad movies he’s a character you want to see
Speaking of actors – one of the reasons I went to see Iron Man I was because of Robert Downey Jr – he was not an A list then but his roles in Kiss Kiss Bang Bang and Wonderboys told me I’d want to see this.
As for Karen Gillan – her role in Guardians I may be one note but it sets her up as a deeply traumatized character who at that time has only one note – which expands in the latter.
(I did find the fit between Guardians and Infinity War less than satisfactory – Rocket and Groot play out but Star-Lord is merely snarky and not satisfying to me.
IMHO, a big reason this movie works is because it’s (a) so different from any prior MCU movie, and (b) from any recent space opera movie. It scratches a sensawunda itch — colorful aliens, brightly-lit non-dystopic alien cities, spaceships conceptualized by cover artist Stephan Martinère.
Same as with Avatar (2009) — a fraction of the audience prioritizes colorful visuals over originality of story. (It’s possible they value original stories, but are content to obtain it from written SF/F whereas they accept movies for a different reason.)
Chris Pratt is great in Parks & Recreation, which is well worth watching. Between that and GOTG I think he probably works better as a member of an ensemble with a lot of people to bounce off than he does as an action lead.
I think the observation about Drax’s literalism not making much sense gets at the main weakness of the GOTG characters: they are underwritten and underdeveloped. Characters like Iron Man, Captain America, Spider-Man, and even Thor have decades of characterization to draw inspiration from, but the Guardians are really ahead of the comics in defining who these characters are.
The result is that we don’t really know much about them. There is a lot suggested about Drax’s past, but other than his anger there isn’t much we understand about him. Peter Quill is inherently a half-formed man; his shallowness is his defining character trait, basically an eight-year old in a man’s body. Gamora suffers the worst; we get the impression that her utter competence and serious demeanor are massive shields she had to build to protect herself, but those shields never really comes down enough for us to know her. Which also explains I guess why Nebula is a raw bundle of nerves.
I am Groot.
So freakin’ Rocket Raccoon actually comes across as the most nuanced member of the core team!
I knew of the original Guardians, but had never read the comic, nor any of the comics with the characters that formed the second group; a friend of mine was more familiar and eager for the movie as he really liked the revamped group. Still, I was stoked for this, and was not disappointed. Really loved the characters.
With this and the success of Thor, I knew Marvel could do any of their characters. These two were probably the riskiest moves Marvel made, as the cosmic level Marvel stuff can be so out there and bizarre. They managed to make it palatable to a wide audience.
@13 Christopher: Isn’t that type of humor what got James Gunn into trouble? (whether or not you agree the anger/reaction was justified)
I appreciate those who are giving there reasons for enjoying the movie. It’s nice to see the other perspectives. I agree with those (like @18 Colin) who say that Rocket was actually the most developed character.
I did have a few of the original Star-Lord issues of Marvel Premiere back in the day, but the character is almost entirely unlike Chris Pratt in the movie. I think I also had the 4-issue Rocket Raccoon miniseries, which was … weird.
This is probably my least favorite Marvel Studios movie (well, Civil War and Winter Soldier and this one’s sequel are down there)
Let’s go to the Keystone Quadrant in a future volume. :D
I’m sorry, the what? There’s a screenwriting program? Is it still around, and is it open to the public?
I’m in the “like a lot, but don’t love” camp on this one. Keith is right about the script – and especially the main villain – being weak.
The music does a lot to sell the kind of movie this is. None of it is the sort of music I’d usually listen to, but damned if it doesn’t work here.
The best performance here is definitely Bradley Cooper and the crew of animators that brought Rocket to life. The worst? A tie between Benecio Del Toro as the Collector and Lee Pace as Ronan the Accuser.
@25, del Toro was awesome, so very weird, it was a delight. I liked that even characters in the movie found him bizarre, especially the talking raccoon with a machine gun.
Ronan has got to be the textbook example of the stereotype people hold of MCU villains, which is a shame because the character from the comics is pretty solid and not just a xenophobic, genocidal maniac.
Pretty spectacular movie otherwise though.
I loved this movie. They took a chance with it and it worked beautifully. I fell in love with the trailer than had a raccoon with a machinegun on a tree! A raccoon with a machinegun! You have to see this move!!!!!
