Review of Guardians of the Galaxy (2014) by Davidc — 31 Jul 2014

Highly recommend. Definitely the funniest marvel movie I've seen so far, though very different than what they've been doing. It's an ensemble sci-fi adventure comedy with clever dialogue and a memorable cast of characters. Similar group dynamic to what we saw in the avengers, made all the more impressive by the fact that they haven't had several movies to introduce the characters.

It has very little to do with the avengers specifically and instead widens the lens to encompass the greater marvel universe, making use of characters and alien races we've seen bits and pieces of before (most notably in the Thor films). The tone is very unique, bouncing effortlessly back and forth between comedy and genuine drama with an array of action scenes in a wide variety of set pieces.

If you've been following the marvel movies so far, you'll want to see this since it helps to expand the cinematic universe while setting the stage for the future avengers films (though in some ways it feels like it's setting up Avengers 3 more than 2). On the other hand, if you haven't been following the franchise very consistently or not at all, it still works as an adventure movie. The main characters have little or nothing to do with any of the movies so far, and while there are one or two faces we've seen before, especially in the villain department, you won't need to know them to be able to enjoy it. There's an important macguffin that ties into the larger story, but it's basically just there to drive the plot along. If anyone has been living in a cave somewhere for the past ten years or so, I'd be interested to hear what someone who hasn't watched any of the marvel movies thought of this.