Movie Review: Guardians of the Galaxy

Viewing is mandatory for Guardians of the Galaxy. Yep. Absolutely required.

I was skeptical at first. The trailers suck. They don't really inspire you to want to see the movie at all. And nobody would say what the movie was about other than "It's part of the Marvel Universe". Now that I've seen it, I kind of understand why they were keeping mum.

The only things leading into this movie was the appearance of a shadowy silhouette at the end of The Avengers and Asgardians leaving something with a Collector in the end credits of Thor 2. While Hulk, Thor, Iron Man, and Captain America all got movies to build them up for The Avengers, this movie is to build up the known MacGuffin's frightful power and give us a bit more about a villain whose story lines will both probably climax in Avengers 3. 

But lets talk about the movie itself. In the first five minutes the movie brings the sadness. It's a cheap, manipulative trick, but it's more effective than "killing" Pepper Potts in Iron Man 3 or anything in Thor 2. It bonds you to our leading man more than we ever bonded with Jamie Foxx in Spiderman 2. Then it switches from that to light hearted and amusing and 22 years later. It manages to pretty effectively hold light hearted and amusing for the next 2 hours while still telling a solid story with plenty of action. This movie does what I thought The Fifth Element was going to do right up until they introduced Ruby Rod and screwed it all up. You'll find elements of Star Wars, The Chronicles of Riddick, The Fifth Element, The Avengers, The A-Team, and others while still being it's own movie. 

I'd recommend this movie even if it weren't part of the Marvel Universe. This is a good sci-fi movie even without the rest of the movies that go along with it. They got Glenn Close to do a superhero/sci-fi movie. They must have been doing something right.

If you're following the Marvel Universe movies, this movie is required viewing. If you've not seen any of the super hero movies but like a good sci-fi action flick, you're still going to love this movie.

And... about the clip at the end of the credits...
Remember, Disney now owns Marvel and all the Lucas Films properties.

p.s. - Try to guess who Karen (Amy Pond) Gillan is without checking IMDB.

p.p.s. - This movie gives me hope that they'll do Star Wars right.