GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY

 (Guardians of the Galaxy)

Many of us have seen this movie by now, as it made $94,320,883 opening weekend (IMDB), but I still think it's important to talk about it.  This was an enormous gamble on the part of Marvel studios, because until now they had only tried to introduce fairly well known comic series to the public.  Yes, there were some speed bumps when they sold some of the characters, like Spider-Man, X-Men, and The Incredible Hulk to Fox Studios.  Sure, Fox did okay with Spider-Man 1-2, and X-Men 1, but we can all rest easy that those are back in good hands.  We won't discuss the Hulk attempts.  We just don't have to, and I don't think anyone wants to.

"What does this have to do with Guardians of the Galaxy?" you might be wondering.

Shut up, be patient, I'm getting there.

Marvel had to take some time to rebuild these characters from the ground up.  I realize many people were upset when Spider-Man got rebooted, but you go back and watch Spider-Man 3 and tell me the premise didn't need to be burned down to the ground and rebuilt with a new Peter Parker.

(No one understands me.  And not even

because I'm a giant spider-person)

And this brings us back, FINALLY, to Guardians of the Galaxy.  An obscure reference that even long-time Marvel nerds like myself didn't know existed (Though I should point out I was pretty committed to the X-Men and Spider-Man universes).  This movie was Marvel testing their limits.  They wanted to see if they could make people fall in love with characters they didn't know already, and premises perhaps too far "out-there" for everyone to appreciate (like a kid being taken from Earth to be eaten, but instead becoming an outlaw).  But, like most Marvel movies, it contained enough element of heart to be completely worth watching.  It's funny, and entertaining, it's not overly deep, and doesn't require you to think very much, but still deals with emotional situations.  It's a comedy, it's an action, it's sci-fi, and it's Marvel.  In fact, just saying it's Marvel should be enough to get you to see it if you haven't already.  I would highly recommend this movie, but I would recommend it only with the expectations that it's entertainment.  Don't go in expecting a masterpiece of cinematic profoundness.  Go in expecting exactly what you would expect from a movie with a machine-gun firing racoon and Chris Pratt who listens to 80's rock/pop music while fighting aliens.  

It's just a truly wonderful movie.  As in full of wonder.

7/10

Spoiler Alert!  

For those of you Marvel fans who are familiar and used to staying after the credits for important scenes, this is not one of those times.  It's just Howard the Duck.  If you don't know who Howard the Duck is, that's okay.  You don't need to know.  He just makes a wise-quack at the Christopher Walken look-alike played by Benicio Del Toro.  It's really not worth it.

END NOTE:

I know not everyone is looking forward to it, but I think it's going to be great.  Coming soon from Marvel:

Feel free to argue with me or agree with me in the comments below!