It lacks gravitas but it's so much fun that it doesn't really matter. I would say "a star is born" with Chris Pratt except I've been obsessed with him for years. B+

Now that I slept on this a bit I can honestly say I found it better than CA2 and DOFP. This one is definitely the most entertaining of the two despite it's flaws. As far as the MCU movies go, it's almost on par with the first IM which is pretty damn good.

My only problem with that theory would be comic book reasons in the way:

The film is just a lot of fun and very entertaining.

All the characters are strong and I think I enjoy this team more than The Avengers. Star-Lord (Pratt) might be Marvel's best hero, or at least a very close second to Iron Man (Downey Jr.). Rocket and Groot never have a dull moment and are often highlights. Gamora is fine and works well with Star-Lord. I even liked Drax, somewhat, whom I was expecting to be the weakest link. I think he still is, but I still enjoyed him.

The biggest issues for me:

I don't know much about the comics, but Thanos isn't threatening and has been build up too many times now. Instead of having the Guardians (or Star-Lord) defeating Ronan, having Thanos appear to annihilate him for keeping the infinity stone (to challenge him) could have been better. And Ronan in general was another weak villain. I never thought anyone was in any real danger being around him. Lee Pace's vocal portrayal was good, though.

As Excel has mentioned many times, the slave girl grabbing the infinity crystal simply felt like a forced scene to move onto the next. I imagine the filmmakers hitting a brick wall in the process of making the film at this particular moment. Overall, it's a minor issue.

And in the end, the issues are basically those of all the Marvel films except for The Avengers - A weak ending and a disappointing villain. The Avengers, however, suffers from a weak start and just a "better" ending than the other films.

Guardians of the Galaxy might be my favorite Marvel film to date.

01. The Avengers (B+)
-- Guardians of the Galaxy (B+)
03. Captain America: The Winter Soldier (B)
04. Thor: The Dark World (B)
05. Thor (B)
06. Iron Man (B)
07. Captain America: The First Avenger (B-)
08. Iron Man 3 (C+)
09. Iron Man 2 (C)
10. The Incredible Hulk (C-)

Captain America: The Winter Soldier
Captain America: The First Avenger
The Avengers
Iron Man 3
Iron Man
Guardians of the Galaxy
Thor
The Incredible Hulk
Thor: The Dark World
Iron Man 2

I like all of them save the bottom two.

1. Guardians of the Galaxy
2. The Avengers
3. Captain America: The Winter Soldier
4. Iron Man
5. Iron Man 3
6. Captain America: The First Avenger
7. The Incredible Hulk
8. Thor 2
9. Thor
10. Iron Man 2

1. Captain America
2. Thor
3. Guardians of the Galaxy
4. The Avengers
5. Thor 2
6. Iron Man
7. Captain America 2
8. The Incredible Hulk
9. Iron Man
10. Iron Man 2

Thor 1 is underrated, it has a solid romcom side to it and Thor v Loki is good in it.

1. The Avengers
2. Iron Man
3. Guardians of the Galaxy
4. Captain America: The Winter Soldier
5. The Incredible Hulk
6. Iron Man 3
7. Thor: The Dark World
8. Captain America: The First Avenger
9. Thor
10. Iron Man 2

^^ Agreed

1. Guardians of the Galaxy
2. Thor
3. The Avengers
4. Iron Man
5. Iron Man 3
6. Captain America
7. Thor: The Dark World
8. The Incredible Hulk
9. Iron Man 2

Still need to see Captain America 2....

Saw it again today. I liked it a lot more, it does have it's issues but it's typical solid Marvel start)

1. Iron Man (A+)
2. Captain America: The WInter Soldier (A+)
3. The Avengers (A+)
4. Iron Man 3 (A+)
5. Thor (A)
6. The Guardians of the Galaxy (A-)
7. The Incredible Hulk (A-)
8. Thor: The Dark World (B+)
9. Iron Man 2 (B)
10. Captain America: The First Avenger (B-)

Thanos better have planetary destructive abilities to make up for his weak build up thus far.

The Winter Soldier
The Avengers
Captain America
Iron Man
Iron Man 3
Thor
Guardians of the Galaxy
Incredible Hulk
Iron Man 2
Thor 2

btw I saw the film again and the good parts hold up. The forgettable parts are just as forgettable.

