Guardians of the Galaxy [Spoilers, I imagine]

Yes, Drax. I think he only looked over once. If memory serves, I think he was dancing to the Jackson Five’s ABC. So many good songs, hard to remember which was where.

Drax definitely looked over at least twice.
The song was The Jackson 5, but it was “I Want You Back” not “ABC”.

Ah right. I saw that. I didn’t think that counted as a stinger, but had been told there were two.

I watched it with my son last night in iMAX and thought it was excellent. It was probably the most entertaining comic-based movie I’ve ever seen. I had no idea that it was connected to other movies. I did watch the 2nd Thor movie but didn’t catch the connection. Anyway, I have some questions if you experts will oblige:

[spoiler]
What was the relationship between Thanos and Ronin? Why would the seemingly more powerful Thanos relying on Ronin to capture this stone that is so powerful? And why were Thanos’s “daughters” “working” for Ronin? What was Ronin’s reason for wanting to destroy the galaxy Xandar?

Why did Yondu abduct Quill when he was a kid and after his mother just died? He was supposed to deliver him to his father (who I guess is still unknown?), but obviously didn’t do so for 26 years. What does Quill believe to be the reason for his abduction? Based on the 2nd Mixtape that his mother made for him, did she know this would happen?[/spoiler]

All will be revealed in 2017. No, really. Your questions will most likely make up a serious hunk of GotG2, which has a 2017 release date. Who knows whether Gunn will follow the comics or not?

[Spoiler]From a comics point of view, there isn’t much of a relationship between Thanos and Ronan. Thanos isn’t above working with people, but rarely needs any help.

Ronan is old school Kree. The Kree are a vast space empire who traditionally are quite aggressive (space nazis). If they had formed an alliance with Xandar (who are self appointed peacekeepers), they are presumably mellowing out a bit, and I don’t think Ronan liked that. Ronan considers himself a loyal Kree servant, but loyal to the ideals of the Kree, rather than whoever is in charge. He is a war hero though, and is usually held in fairly high regard in Kree society.

In the movie he was a bit evil for evils sake, but he can be quite noble on occasion. The hammer he wields is an incredibly powerful weapon that can change the structure of matter, but in the movie, he just used it for hitting things

Peter Quill’s dad is Spartoi royalty. I can’t remember the details, but he was hiding out on Earth for a while and got close with Mrs Quill. Presumably he has been keeping an eye on Peter from afar. I don’t think Peter’s mum would have known though
[/spoiler]

I loved it. It created an amazingly rich world with very little effort and great characters. It was one of those movies that I wish was the pilot for a TV series because I immediately wanted to see what happens next.

I loved it. 10/10. All thumbs up.

Great characters, great dialogue, amazing visuals (this was the most Metal movie ever made).

They’re gonna sell a shitload of “dancing baby Groot in a flower pot” toys, even if they only license the Blue Swede song.

ETA: Oh, and I’m already working on a song I’m gonna call Pelvic Sorcery.

I posted this in the box office thread, because that’s where the post I’m replying to was, but since it’s about the movie and not the box office take, I figgered I’d bring it here:

First, you are misremembering his line; it was “I’m gonna be honest; I forgot you were still here”. He doesn’t “keep on forgetting” that she’s on his ship; she’s just last night’s hookup that hasn’t left yet. She’s there to establish that Quill is a Lothario; that’s all.

I really enjoyed it. Lots of laughs and emotion! Groot really stole the show for me, but everyone was great. I completely lost Bradley Cooper in Rocket’s voice. (Even Groot I could hear Diesel’s voice - but his acting was great for such a challenging part) Tougher one was Ronen, since I’ve been watching Halt and Catch Fire (Lee Pace).

It took me a while to realize that Peter had only read his mom’s letter. It made sense that he never opened the gift, but I figured the same sense meant he never read the letter either, but then I remembered the envelope was already torn open. That fixes the question I had about the origin of his name.

Another thing I remembered: The joke where Groot says, “I am Groot,” and Rocket gets different interpretations out of it is just same thing as C-3PO responding to R2D2’s beeps. I.e., old and lame.

In general canon, Thanos is working many, many angles and cannot be everywhere at once. He seeks all the stones, and sends others to retrieve them as he finds them. Despite his power, he relishes being a puppet master and making others dance to his tune.

In movie canon, Ronan was another of Thanos puppets, as was Loki, the Chitari Empire, and as were his ‘daughters’ (though neither actually sired by Thanos). I’m betting even with an Infinity Stone, Ronan would have been no match for Thanos.

I don’t think Quill knows why he was abducted, and he certainly doesn’t know whom his father was. Yondu was just following orders, though I got the impression he had absolutely no intention of returning Quill to his father. Alternately, I theorize that Quill’s father wanted and paid for Yondu to train Quill. Pure conjecture, not related to the comics, so no spoiler tags. As for the 2nd mix tape, I don’t think she meant for it to be kept wrapped for 26 years.

