Welcome to VOCIFERY, my attempt to re-watch every piece of media in the Marvel Cinematic Universe – every movie, every television series, every one-shot, every web series, and every tie-in comic book, using the Wikipedia entry on the MCU as a guide, before the release of Avengers 4 in May 2019. Join me as I write my thoughts about what I’m seeing, as I see it!
Also, spoilers follow – if you’re worried about that kind of thing, view before reading.
Marvel’s Guardians Of The Galaxy (2014)
The first time I saw Guardians Of The Galaxy was with a group – my flatmate, my sister, my eldest daughter, and a friend of ours. We sat in the plush LUX seats, those spacious recliners you see at the back of most Hoyts movie theatres. It was a truly joyful experience; none of us really had any idea what we were in for and all of us were very pleasantly surprised.
By the time the credits rolled and we’d sat through the post-credits scenes, we were all sure that we’d just sat through the best Marvel Cinematic Universe film – or at the very least, the most entertaining MCU film to date.
I have a clear memory of walking out of the theatre, turning to my flatmate – a huge Star Wars fan – and saying something like “that was the best Star Wars movie since Empire Strikes Back – JJ Abrams (who had just been announced as the director of what would become The Force Awakens) has just seen where the bar is set.”
It isn’t the most apt comparison: Guardians Of The Galaxy and Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens are very different films, even right down to the core narrative structure and their respective notions of good and evil.
But I think it is fair to say that – when it came out – Guardians was one of the best space-set science fiction movies we’d seen in a while. For the longest time, it felt like every sci-fi movie was grim and dark and dealt with dystopian futures in people are miserable. There was hardly any sense of wonder, of being out among the stars in a thriving pan-galactic society.
In fact, if you go back, the nearest thing we had to a Guardians Of The Galaxy is probably Firefly. Which isn’t entirely surprising, given the kinds of filmmakers that writer/director James Gunn and Firefly creator Joss Whedon are (or when you consider that Whedon was working in-house at Marvel Studios at the time).
As I watch it now, I still catch that sense of wonder. There is still a big smile when the ominous chords of the opening score gives way to Quill dancing around the planet Morag as he listens to Redbone’s “Come And Get Your Love” on his Walkman. There are chills when Groot releases glowing spores into the air to light the way after he boards the Dark Aster with Quill, Drax and Gamora. There are laughs when Quill exclaims “they got my dick message!” during the assault on the Aster, and when Groot turns to the camera and grins after single-handedly taking down a dozen Sakaarans.
And with the benefit of hindsight, there are new things I can see now – for example, during the final scene, Quill is able to hold the power stone on his own for a while – after seeing Vol 2, it seems clear that he can do this because he is part celestial. And smaller details, like the dynamic between Gamora and Nebula, take on new meaning in light of the sequel.
Much is made of Marvel Studios’ ability to keep the universe fresh by embracing genre, in addition to sticking to their superhero ideals. Guardians Of The Galaxy was their first real outside the box film; yes, The Winter Soldier is partly a spy movie, but it wasn’t as far removed from the norm as this film.
When it was released, Guardians Of The Galaxy existed so far out of the box that the box wasn’t even visible.
And for a film that featured a brand new group of characters and a whole new setting, it is remarkably well-connected to the wider universe. The only characters who appear here who also appeared in any other MCU films are Thanos and The Collector. Yet the film manages to include them, to include the power stone – one of the six infinity stones that Thanos is in search of in the next film, Avengers: Infinity War – and also establishes some of the visual aesthetic of Thor: Ragnarok.
When all is said and done, Guardians Of The Galaxy – and its sequel – might end up being more vital to the final few films of Phase 3 than we could have imagined when they were first released.
Guardians Of The Galaxy is a deeply-enjoyable entry in the MCU: it has a great story, it has a distinct visual style, and it is – like seemingly every Marvel film – cast perfectly, starting with Chris Pratt as Peter Quill/Star-Lord. And I think it is objectively one of the greatest space-set films ever made. I’ve seen it about a dozen times now, and I enjoy it every single time. It is surely one of the best films in the Marvel Cinematic Universe to date.
Next: Agents Of SHIELD: Season 2 Episodes 1-10!