I do agree with the villains being rather boring. It seems to be the major weakness of the superhero movies, both Marvel and DC. Ronan came off poorly and I just didn’t feel anything for the guy. At least with Loki I could say “what a prick”, but Ronan? Nothing.
I have a couple of peeves against the main cast. He’s supposed to be DRAX THE DESTROYER and he turns out to be the Drax the Guy Who Got Destroyed. Very disappointing. And I just didn’t buy Gamora in the Kyln scenes. She’s supposed to be this ultimate weapon created by Thanos, with a rep throughout the galaxy to match, and she looks like a frightened kid in the Kyln. She should be defiant, staring down the loser with the janky teeth, not cowering on her bed in her cell.
@28 I think the point is that Gamora feels like she deserves their hate and doesn’t want to fight back. Possibly the writers think she wouldn’t be sympathetic if she showed zero vulnerability the entire film. Even Gamora, with no weapons, isn’t guaranteed to survive a fight with an entire prison against her.
The problem is that the writing expects us to extrapolate her backstory from one or two comments instead of showing us. It works if you have an overactive imagination like I do and if you don’t think too much about it.
@28: To be fair, she’s totally surrounded by enemies with (initially) little hope of escape. Gamora’s a superb killer, but she’s also smart enough to not provoke one of her many many nearby enemies. I would also bet that she would take the opportunity to lay low in order to to come up with an escape plan.
Whoops, meant @29
That yellow in the lead picture is very unbecoming to everybody wearing it, including the racoon!
princessroxana: Well, they are prison jumpsuits. Not really meant to be flattering….
—Keith R.A. DeCandido
I do not remember whether I had actually seen the trailer, but I remember that I knew Chris Pratt from “Everwood” and when I saw him here, my first reaction was: “Wow! Somebody has grown up!”
As with basically every MCU movie, I loved this movie and the characters (though I was annoyed to find out that I cannot look at Quill QUITE the same way during rewatches after the stunt he pulled in “Infinity War”, however much the script might have demanded it). I’m not always into space operas, but this was light and fun, with superb using of music, as mentioned, and it did bring the Infinity Stones (of which I knew very little until then) into focus.
And echoing others, there is no denying the genius that are Rocket and Groot. We are Groot … *chills*
I remember the raccoon was supposed to be the breakout character … but we are Groot.
Doesn’t The Broker appear in Thor: Ragnarok? And isn’t Korath also in Captain Marvel?
A few folks have mentioned the trailer, which I think may be one of the greatest trailers ever made, in any genre. Turning the bass drum beat from “Hooked on a Feelin'” into machine-gun fire? That’s genius, and I will not hear a word against it.
I’m enough of a Marvel nerd to have previous familiarity with most of these characters — mostly Gamora, Drax, and Nebula, but I’d also read Rocket’s appearances in Hulk, and his mini-series. So I was kind of bummed that the adventurous, happy-go-lucky space ranger was turned into an angry, foul-mouthed, gun fanatic. But Cooper’s portrayal is sympathetic enough that I can believe in a Rocket who used to be easy-going, but suffered a terrible tragedy to make him the way he is now.
LazerWulf: No and yes. Will fix the latter. Yay edit function!
—Keith R.A. DeCandido
@37 — Was that the first trailer to have gunfire synchronized to the soundtrack? I remember seeing a number of others in recent years — some of the more recent Fast & Furious movies spring to mind.
The movie working is probably about 90 – 95% due to the soundtrack. :P But seriously, like you say Keith, it really can’t be undersold how much the music carries this film.
Also, this is the second movie in which frelling Vin Diesel made me cry!!! And on every rewatch of either one I’m always ‘Baaaahhhh’!!!
treebee72: I gotta ask, what was the other Vin Diesel moment that made you cry?
—Keith R.A. DeCandido
@41: “Suuuupermaaaan”
(I can only assume.)
I love this movie. I also totally almost missed the mark. The trailer originally turned me off from the movie and I was convinced this would be Marvel’s first flop. Boy, was I wrong., and happily so.
Bobby
@41 – Saving Private Ryan maybe?
I enjoyed this movie, it is exactly the sort of movie that sits in my sweet spot, but because it is something I enjoyed so exactly, I just do not have a lot to say about it other than I enjoyed this movie.