It would make more sense for Thanos to just go get all the stones himself. They don't ever seem to be that well guarded and then you don't have to worry about power hungry megalomaniacs betraying you and keeping the stones for themselves.

1. The Avengers
2. Guardians/Winter Soldier
4. Iron Man
5. Thor
6. Captain America - this was much better on the second viewing
7. The Incredible Hulk
8. Iron Man 3
9. Iron Man 2
10. Thor 2

It gains points for being the first Marvel movie, outside of maybe the first Captain America, to really have a solid sense of itself. Despite having Thanos and The Collector, the movie really feels like its in it's own universe. And what a universe it is. It sure is a real pleasure to look at. The 3D is also quite good, although maybe it was just my screen, but they need to figure out how to brighten 3D films somehow. At home you can at least up the brightness on your TV or laptop. In a theater, you're really just at the mercy of the projectionist.

The film also doesn't get too bogged down in setting stuff up (at least not too much) for future Marvel Studios films. It's also the funniest Marvel movie, at least since the first Iron Man. The script, for the most part, is pretty clever and witty.

Where the movie loses points is that I really didn't wind up caring about anyone outside of Peter. The movie does a great job of this thanks to the opening scene, but as for everyone else? Well the closest you get is with Rocket when they show his scars.

And while the action is entertaining for the most part, this film still finds itself with the same problem Captain 2's ending had. While it looks impressive (especially when the ships combine to make that "tarp"), it's more of a lot of stuff just blowing up without much sense of direction.

All in all though, the film is a lot of fun, and it seems like it was the big spectacle James Gunn was born to make.

(B+)

And of course...

The Avengers - ***** (A+)
Iron Man - ****½ (A)
Captain America: The First Avenger - **** (A-)
Guardians of the Galaxy - ***½ (B+)
Iron Man 3 - ***½ (B+)
Captain America: The Winter Soldier - ***½ (B+)
The Incredible Hulk - *** (B)
Thor: The Dark World - *** (B)
Thor - **½ (B-)
Iron Man 2 - **½ (C+)

iron man 3
the avengers
guardians of the galaxy
captain america
the winter soldier
iron man
the incredible hulk
thor
iron man 2
the dark world

Steve Rogers could tell you a lot about that. He had no problem fighting against an alien invasion, but he had a pretty tough time against a bunch of thugs with machine guns.

You mean Hydra with billions in resources and weaponry?

As for the Collector scene; it was implied, although only briefly, that he puts his assistants in cages after he gets tired of them. That's as good a reason to blow yourself up as any human has ever found. Would it have helped if she screamed "AHKBAR ALAH" before she did it?

That was one of the stupidest scenes I have ever seen in person, live, during a movie.

SO random. They really needed to find a way to fuck things up, and couldn't think of a better one, so "lets make him enslave employees, and have one go ape shit convenient right then and there!".

What a fucking awful movie. This was Batman and Robin level bad.

MMM maybe a little, but I think I'm still far behind everything posted in the "Why I Hate Black People" thread, which I wisely stayed out of.

And excel, Ronan arrived a few minutes later and fucked everything up anyways, so its not like they needed to do that. It was more to establish that giving the orb to the Collector was a bad idea.

I don't know why I'm even bothering, you're gonna troll my response no matter what I say. I guess we're both bored.

I'd call it random if the slave girl had no scenes before the Collector meeting the Guardians. However, she had an entire scene where the Collector demeaned her about putting her elbows into the work and then of course she was in slave girl mode in Thor 2.

"entire scene" of like 20 seconds thrown in just so her freak out wasn't THAT out of left field.

It was still hilariously bad. Batman and Robin type development.

Avengers
Iron Man 3
Captain America: The Winter Soldier
Iron Man
Guardians of the Galaxy
Captain America: The First Avenger
Thor
The Incredible Hulk
Thor 2
Iron Man 2

Completely let down...














By the post credits scene.

This was really enjoyable, which is enough for me to give it an A-. But the Marvel brand is really lacking in greatness. By starting the brand with their best film, Iron Man, they wrote themselves into a corner. They've had trouble bringing doom and seriousness into any of their films. Which makes them more watchable, I guess, but less memorable. And I'm hardly invested in any character outside of Iron Man.

But anyway...

1. Iron Man
2. Thor
3. Guardians of the Galaxy
4. Captain America 2
5. Avengers
6. Thor 2
7. Iron Man 3
8. Incredible Hulk
9. Captain America
10. Iron Man 2