Guardians of the Galaxy

SPOILERS! Part of the reason I like The Avengers so much is that it's about a group of people who struggle to get along because they're constantly butting heads and arguing, yet they have to get along in order to save Earth. It's such a ragtag team of superheroes, several of whom think they should be the ones in charge or know more than everyone else, and yet it works. The chemistry between the characters is wonderful, and the movie is the perfect combination of funny and dark. My other favorite Marvel movie is Captain America: The Winter Soldier. Not only was it better than its predecessor, it was just a fun movie. The cast was great, the dialogue was good, and the plot was spectacular. It was fun, it was dark, and it was amazing. Now, what does all of this have to do with Guardians of the Galaxy?

Well, you've probably heard people and critics say that Guardians is the best Marvel movie yet. I can honestly say that they're not wrong. Even my sister, who loves Marvel but wasn't that concerned about seeing Guardians in theatres, said that it is probably now her favourite Marvel movie. It's seriously that good. It's funny and dark and absolutely ridiculous and two of the main characters aren't even real, but it works. It works so well that at San Diego Comic Con they announced the release date for the sequel. And this from a movie that looked like it had the potential to be as completely ridiculous as Galaxy Quest. I also think it was brilliant to release it at the end of the summer. I know part of the reasoning was they were unsure how the movie would go over, but I think it's good to end with such a strong movie to usher the summer out. They start with blockbusters so why not end with one?

Let me start by saying that the cast was brilliant. The five main characters were perfect and even though one of the characters was a talking raccoon and one was a walking, talking tree, you had no problem believing they were all real. The animation for Groot and Rocket was great and they ended up being huge fan favorites. Drax was hilarious due to his inability to grasp sarcasm and metaphors. Gamora was awesome and further proof that Zoe Saldana is seriously badass. And for someone who hadn't really been a main character yet, Chris Pratt did a wonderful job as Peter Quill/Star-Lord. He was funny, he was a smartass, and he was relatable. And even though the 5 characters start the movie fighting each other, they were able to come together eventually.

As for the bad guys, you didn't really see them a lot in the trailers so you weren't sure what to expect in the movie. I loved Ronan's contacts and thought that he was a good villain, although he wasn't the real villain as he was working for someone else. I didn't expect to see Thanos in Guardians; our first glimpse of him was at the end of The Avengers and he was definitely a surprise in Guardians. And I loved Nebula. You could hear how they'd changed Karen Gillan's voice to be a little metallic but I didn't expect that to mean that her entire character was metallic and malleable. And the Collector was as creepy as always. I don't trust him and I knew that his appearance in this movie would not be a good thing.

Visually the movie was amazing as well. As I mentioned, Groot and Rocket were both incredible. So were the rest of the characters who were different colors and such. I loved the bright colors of some of the characters' skin, from Gamora's bright green and Nebula's blue to the bright pink of others. It's a cool and simple way to set humanoid aliens apart. And speaking of aliens, I loved how much of the galaxy we got to see. In Thor: The Dark World we got to see a little more but it was still centered around Earth and Asgard. And honestly, Guardians had almost no reference to the previous Marvel movies so it was almost possible to forget that it took place in the same universe. I also liked the whistle-guided arrow thing that Yondu had and thought it was cool how quickly he could trigger it. One of my favorite visual effects was the ship-net that the Xandarian's created to try to stop Ronan. It was really cool how their ships interlocked and formed a barrier, although I feared it would only work for so long and I was right. And Ronan's ship was pretty impressive and much larger than the Xandarian fleet so it clearly wasn't going to end well.

But my favorite part of the movie was the soundtrack. I'm being completely serious when I say that I'm going to buy the soundtrack. It was awesome. It's full of classic songs that are just fun and perfect for dancing. Other than Rocket and Groot, it was the highlight of the movie. Plus, the first time we see Chris Pratt as Peter he puts his headphones in and starts dancing around, and it's when he strikes a pose that the title of the movie comes up. The music was just perfectly incorporated into the movie. Heck, they used it at the end as a way to distract Ronan. The music helps make the movie and the movie is incredible.