@37
My favourite one for that is the Netflix trailer for The Punisher season 1, which is absolutely superbly choreographed to the music.
@37: Maybe Rocket is disgusted and disillusioned to have learned he and the other sentient animals of the Keystone Quadrant were pets genetically modified by robots to take over their job of looking after the patients of a world-sized asylum.
@38 krad: Ah, my mistake. I was confusing him with Carlo. Side-by-side they don’t look alike, though somehow my brain conflated the two.
“Once they escape—Quill diverting to retrieve his Walkman from the personal effects guy” You forgot to mention that this part is to the tune of “Escape (The Piña Colada Song)”, which, while the song has nothing to do with Escaping from prison, is still an apt choice. Also, getting hyped up for the battle to “Cherry Bomb”, and the dance battle to “Ooh, Child”.
I remember when this came out, I predicted that it would beat the TMNT reboot (which opened the following week) at the box office. I was partly right, as TMNT won it’s opening weekend, but GotG reclaimed the crown the following week.
I still think this is one of my favorite MCU films, despite it’s flaws.
Fun cameo in the prison — Lloyd Kaufman
My headcanon for Thanos’s strange behavior in these films is Odin: if Thanos had just gone for the stones, Odin and the full might of Asgard (including Hel if really pushed) would have stopped him. Only when the Asgardians are greatly reduced does he make his move.
Random bits:
James Gunn tried to have Nicole Perlman’s name removed as screenplay credit, claiming he changed the script enough that he should get sole credit. Think that failed in arbitration with the Writers Guild. That makes Gunn a shit. he was so possessive of his Guardians that he insisted at the time they would never cross over with the Avengers and he’d keep them in his own corner of the MCU. That makes him delusional if he actually believed that. I want a Guardians 3 but not really concerned by his departure.
Adam Warlock should’ve been a part of the series already. Also, been wanting a Nova solo movie since this came out. (Nova and Firestorm were my favorite characters when I started reading comics in the 70s.)
Was skeptical that a Guardians movie would work, but as soon as the trailer blasted “ooga chaka… ooga chaka…” I knew it’d be a fun ride. My girlfriend was becoming a MCU fan by that time, but she said, “No. I am not going to see a movie with a talking racoon.” Repeatedly. After dragging her to the movie, she loved it.
My initial reaction to hearing this one announced was “…Who?” but yes, they made it work. I kind of went into it with no expectations so was impressed by the humour and the characterisation. It might be a collection of standard team-coming-together tropes but it manages to triumph by mocking and highlighting those tropes, such as Quill pointing out the blindingly obvious that he wants to stop the galaxy being destroyed because he’s in the galaxy. I love the way that the cliched scene of everyone signing onto the plan by standing up and making speeches about why they’re going to help ends with Rocket going “Well, now I’m standing. You all happy? We’re all standing up now. Bunch of jackasses, standing in a circle.” And at the end where they’re trying to ascertain what’s legal and what isn’t and Dey’s mounting horror that he’s relying on Quill to stop Drax ripping out anyone’s spinal column.
It’s not the deepest movie ever but it has a heart and the sense not to take itself too seriously.
“While I was initially annoyed by the casting of Michael Rooker as Redneck Yondu—a characterization that is 180 degrees from the comics character—Rooker brought me around with his wonderful performance.”
Having not read the comics, I’d like to know how Yondu was originally characterized.
@37 Speaking of trailers, have you seen this one?
Matthew: Initially, Yondu was written in the “noble savage” stereotype. The four original Guardians — Astro, Martinex, Charlie-27, and Yondu — were all the last of their kind and led a rebellion against the Badoon, lizard-like aliens who had taken over the solar system. Yondu’s people were Native American stand-ins, more or less, who fought with arrows that could change direction based on particular whistles. (That much they kept for the MCU version.) Later, they moved away from that particular characterization, but he was still always a fairly noble, regal character.
—Keith R.A. DeCandido
@55/krad: I guess that explains the Mohawk-like head fin.
