Guardians of the Galaxy (Revisited)

When it comes to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 is easily my most anticipated movie since The Avengers, for a completely different reason. For The Avengers I was eager to see if the MCU could stick the landing and deliver all of the fun it had been building to for four movies. I had confidence but no guarantee. For Guardians Vol. 2, my love of the first film, combined with my supreme confidence in writer/director James Gunn, and company, and the parade of awesome bits via trailers and TV spots, has me convinced that the second go around will be more of the same. But what makes Guardians so different in the first place? Today I revisit Marvel's favorite space jerks and find out.

The movie follows earthling Peter Quill, a mercenary of sorts going by the moniker Star-Lord, who picks up a powerful artifact known as an Infinity Stone. Eager to sell the stone and dodge genocidal Ronan The Accuser, Quill teams up with a deadly assassin named Gamora, a vengeful warrior named Drax the Destroyer, a trigger happy raccoon/tech genius named Rocket, and talking tree creature named Groot, to get the stone in the proper hands. However, it soon becomes clear that this hodgepodge team will need to band together to prevent Ronan from destroying planets.

On some level, Guardians of the Galaxy succeeds for the same reason most of the Marvel movies do. They're well-made, well acted, there's a good mix of action set pieces, and it's great at world-building. The differences, however, are both what gives this film its identity and makes it almost endlessly rewatchable.

Refreshing New Characters Defined by Actions

Like most movies that introduce a team, Guardians has an exposition dumb here or there to give the audience backstories for their characters and tell you their skill sets. But the Guardians character's are almost all defined by action. The go-to example for film critics is Star-Lord's opening credit sequence as he dances around to "Come and Get Your Love." In these few minutes we can already tell that Star-Lord is a twelve year old boy that never grew up and as such almost never takes anything seriously. The movie is full of moments like this.

We're never told that Drax is a thrill-seeker or revels in violence, but the fact that he screams "Yes!" as the Milano crashes through Ronan's ship or laughs seemingly uncontrollably while getting into fistfights or watching Groot destroy henchmen does. Same goes for Rocket's genius level tech knowledge, Gamora's compassion for life, 

We also haven't seen a ton of characters like this. Pratt's Quill is notably immature. Gamora is tough as nails, but oblivious to regular person to person interaction. Rocket is sarcastic but also has an oddly dark sense of humor and it's been a delight to see autistic children connect with Drax's literal interpretations. Put succinctly, we know and love these characters right away and the feeling only grows as the movie progresses.

It's Hilarious

The Marvel movies have never been afraid of jokes, be it Tony Stark wisecracks, the final battle of Ant-Man, or Joss Whedon's pitch perfect banter in Avengers, but Guardians may be the funniest movie in the MCU. Half of Rocket's dialogue is fall on the floor hilarious and the movie consistently undercuts typical superhero movie moments with jokes (i.e. "Look I'm standing too, you happy?") The movie also goes for jokes that the MCU typically avoids like Rocket's interesting amusement towards taking replacement body parts, a few sex jokes, pop culture references, and yeah this is a movie where the villain is distracted from his goal by Star-Lord starting a dance off to "Ooh Child." It's right up my alley in every way.

Not Afraid of Cheesy Big Emotional Moments

While the movie undercuts some of these moments, Guardians isn't afraid of obvious emotional moments. Put another way, this movie has moments that are specifically designed for emotional payoffs...and it nails them. Corny? Yes. But that emotional investment means that silly things like Groot's final words or the group hand-holding towards the end pack a punch.

A perfect mixture of what shamelessly fun summer movies should, Guardians of the Galaxy is a fast and funny ride for everyone. Can't wait for the second time around.