Let Your Guard Down - Go See Guardians of the Galaxy!

Marvel's seemingly endless string of hits will not get derailed with "Guardians of the Galaxy."  In a move that made some scratch their heads, Marvel decided to flex it's movie muscle and see how it would do with a group of misfits that didn't have a huge fan base in place.  Guess what Marvel (& Disney - by extension) found out - the formula that made Iron Man, Thor, and Captain America works just fine for "new" superhero's.

Guardians of the Galaxy brings together a misfit band of outlaws who manage to get past their initial impulse to kill each other five seconds after meeting.  Peter Quill - an outlaw cut out of the Han Solo mold, befriends Rocket (a bioengineered racoon - but don't tell him that), Groot (a treeman for lack of better description), blue strongman Drax (who can only take things literally), and gorgeous green Gamora.  Well, befriend might be too strong of a word.

Circumstances dictate that they all work together to save the very same people who locked them up together in prison.  Throw in a supercool bad guy, awesome dialogue, plenty of inside jokes, and some awesome mix tapes - and BAM - you have a new franchise for Marvel.

I won't go into the plot except to say that to me the plot was almost secondary.  I could have watched this group of characters just sitting around a bar betting on some alien version of a cock fight and been happy.  Oh wait - I did watch that.

There were times while watching this movie that I thought - "this is what Han Solo would have been like if a movie was done on just him and without all the stuffiness of Luke and Obi Wan."  And I loved it!  You see, Han did shoot first - and that's what we loved about that character.  This was before Lucas went all crazy and felt that Greedo HAD to shoot first, because Han Solo would never do such a thing.

I have a feeling that Stan Lee is not going to reshoot this movie and try and tone done the "scoundrel" that Peter Quill is.  People love the good guy who really isn't that good and is a huge believer of situational ethics.  It works for Peter Quill's gang - and it worked for me!

The best thing about this movie?  Original.  Sure good guy / bad guy action films aren't exactly groundbreaking - but in a Hollywood that seems hellbent to remake everything from "Revenge of the Nerds" and "Escape from New York" because the younger generation never heard of them and you can make an easy buck with no creativity - originality is a dying concept. 

The other thing I really appreciated was that the film didn't feel the need to delve into everyone's background and explain every alien race and world.  In spite of this, you really did find the characters fun to follow and root for.

I remember thinking when "Iron Man" first came out - "this is really a stretch and I can't see myself liking this at all."  I left the theater in amazed that I not only loved the film, but a fan all things Marvel.  Same with Thor.  Same with Captain America.

Guardians of the Galaxy has just pushed the already "can't miss" Marvel Studios into a whole new stratosphere.  It's Stan Lee's world - and we are all just living in it right now.