Apparently I wasn’t the only one excited for Guardians of the Galaxy. Marvel’s gamble paid off as Star-Lord and company made $94 million at the box office this weekend. That is easily the biggest August opening weekend ever and the third highest opening weekend this year, falling behind only Transformers: Age of Extinction and Captain America: The Winter Soldier.
I loved Guardians of the Galaxy. I’ve got some thoughts on how it stacks up against the other movies in the Marvel Cinematic Universe; I’ll share those later this week. For today, though, I just want to nerd out and share everything that I loved about GOTG. There will be plenty of spoilers ahead so, if you haven’t seen the movie yet, you’ve been warned. Also, if you haven’t seen the movie yet, what are you doing? Go see it right now.
- Everyone was totally awesome. Chris Pratt nailed it. Zoe Saldana was awesome. Dave Batista was perfect. Pratt really did an amazing job as the anti-hero Peter Quill. He had the most important role and he absolutely crushed it.
- I didn’t know whether I would like Rocket or Groot more. They were both great in their own ways. Rocket brought a lot of humor and heartache to the movie and Groot just brought the heart. I remember reading an interview in which James Gunn said Groot was the heart of the movie. He really was.
- Speaking of Groot, I really hope he comes back. I know he will but I hope he’s just there in Guardians of the Galaxy 2. I hope he’s not like sapling Groot trying to figure out who he is. I just want him to be Groot. I am Groot.
- I probably freaked out most when Thanos first showed up. I thought they’d keep the Mad Titan for a post-credits scene, but there he was right in the middle of the movie. Avengers: Infinity Gauntlet probably won’t come out until May 04, 2018 but I’m already excited for it. I don’t know how Marvel’s going to get there, but Thanos armed with the Infinity Stones taking on the Avengers is going to be amazing.
- Nova Corp was cool; I’m interested to see what they do with them in future movies. I know that Nova was in an early draft of the script; there’s a good chance he’ll be in the sequel. Nova’s a much harder hitter than any of the Guardians so they’ll be able to take on some even bigger baddies.
- The soundtrack was almost like a sixth Guardian. I got the soundtrack and have been listening to it non-stop. The opening credits scene may be one of my favorite scenes in the entire Marvel Cinematic Universe. It’s not that the soundtrack just had awesome songs from the 70s and 80s; it’s that the songs meant so much to Quill and were his strongest connection to his home.
- I prefer Lee Pace as the pie maker from Pushing Daisies but he was also pretty good as Ronan the Accuser. I definitely prefer Karen Gillan as Amy Pond but she was pretty amazing as Nebula, especially her makeup.
- I also popped for Cosmo in the Collector’s collection. I love Cosmo from the Guardians comic. I hope he makes it into the sequel along with his telepathic communication and Russian accent.
Guardians of the Galaxy was great. I want to see it again and probably again. At this point Marvel can do whatever it wants. Variety compared Marvel’s current run to Pixar’s run in the 2000s. Marvel can’t keep this run up forever, but I’m happy to go along for the ride as long as it lasts.
What were your favorite parts about Guardians of the Galaxy?
I loved Dave Bautista. I heard that he auditioned 6 times and practically begged to be in the movie. The Marvel people were unsure of him because he was a wrestler. And he freaking delivered. Hands down my favorite character. As little as I disliked him in WWE is how much I loved him in GOTG!
I love how hard he went after the role and absolutely commuted himself to it.