Hello everyone and welcome back to Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) Rewatch Month! We are throughly in MCU Phase Two now after our rewatch from last night, Captain America: The Winter Solider. Today’s rewatch is another great MCU movie, Guardians of the Galaxy. Fasten your seatbelts as we’re going to jump right in and remember, spoilers are ahead!
Guardians of the Galaxy premiered on August 1st, 2014 and made a worldwide gross of $774,176,600. It’s rated PG-13 and has a run time of 121 minutes. Guardians of the Galaxy is the tenth film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
“You said it yourself, bitch. We’re the guardians of the galaxy.”
Peter Quill/Star Lord, Guardians of the Galaxy
Recap:
Our movie opens on Earth 1988 where a young Peter Quill is abducted by a group of Ravagers, or space pirates, led by Yondu, after his mother’s death. Open credits roll and we are now watching twenty six years later where Quill is stealing a mysterious orb but is attacked by Korath, a follower of the terrorist Kree leader, Ronan. Quill escapes but has stolen the orb from a deal Yondu was going to make, leading Yondu to put a bounty out of Quill. Meanwhile, Ronan sends assassin and daughter of Thanos, Gamora, to go collect the orb.
Quill tries to sell the orb on Xander but is attacked by Gamora. Their fight draws the attention of Rocket Raccoon, a genetically modified raccoon, and Groot,a sentient tree, who are two bounty hunters that are after the bounty on Quill. The four fight and are captured by the Nova Corp and are sent to the Kyln prison. While there they meet Drax the Destroyer, who attempts to kill Gamora because she is working for Ronan, who murdered Drax’s family. Quill convinces Drax not to kill Gamora because Ronan will need to come and collect her. Gamora tells the group that she has betrayed Ronan and has a buyer for the orb. Our five anti-heroes escape the prison on Quill’s ship, the Milano, and head to Knowhere, a mining outpost in the giant severed head of a Celestial.
Meanwhile, Ronan meets with Gamora’s adoptive father, Thanos, to discuss the betrayal. Ronan must work with another daughter of Thanos, a cyborg named Nebula, to retrieve the orb and Gamora. The group on Knowhere meet with Gamora’s contact, the collector Taneleer Tivan, who explains that inside the orb lies the Power Infinity Stone. A drunken Drax contacts Ronan to get his revenge. Ronan arrives and beats Drax while Nebula chases the rest of the gang in mining ships. Gamora ends up stranded in space and Nebula gets the orb. Quill follows Gamora and gives her his helmet to survive, and before Quill can die, Yondu retrieves the pair.
Quill and Gamora negotiate a truce with Yondu, they will work together to get the Orb from Ronan and Yondu can have the orb. Rocket, Groot, and Drax join the team on the Avenger ship and discuss their plan, saying that Ronan cannot be trusted with an Infinity Stone but to attempt to get it back is certain death. Ronan decides to keep the Infinity Stone for himself, rather than honor his arrangement with Thanos of giving the orb to him, and imbeds the stone in his war-hammer. Ronan tells Thanos he will destroy Xandar first and then come from Thanos; Nebula agrees to help him.
The Ravagers and Quill’s group attack Ronan’s ship and, after sending a warning message to the Nova Corps, are joined by them as well. Ronan uses his Infinity Stone powered war-hammer to destroy the Nova Corps fleet, but Drax and Gamora are able to defeat Korath and Nebula. They try to shoot down Ronan but are overpowered until Rocket crashes his ship into Ronan. Groot sacrifices himself to protect his friends as Ronan’s ship crashes down onto Xander.
Ronan emerges from the wreckage, ready to destroy Xander, when Quill distracts him with a dance-off long enough for Rocket and Drax to destroy Ronan’s war-hammer. Quill grabs the Infinity Stone and, with the help of Gamora, Drax, and Rocket to hold the burden of the power stone, kills Ronan.
Yondu is tricked by Quill into taking an orb supposedly containing the power stone, it instead holds a troll doll. As the Ravagers leave, they comedically say that it worked out well that they never delivered Peter to his dad, since his dad is “an asshole.” Quill and his team, known now as the Guardians of the Galaxy, hand over the Infinity Stone to the Move Corp and have their criminal records expunged. Quill also learn that he is only half-human, not completely sure what his father is. Quill also finally opens up his mother’s final gift, a cassette of Awesome Mix Volume 2 songs. The Guardians leave in the rebuilt Milano along with sapling Groot.
We do get one end credits scene of the Collector sitting in his destroyed lab with Howard the Duck, an easter egg for Marvel Comics fans.
Review:
This is honestly one of my favorite MCU movies. It does such a great job of world-building, the planets look amazing and we get to see many different alien species. We also finally get off of Earth and Asgard, which most of the Thor movies do have Earth settings as well, which is a change in pace for the MCU. I think everyone can agree that the Guardians of the Galaxy soundtrack is the best soundtrack in the MCU and the music somehow fits perfectly with the scenes in the movie.
Our characters are all lovable assholes, from the womanizing Quill to loudmouth Rocket. Groot becomes a fan favorite despite being a killer sentient tree and Drax’s inability to understand metaphors is a frequently used comic relief. Even the Ravagers, who are the side-villains of the movie are hilarious in their scenes.
Guardians of the Galaxy is a nice change in pace for superhero movies as a whole; before the genre held a dramatic tone mostly with humor sprinkled in. For Guardians, this is solely a comedic film with sprinkled in drama. It shakes up the viewers understanding of the superhero genre the second the opening credits roll and Peter Quill starts dancing in a cave.
This movie also skyrocketed Chris Pratt to become an action movie star. Before he was just the funny guy from Park and Rec, now he’s in various action franchises, from the MCU to Jurassic World. Pratt does a great job at showing how Quill isn’t necessarily a superhero like Captain America or Iron Man, he’s a mostly average dude who can shoot well in space.
Why is this important?
This is the firs movie to really introduce Thanos as our big bad for the franchise. He’s hanging out in space, trying to collect the Infinity Stones and dealing with making smaller villains his henchmen of sorts. We’re also introduced to the daughters of Thanos, Gamora and Nebula, in this movie, who are quick to turn against their father – showing viewers that Thanos is so bad even his daughters want to kill him.
This movie is also the movie to introduce the concept of the Infinity Stones. Before this we had only heard of the Infinity Stones in passing during the end credits scene of Thor: The Dark World. The Infinity Stones play a crucial part in the MCU, so it’s important that we begin to understand what they are and the power they can yield.
Do I need this for Endgame?
I would say yes. With the introduction to Thanos in this film, as well as the Infinity Stones, it’s important to understand who and what they are for Infinity War and Endgame. This is also the origin story for the Guardians, who appear in later MCU films, as well as Endgame. Definitely give this a rewatch before going into Endgame, you won’t regret it!
Rating:
I’m rating the films as I watch them. The current ranking stands as:
- Guardians of the Galaxy
- Captain America: The Winter Solider
- The Avengers
- Captain America: The First Avenger
- Iron Man
- Iron Man 2
- Iron Man 3
- The Incredible Hulk
- Thor
- Thor: The Dark World
This movie beats Captain America: The Winter Solider by a small margin. What made Guardians higher for me than Winter Solider is the comedy in Guardians, it makes the film an easier (and funner) rewatch than Winter Solider. Guardians is also a standalone film, whereas you sort of need to be familiar with Steve Roger’s history to get into Winter Solider.
There we have it, my recap and review on Guardians of the Galaxy? What did you think of the film? Leave your thoughts in the comments below! Make sure to tune in next time for our second Avengers film, Avengers: Age of Ultron!
Jen Pereira 