It was when I saw this movie that I realized that I was totally out of sync with the rest of MCU fandom. I loved Thor: The Dark World, which (except for you) is loudly castigated. And my reaction to this (except for Howard’s cameo, which was great) was a loud: “Meh.” The problem is that it tries too hard. It’s too self aware. I’m as post-modern as the next Thomas Pynchon fan, but it just fell flat for me. The plot is pure paint by the numbers. The characterizations are maudlin. The Rocket Raccoon joke zoomed over the heads of everyone under 60, so to me the character seemed pointless. (I do have to admit that I liked him a lot better verbally sparring with Thor in Infinity Wars, so there was potential, it just wasn’t brought out in this movie.) Finally, the mixtape, and this is a personal issue that isn’t the fault of the filmmakers. You can’t please everyone. I was in my 40s during the ’80s heyday of the music featured here, so that just didn’t resonate with me. You want to have nostalgia work its magic on me, try some Jefferson Airplane, Pink Floyd’s 1st or 2nd albums (Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun would have been a nice touch), The Byrds before they went country, The Kinks when they were still on Reprise. The Small Faces. At the risk of being called a curmudgeon (which is possible), I didn’t recognize half of the songs.
@57: I don’t know how many of the songs are from the ‘80s. “Cherry Bomb” is from 1976, the Blue Swede “Hooked in a Feeling is from ‘74 … The sequel has ELO’s “Mr. Blue Sky” and George Harrison’s “My Sweet Lord” from the early 1970s.
For me, these films had some of the best soundtracks since “Pulp Fiction” and “Kill Bill.” It’s obvious that Gunn put a ton of thought into the music for both films.
The music has always been my favorite part of this movie. Especially after we realized that Peter is a Bard.
William: Your age in the 1980s is irrelevant, as all the songs in the movie were released in the late 1960s and early to mid-1970s, plus one outlier in 1979.
1967: “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough”
1968: “Hooked on a Feeling”
1969: “I Want You Back”
1970: “O-o-h Child”
1971: “Moonage Daydream”
1972: “Go All the Way”
1974: “Come and Get Your Love”
1975: “Fooled Around and Fell in Love,” “I’m Not in Love”
1976: “Cherry Bomb”
1979: “Escape (The Pina Colada Song)”
—Keith R.A. DeCandido
Space is the 1980*s….and it works. They push it even harder in the next Thor as well.
*Yes the music is earlier than that….but look at the costumes of the cast, and look at Quill’s age, tastes and pop culture references. Not to mention that 1970s being popular in the 80s makes sense.
Guardians may have a forgettable villain, but the overall world was so well put together I barely noticed that flaw. It all comes down to some solid casting, great performances, and a lively direction from James Gunn. It has a swashbuckling feel of adventure and it’s a tale of a family coming together. It just works beautifully, for the most part, even if the plot itself is a case of been there, done that.
Gamora is particularly unique since her presence jumpstarts the Thanos arc that will pay off in Infinity War. And Saldana dives into the role. Cooper and Sean Gunn own most of the film as Rocket. Bautista shows some surprising range as Drax, both in comedy and in the heavy moments. Groot is a highlight. And Pratt has come a long way since his laid back comic foil days from Everwood, The O.C. and Parks and Rec. This cast holds the viewer.
Overall, a nice change of pace and atmosphere (way more lively than the Thor entries up to that point).
@@@@@ KRAD – sorry I was offline most of the weekend, but SaltManZ got it. Iron Giant turns me into blubbering mess every time.
Just a fan theory here, but if you look at all the songs together —
Given that his mom picked them out specifically for him, they paint an interesting picture of her, because they’re ALL about his father or their relationship. And Peter seems to be the surprise “cherry bomb” (probably, since she doesn’t come across as one, but ymmv. Perhaps her “bad girl” perception of dating a demigod?) It does require you to look outside the regular meanings of the songs a bit. Most of the second movie’s songs follow this also. (Not sure where Fox on the Run was going to fit, but it isn’t actually in the movie either, so … )
@57, William, these are the songs that Meredith Quill listened to in her youth, so they would naturally be from the late 60s and early 70s rather than from the 80s.
