Guardians of the Galaxy [Spoilers, I imagine]

I just saw it at the theater down the street. I don’t follow the Marvelverse and really enjoyed it. I took a friend who really doesn’t watch this kind of stuff normally, and she really enjoyed it, too.

Of course, it didn’t hurt that it was a 3D showing for $6, and we each had a couple beers.

The called them “necros” and “necroblasters” a few times in the movie.

But America and Germany didn’t sign a peace treaty. Germany signed an unconditional surrender because the Allies had essentially wiped out their war machine, and there was nothing Germany could do to prevent the Allies from killing every German still under arms. This movie felt a lot more like two superpowers, armed to the teeth and ready for war, deciding they actually didn’t want to slag down both civilizations so they signed a treaty, even though they still hate each others guts.

Again, bad analogy. The USA didn’t sneak in any nukes. We destroyed Japan’s ability to stop us from flying any damn plane we wanted to over their country. The fact that a Kree lunatic was attacking Nova outposts at will, and the Novas didn’t bring some of their own capital craft out of mothballs was kind of silly.

On the Collector issue - maybe his lair would have been impregnable if it hadn’t already been blown up from the inside. And the contempt he showed towards his servant was obvious - so he never expected her to do anything as brave/stupid as try to grab an Infinity Stone.

I agree that third act was a bit of generic action fluffery. It felt pretty tacked on, probably at Marvel’s insistence, so the concept it doesn’t make the most sense isn’t a minus for me.

On the plus side, somebody online pointed out the climax is basically a “Care Bear Stare”. That made my day.

This - an inisde job coupled with an Infinity Stone - “if do right, no can defend”

Why does Ronan want to blow up the planet? Same reason Osama Bin Laden wanted to blow up the WTC. Extreme fanaticism isn’t particularly rare or incomprehensible. ISIL, Boko Haram, Al Shabab, Ronan the accuser.

Anyway it was a hell of a lot of fun, better than I thought it would be, and I have zero desire to nitipick it to death. I agree with one of the Posters above: Best MCU movie is still the Avengers, but The Winter Soldier and Guardians of the Galaxy are tied for number 2.

Can someone help me with a quote?

One of the jokes, early on, was that Drax doesn’t get metaphors.

Later in the movie, he says something witty, someone says Huh, and he grins and says it was a metaphor.

What did he say? I couldn’t hear it in the theater!

Thanks!

Drax the Destroyer: [holds Korath at chokepoint] “Finger on neck” means “death”.

[kills Korath]

Drax the Destroyer: “Metaphore”.

[looks at Star-Lord]

Peter Quill: [shrugs his shoulders] Close enough.

Something which might just be me, but which I noticed upon seeing the movie a second time.

Yondu was pretty obviously going out of his way to mold Star-Lord, but also to keep him safe. He was publicly pissed off about Quill betraying him - but his every action taken was about appearing strong while protecting Quill. While I can easily believe that Yongu feels fatherly towards Quill, his actions don’t make sense unless he’s far more sentimental than he lets on. Further, a couple of the things he says make it sound like he’s quite familiar with Earth culture, at least enough to make references of his own.

Funny thing, then… Quill’s mom says, almost the last thing before she dies, that he would be taken care of by his grandfather. In the context of the movie, you’d assume that meant the unnamed older gentleman present. But within five minutes, guess who shows up and takes Quill away to the stars? Yep, we find out Yondu abducted him.

So at the least Yondu seems to likely be working for Jason’s father. But he also might be a little more closely related than that - and at the least, his attitude and actions wouldn’t make sense unless he and Quill’s father don’t somehow have a connection themselves.

I wondered about this myself. Not being familiar with the comics at all, maybe the answer is already known by people who do read the comics and I’m way off base. But - Quill’s mom said his dad was an angel before she died. Yondu refers to himself as looking like a blue angel or something close to that, near the end of the film. Coincidence?

Ah yes, that was the other thing I forgot. I’m beginning to think that this was deliberately “hidden in plain sight”.

And this would imply some very interesting things about what Yondu is within the context of the movie. Assuming he’s Quill’s grandfather, then he might be very, very old indeed. And either he, or Quill’s grandmother must have been something very powerful indeed.

Yeah, coincidence. Starlord’s dad is a separate character altogether.

Cool! Thanks! The audience was noisy at that point, and I missed it.

Darn fun movie!

Anybody not like it? From the trailers I have no desire to see it. The humor falls flat to me.

It is one of those movies that delivers precisely what the trailers promise. I suspect most people who love the movie saw the trailers and said “Oh, God - I hope they pull that off.” (That was my reaction). If you saw the trailers and they fell flat - the movie is one big long trailer of smartass remarks and action sequences. (I love those movies, myself).

I just don’t think the smartass remarks hold up to those in say, Ironman. Might be that Chris Pratt just doesn’t click with me.

In the comics, yes. But they’ve changed characters in the past and will do so in the future. Aside from which, Quill’s comic-book father is a rather uninteresting character and “Spartax” is probably too ridiculous as a concept for the movies.

Tony Stark is confidently arrogant. Jason Quill wishes he was as charismatic as someone like Stark (or RDJ), but in reality is a bit of a dropkick, so his smart remarks are supposed to be lame. This movie was all about him stepping out of that shadow. Perfectly cast, I think - all the characters Chris Pratt plays have had less than stellar personalities.

I’m going to buck the tide and declare that GotG is not the second-best Marvel movie.

It’s the third. Avengers and Winter Soldier get the top slots. No matter how much I like it, a raccoon with a machine gun still ranks below Nick Fury pissed off, if only by an RCH.

“We are Groot.”

Seconding that it doesn’t matter one bit that Quill’s dad in the comics was J’son from Spartoi / Spartax because that’s going a bit far afield even for Marvel. My guess (based on nothing but the film) is that it’s either going to be Thanos himself, another of the Celestials / Eterrnals, or Yondu’s brother/son. The only real clues we have are Quill’s mom’s “angel” comment, and Yondu’s “he’s a real jackass” line. Looking forward to that being a major plot point or character driver in the next one.

re: Yondu being a crusty old bastard with a sweet soft center, I figured that was kind of the point. Even if he is as mean and ruthless as he claims to be, he’s known Quill for 20+ years, he’s going to be at least somewhat fond of the kid if he hasn’t kicked him to the street or killed him after that much time. Also his penchant for collecting cute knick-knacks to line up on his console a la Wash from Serenity kind of leans in that direction.

Quill giving him the Troll doll instead of the MacGuffin is basically a gesture in turn that Quill is somewhat fond of him in turn, despite thinking the guy is quite certainly an asshole. Family is like that, whether it’s family by blood (which they might be) or simply family by association.

Of course, carrying on with that train of thought, Yondu just watched his surrogate son leave home to strike off on his own and start a new family. A highly dysfunctional, destructive family of dubious moral foundation (so basically the apple didn’t fall far).

EDIT: Based on not very much in particular, I’m betting that Quill’s dad is a Celestial. I don’t know what a Celestial is, but it sounds kind of angelic.