Other’s have answered comics canon, though I will add a bit I don’t recall reading, and I will spoiler comics material to keep the howling at bay:

Yondu was from an earlier incarnation of the Guardians of the Galaxy, from an alternate-Eart future. He was more of a naturalist with a bow, though he could control his arrows with a whistle. Being comics, of course the future alternate-Earth Guardians and the current timeline Guardians met up, but in comic terms they are pretty much unrelated - and yes I know about Starhawk and Vance Astro, comic-book readers.

Not a comic reader, not a fan boy, and probably wouldn’t have bothered seeing this movie. But a friend, who is both of those things, called me up and asked if i wanted to go and see it with him, so i did.

I went in with no real expectations either way, but ended up enjoying it. There was plenty of action, some funny lines, and a speedy narrative. Perfectly fine for a watch-it-and-forget-it summer blockbuster.

I expected to be really annoyed at the raccoon character, and he did get on my nerves at times, but nowhere near as much as Bradley Cooper in the flesh, so that’s something, i guess.

Edit: I saw it on Thursday, which i just realized was opening night. I can’t remember the last time i saw a movie on its opening weekend. I usually leave it at least a couple of weeks for the crowds to die down.

Saw this today and I liked it, but I’m not as high on it as most are here. I should note that I was pretty hyped up between the trailers and the massively positive reviews, possibly my highest expectations of any movie this summer. Maybe I’ve just seen too many of these at this point but most of it just felt really generic. Everything was well executed: all of the acting was at least good, the visuals were pretty spectacular, and the quirkiness was the most refreshing part. The humor was almost entirely crack-a-grin funny rather than laugh-out-loud funny. Most of the music didn’t really do it for me, but it makes sense and was a cute enough theme. I’m absolutely looking forward to more with the two sisters, which was the most interesting relationship for me.

I dunno, it’s hard for me to criticize it too much because it was well done, but there was no point where I got the dumbass smile on my face and the “THIS IS SO COOL!” feeling that sets the better comic (and more generally, sci-fi/fantasy) movies apart.

Ronan was a hired gun, Thanos doesn’t get his hands dirty. Ronan was a Kree, who had been at war with Xandar for years and the Xandarians had apparently killed his family. He refused to accept the peace treaty between the Kree and Xandar, and the Kree authorities refused to get involved.

Saw it tonight. It was a very funny, very entertaining movie and visually stunning. I liked Pratt’s acting and comedic timing too.
Not the deepest movie in the Marvel lexicon, but still worth watching a few times.

I really enjoyed it. The start of the movie was filled with some of the best jokes from the trailer, so I was a bit worried that they showed us all the good parts, but there is plenty more where that came from and it was just a joy to watch. It’s filled with heart, fun and interesting action. I really have no complaints about the film, and I eagerly anticipate the sequel, and any other forays the Guardians of the Galaxy can make into the MCU. Will the Guardians have a cameo in Avengers 2? A big part in Avengers 3? Who knows?! It’s nice to speculate!

I saw it in regular 2D, because that’s the easy way to beat the crowds on opening night, but I might see it again in Imax 3D to enjoy all of the magic. How was the 3D?

I was expecting there to be some obvious tie ins to Agents of SHIELD, but after the opening scene they never went to earth, so I don’t know how much it will touch the show. For sure, it won’t touch it on Winter Soldier levels. (Still can’t get over the fact that they allowed a movie to drive the plot of a TV show to such an extent. Fun.)

3D was ok. I haven’t seen a movie in 3D since I saw Tangled. I don’t know if it was because it was live-action or what but I often felt like I saw depth between characters but not the people themselves. The trailer for the Hobbit movie was particularly bad in looking like cardboard cutouts on tracks of varying distance. I’m curious if anyone else shares that feeling or if I’m crazy.

Personally, I hope the sequel casts Jeff Bridges as Peter Quill’s dad, so that this can be an amazingly unlikely sequel to the 1984 film Starman.

It wasn’t the best movie I’ve seen this summer, but I did have a great time, and the soundtrack just makes it. Great characters (Rocket and Groot were easily the standouts), but I kind of wish they had a better plot and, at times, better dialogue. Still, I think I want to see it again.

Saw it tonight and enjoyed it immensely! The lighter tone really worked well and balanced the action perfectly, IMO. I laughed far more than I thought I would. I also liked how they quickly brought us up to speed on a heretofore un-described (at least in the Marvel movies) world. They did a lot of world building and it didn’t seem to be exposition heavy. And the CGI was fantastic!!

Also, I do love it that the Piemaker (Lee Pace) is getting big, juicy roles, even if you barely can make him out under the makeup (and what incredible makeup for the movie, eh?)