A refreshing surprise

Rating: 10/10 (1 August 2014)

I went into guardians with pretty low expectations. Marvel has been hitting its stride in bringing its comics to the big screen, but Guardians faced several hurdles. First and foremost, the Guardians and their villains rely on more 'cosmic' threats and are less well known than their counterparts. Your average person on the street likely knew who (at least generally) Iron Man, Captain America, and Thor were before the movies. That's less likely to be true about the larger cosmic universe unless you grew up on Silver Surfer or Captain Marvel.
Its second problem rested on bringing a larger universe to the audience in a well received method. Marvel tested its chops in the Thor movies, but even there we were on a 'subway' system of planets with fixed tracks, rather than just an all-encompassing universe.
Given these concerns, I was hesitant about guardians. But Marvel nailed it. Guardians is unlikely to bring home any major awards, but it is a pointedly FUN movie, and its more than just a popcorn view. It produces some real laughs, and some real emotions from the audience as you follow its story. It also ties into the rest of the Marvel movies and helps develop their over-arching plot.
Ultimately, the weakest elements of Guardians is the main antagonist, its villain. While all of the actors deliver great performances (Quill and Rocket in particular), the villain feels either over-exposed or under-developed. In other words, we see him often enough that we should be learning more about him, but never do. If your villain is going to be an embodiment of evil, it needs to be treated like Jaws and limited in its screen time. If, on the other hand, you want a developed villain like Loki, we need to learn more about him. The main villain is stuck in the middle, and while it's not his fault, it is noticeable.
Guardians is good enough that when you walk out, you'll be looking forward to the next one. And more than that, its a breath of fresh air from what are beginning to feel like the "safer" marvel franchise. It explores new areas, and new characters, and it does it well.