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Michael After Midnight: Guardians of the Galaxy

So as you may well know, I loved Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2. I can safely say it’s my favorite movie ever made… or one of them, anyway. While I do think it is marginally better, there is a marginally there, and I gotta be honest, I still love part one just as much in its own way. Guardians of the Galaxy is one of the coolest, freshest, and most out-there superhero comic book movies of the past decade, and a stylish change of pace for the sometimes very formulaic MCU.

But who could have guessed that? The MCU was known for taking the less famous heroes in its roster (Since they didn’t have Spider-Man, the X-Men, or the Fantastic Four to work with) and turn them into juggernaut blockbusters, but did anyone really guess that they could take a bunch of characters as obscure as the Guardians and make a quality film with them? And that’s not the only reason this movie was a gamble; this movie was almost totally detached from the rest of the MCU and its overarching plot, with the appearances of Thanos and the Collector (both of whom only appear in a single scene, though the Collector also pops up in a post-credits stinger) being the only connection to other movies, and even then, both characters were relegated to stingers to foreshadow future movies anyway! And then you have to throw in the fact that the movie is directed and written by a guy who directed cult movies and the horrendous Movie 43, the fact that one character is a talking tree, the fact another character is a talking raccoon who uses guns, and the fact the MCU is locked out of using characters like the Skrulls, Galactus, and the Silver Surfer… you can kinda see why this was a risky move on their part.

But oh boy, did it ever pay off. Rave reviews, audience love, and people hyped for more… it’s safe to say that Guardians is one of the best films in the entire MCU, and it really set itself up as a nearly impossible act to follow, which is all the more impressive seeing as it came after Captain America: The Winter Soldier, ANOTHER very tough act to follow. So, now that we have all this context, why are Peter Quill and his rambling gang of space jerks so endearing and enjoyable? Well, here’s the story:

Peter Quill was a young Earth boy taken in by the alien Yondu and his band of Ravagers on the eve of his mother’s death by brain tumor. Decades later, Peter is all grown up and calling himself Star-Lord, and is now about space pirating. Unfortunately for him, the latest trinket he stole (and left Yondu out of the loop on) is something that the Mad Titan himself, Thanos, is looking for. Thanos sends his daughter Gamora out to retrieve it, and at the same time, bounty hunters Rocket and Groot decide to take Quill in for the price on his head. All of them fight and end up in prison, where they meet Drax the Destroyer, a man who desires vengeance against Ronan the Accuser, a fanatical Kree renegade who serves Thanos. These unlikely allies decide to team up to escape the prison they’re trapped in and head off to sell the object for massive amounts of cash; however, Ronan is hot on their tails, desiring the object for himself. Can these knuckleheads stop bickering long enough to make some big bucks, or is Ronan going to destroy them all?

The biggest selling point for this movie is how weird it is in comparison to the rest of the MCU. Due to its weird, cosmic nature, Guardians gets to throw in stuff you’d never see anywhere else. We have Rocket, the gun-toting raccoon; Groot, the talking tree man who can only say “I am Groot” and who acts as Rocket’s bodyguard and best pal; we have Drax, an alien who literally cannot grasp the concept of metaphors and jokes; and then we have weird cameos from Cosmo the Russian space dog and, most famously, Howard the Duck. The only reason it’s easy to swallow Howard being here is because he only appears in the stinger to a movie that has featured the aforementioned gun-toting raccoon seriously; he’s the perfect capstone to this awesomely strange film.

But hey, this film is more than just weird and wacky characters; it has a kickass soundtrack, too! “Hooked on a Feeling,” “Escape (The Pina Colada Song),” “Cherry Bomb,” “I Want You Back”… Peter’s mom had great taste, and gave it to her son in the gift of a treasured Walkman. The soundtrack is another big reason the film is great; from the moment that “Come and Get Your Love” by Redbone kicks up while Peter dances about the ruins he’s raiding during the opening credits, I could tell I would love the movie. It’s just a perfect summation of the movie as a whole: dark, intense dramatic moments followed up with goofy, fun, lighthearted moments.

Now, a comic book movie is only as good as its villain… so how are the villains in this movie? Well, there are actually quite a few antagonists here: Ronan the Accuser, Nebula, to a very small extent due to his minimal role Thanos, and in a not-evil-but-antagonistic role Yondu. Let’s start with the big bad, Ronan: Ronan is a villain I’m of two minds about. On the one hand, he definitely fits the “Generic Doomsday Villain” mold in a lot of ways, acting more like a roadblock for the characters to overcome than a truly complex antagonist. On the other hand… Lee Pace, his actor, throws himself into the role and elevates it above its genericness by being a truly incredible ham. Ronan’s every line of dialogue involves him chewing the scenery to the highest degree, which makes him a solid villain at the very least. What he lacks in being truly complex he makes up for in sheer hamminess, which is more than can be said of wasted villains like Malekith.

For the other antagonists and villains, Nebula is incredibly cool, but also pretty underused, really only getting one big fight scene at the movie’s end and kind of standing on the sidelines for most of the rest of the film. This is one thing the sequel definitely did better, which is also the case with Yondu, but for a different reason. As in the sequel, Yondu is absolutely fantastic and badass here, and Michael Rooker is clearly making the best of every second he appears, making him easily one of the best characters of the film… but the sequel gave him even more badass moments and even more character development. Still, Yondu was well-established by this film and is utilized quite well. As for Thanos, well, he gets but a single scene… but what a single scene it is. Josh Brolin gets to show off his skills playing the Mad Titan in all his glory, and he is everything he should be. He’s intimidating, he’s badass, and every line of his is just oozing with the capacity to be a bombastic ham of galactic proportions. This is his first impression, and my what an impression it is!

Guardians of the Galaxy is a modern comic book movie masterpiece. As the introduction/origin story, yes, there are some rough patches here and there, but for what it was trying to do and ultimately did, well, it’s really an incredible movie. And let’s be real: this probably opened the door for other movies that might not have been made otherwise. As an action-comedy superhero film, it paved the way for movies like Deadpool and ESPECIALLY Suicide Squad, which seems like this movie after a lobotomy. It’s a big step forward for comic book movies, for better and for worse.

Even if I like the sequel a bit better, I can’t help but stress it is just a bit. Like the sequel is at 100% and this movie is about 91%. They’re tied for my favorite movie ever, and I think to truly appreciate them they need to be watched one after the other, Kill Bill style. Needless to say I give this movie the utmost recommendation: if you like action-comedies, superhero movies, sci-fi, any of that, this is the movie for you.

Guardians of the Galaxy has manged to stay the freshest series in the MCU so far aside from Captain America; the Thor and Iron Man movies went downhill after their first installments (though the third Thor movie is looking good from the trailers), and Age of Ultron was a flawed but not irredeemable mess. Only time will tell, but it seems quite likely that so long as James Gunn has his way, the Guardians series will always be fantastic space action fun.

Infinitely rewatchable, infinitely quotable, and infinitely enjoyable… movies like this don’t come around often.

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