@11, krad, I too think Serafinowicz is a terrific actor and needs to be in more things – although he’s not exactly doing badly for himself, he’s a moderately-famous comedian and comic actor in the UK, completely outside of his numerous pop culture bona fides like being the original voice of Darth Maul. He voices Kang the Conqueror in the LEGO Marvel Super Heroes 2 video game, and easily blows the rest of the (mostly movie soundalike) voice cast away. (Kang’s first act in that game is to launch an attack on Xandar, which is defended by the Guardians of the Galaxy – a nice bit of role reversal for Serafinowicz!)
Nice review! It basically highlights every positive aspect of this movie.
I LOVE Guardians of the Galaxy. Yet HATED the sequel, I’m afraid. Not even Kurt Russell could save that mess, and that’s saying something.
Having rewatched Infinity War over the weekend, I’m struck by how little payoff there really is to Gamora’s character. Part of that is because I don’t think James Gunn was ever very interested in tying the GOTG into the greater MCU thing. But both GOTG movies seem peculiarly uninterested in Gamora, even here. She rebels from Thanos’s service, but why? What kind of relationship did she have with him? He refers to her even here as his favorite daughter, but what does that mean? Do they have a favorite movie they watch together? Do they have awkward dinners? If he has been raising her from childhood to commit genocide, then has she been complicit in helping him wipe out planets? At what point does she decide this isn’t for her? What does she even plan on doing with the money?
Nebula is so much easier to understand; her pain and resentment is literally written all over her body. Gamora is central to moving the plot forward, but it’s never entirely clear why she is doing anything.
One of the joys of these movies for me is having a daughter growing up with them. So this was a big hit for us and her mom loves that this era of music got into heavy rotation along with more modern pop. It was also nice for her to be excited that a woman wrote (the first drafts of) this. We got to see Michael Rooker at Dragon Con and that guy is a complete hoot!
Small note: The beginning of the movie takes place in 1988, not ’83 (making the twenty-six years later 2014, the year of release).
Jaythree: Thank you! I proofed this damn thing twice, and I missed that typo both times. Sigh.
—Keith R.A. DeCandido
Agreed, Keith. The script is simple and sometimes forced, but the dialogue and acting, plus the directing and music, are charming as hell. The music, of course, is a great addition, and not just as window dressing. The worst is Lee Pace, who is completely wasted as Ronan. Guy was awesome in Halt And Catch Fire.
The talking raccoon and tree, with their success, made it obvious that the general movie-going audience was ready for anything, and that was a good thing.
While I do like Rooker as Redneck Yondu, I continue to lament that a character who is unequivocally a hero in the comics has been turned into this. Even if they try to whitewash him in V2 (and yes, he saved Peter from Ego), this Yondu abused Quill. Yes, other characters, like Quill, are very different from their comic counterpart, but at least they are decent people.
@15 – krad: If we’re going to consider Selvig and particularly Darcy as “main characters” (and Coulson is only main on TV), then you also have to count Luis and the other two guys in Ant-Man’s crew, since I believe they’re also original characters to the MCU.
@51 – Sunspear: That’s really shitty of Gunn.
@70 – krad: At least you can edit. I just had a short comic published today, and while I proofed it several times over the course of a few months before it saw print, I only saw a lettering mistake I made today, while looking at the published pages.
Oh, Magnus, ouch. Once did that on a flyer series, noting that three other people proofed the art before a test print, and they and another 4 before going to full print… I noticed it on the second print run… fortunately they were only small runs, so only 20k in… Don’t Worry Keith, 8’s and 3’s are close enough that they can be switched out in known dates and most people will never notice. We certainly didn’t!
GotG is awkward for me. From the time I saw the first trailer I knew it would be an enjoyable waste of time for me, but it was always my (ex)partner’s thing. He’s the one that liked the GotG comics, though as kids of that time, the music and ‘feel’ of the movie came across well to both of us. I certainly don’t feel I’ve actually wasted any of my time watching the film, but I’d be lying if I said I particularly like it either. There’s a little too much childishness to it for me
Not as in the optimism, or the bright colourful appearance, but in the jokes and personalities. Honestly, I often find myself watching the film in the way Ronan looks at Quill when he starts the dance-off, especially with regard to Pratt’s man-baby portrayal of Star-Lord; which is even more uncomfortable for me as my partner literally idolised that about him, and his own immaturity was a factor in our eventual break-up. Not a large factor by any means, just not quite adult enough me.
