A Fun Introduction to Marvel's Galactic Universe

Rating: 8/10 (27 April 2015)

This is the final of my ten reviews of the Marvel Cinematic Universe films that I've been writing as I watch the movies leading up to "Avengers: Age of Ultron". As such, this review (like the others) is written as a second impression review. In the series, I found that some MCU movies deteriorate with time (Avengers, for example), some stay about the same (Iron Man 1 is still great, whereas Iron Man 3 is still terrible), and then you have the occasional film like "Guardians of the Galaxy" that wasn't one of my favorites in the theater, but is much more enjoyable upon a second viewing.
As I think about why that might be, I think I might sum the whole thing up to an initial lack of familiarity with the characters. Guardians of the Galaxy was by far the least familiar Marvel property for me in terms of watching the MCU films. I remember having one GOTG comic book (a special cover with some sort of a robotic foil skeleton figure that looked like Wolverine on the front), but I never knew the first thing about the team when I was into modern age comic books. As such, whereas with the other MCU movies I watched them wondering if they would stand up to my criticism based on my love for the characters, with GOTG I found myself completely ignorant on the front end, meaning that the movie had to do its job of selling me on its characters and storyline alone.
When I first saw this film in the theater, I left feeling like the movie had done this effectively, but with a big problem: even though I was completely able to follow the film, I just simply didn't enjoy the characters. Perhaps in large part this was to be expected, since the natural inclination is to compare a Marvel movie to other Marvel movies, which meant that I was comparing GOTG to "The Avengers", "Captain America", etc, all of which feature characters I have strong brand allegiance to. Still, "Guardians of the Galaxy" left me dissatisfied when I left the theater. I just didn't see what was so special about the film.
To say more about that, one of the things that left me with a strong impression when I saw the movie in the theater was that it features comedic humor much more prominently than some of the other Marvel movies. In the theater there was a laugh a minute, with the audience contributing heavily with an eagerness to laugh. That left me feeling as though the film was a bit too childish, not serious enough, etc.
To add to that, the movie also features so many different characters and villains, most all of whom were foreign to me, and it just made for a movie that was hard for me to enjoy.
That said, though, upon this second viewing, I found that the film has really grown on me. Is the movie goofy and a bit sophomoric? Yes. However, when you go into it knowing that and expecting it, it's easier to appreciate it for what it is. And while the jumble of new characters is a lot to digest at first, the movie is much easier to follow and appreciate the second time around. I found that the characters grew on me, the villains made more sense, and the overall contribution to the direction of the MCU (with the coming of the Infinity War) was significant and enjoyable.
All that said, my original criticisms were not completely unfounded, but upon closer inspection this is nevertheless a great movie.
One side note though: Having watched all ten MCU movies in the course of four months, I found that there is an increasing use of profanity as the series moves on. "Guardians" seemed to have a bit more than others in the series, which is unfortunate given that it is an otherwise fun, family friendly movie. It's not over the top and most of the words are what you might hear on TV any given evening, but be mindful of this if you have kids.
All in all, I'd give it 8/10 stars.