Of course, my own mother says I was born a grumpy old fart…
@37 – Yes, that early 4-issue miniseries (recently re-issued in graphic-novel form) was my first introduction to Rocket, and I loved it. (Drawn by Mike Mignola, before he became famous for Hellboy!) I was annoyed when the Guardians comics decided to ignore that prior continuity in favor of a constantly surly, trigger-happy Rocket (which the movie version was then based on). Any time your hero-protagonist has a tagline of “Bam! Murdered you!”, you’ve got problems…
This might be my favorite phase 2 movie from a pure enjoyment perspective. While I can admit Winter Soldier is probably better, it’s a bit heavy. But I enjoy this one as it’s colorful, fun, I enjoy the space opera genre, and as somebody who really loves music, soundtracks and score (and grew up listening to classic rock), the use of music in the story (not just as a soundtrack, but as a part of the story) is one of my favorite parts.
Before you got it, when you got to the acting part, I was like BUT WHAT ABOUT NEBULA! I just really enjoy the intensity she brings to everytihng. It might be something I noticed in the second movie (or maybe it was in Avengers: IW), but there were a lot of scenes where people were having more or less normal conversations but then every line out of her mouth was just inordinately intense and dramatic and I loved it.
The one thing that really made me jump out of the movie, though, was when Drax calls Gamora a ‘green whore’. I don’t always tend to be a person who picks up on those kinds of things, but it really, really bothered me. It was such a casual use of a loaded, pejorative term for laughs, and it didn’t even make sense, because I never got any impression that Gamora literally sells her body for money in a sexual way, which is what ‘whore’ clearly implies, especially to the audience. I mean, I guess you could say being an assassin means you are selling your body for money, but in that case, there’s a perfectly good word to use for it already. It just seemed like a way to slip in a ‘ha ha, we just called our character a whore’ joke and it left a bad taste in my mouth.
@74/Lisamarie: My impression is that there was a scene in the prison where one of the inmates called Gamora a whore, and Drax repeating that later was just meant to be more of him taking things literally. But I can’t find the earlier moment in the dialogue transcripts online, so maybe it was in a trailer but was cut out in the final film (since trailers are often made from available footage before the final edit is settled on). If so, then it makes it even worse to cut out the setup and just leave Drax’s line in as a random thing.
Even so, it seems like dumb setup simply to get away with calling your (ostensibly) ‘strong female character’ a whore, ha ha ha. It’s funny, I typically don’t get as up in arms over all the same things the fandom does, or interpret things in the same way – for better or worse – (see: the Black Widow/sterilization issue which really did not strike me as nefarious at all) but I remember sitting on the couch watching this movie and sitting straight up at that moment and feeling like it just came out of nowhere and just was totally uncalled for/unfunny.
What’s weird about this movie is that as an adaptation of Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning’s comic book, it fails. The characters are unrecognizable from their comic counterparts, and the tone is far more crass and irreverent. It didn’t capture the spirit of the comics it was adapting at all. If anything, this was Farscape: The Movie.
And yet, there’s one undeniable thing: it’s because of this movie that I actually went and sought out those comics in the first place. The simple fact is that while this fails as an adaptation, it succeeds brilliantly at being an entertaining movie. It probably helps that I love Farscape, but that doesn’t diminish the accomplishments of James Gunn and his cast. This is a great thrill ride with characters you love because they’re such screw-ups. These are the last people you’d want guarding the galaxy, which makes watching them have to come together and do it a delight. They’re the ultimate underdogs of the MCU, and that’s what makes them so lovable.
pcarl: Here’s the thing — a lot of the MCU interpretations don’t match that of the comics, starting with the very first one. People forget this, because they love RDJ’s performance so much, but Robert Downey Jr. is basically nothing like the comic book Tony Stark. Personality-wise, he’s closer to Hawkeye, which is why they had to completely redo Clint Barton’s personality, because the comic-book version is too close to the MCU version of Stark…..
In addition, Stephen Strange, Scott Lang, Thor, James Rhodes, Sam Wilson are significantly changed from their comic book counterparts. As are, basically, all the Guardians of the Galaxy, as you point out….
—Keith R.A. DeCandido
@78 Fair enough. I guess it just stands out to me more with these movies because it feels more radical to me. Perhaps I need to brush up more on the old comics.