Guardians of the Galaxy (2014)

knowing nothing about GotG comics/storyline etc, I thought the film was fantastic. Slightly below/possibly on par with the Avengers (so either #2 of the MCU or tied with #1). Obviously it was different thematically so it's kinda hard to compare them. It certainly was entertaining.

I only realized after it was over that it was 2 hours long. When it ended my initially reaction was "damn that the movie was too short." This is due to amazing pacing obviously but it did seem that there were some scenes either cut or not filmed which would have fleshed out the backstory more or solved other problems with the film such as character development.

specifically i'm referring as most others here are, to Gamora and Drax. Partially yeah, its groot, rocket, and quill stealing the show, but they could of done more to show us what these 2 characters were all about. also I think the actors did fine, I think it was the story telling.

With Gamora's intro we learn that she's (adopted) daughter of Thanos along with Nebula, and when Thano's talks about her being his favorite daughter we can infer from the pain/spite on nebula's face that there's jealousy/rivalry there, but everything else we learn about gamora is dialogue. She shows up and immediately turns out to be a good guy who was plotting to turn on thanos/ronin/whatever and it's all dialogue driven. 90 seconds of exposition or a flashback or something showing us her history/background/growing up being molded into this living weapon and her growing to despise thanos/whatever would of been enough.

The same with Drax, his background is delivered by himself via dialogue. The movie made a big enough deal about titles that you would think a guy named Drax the motherfucking destroyer would have had, again, 90 seconds of, i dunno, something, flashback or exposition or a fight scene or something, to show us why a: he gets to walk around with the title of the destroyer and b: everyone who crosses his path knows him as that and gives him a wide berth. They kinda did this in the prison scene when he interrupts the other prisoner's attempting to kill Gamora and he's all monotone like "you know who i am?" and the prisoners do that look of fear, gulp, "yessir we do" but they never actually show him doing anything. So first real fight he gets in is vs Ronin the Accuser who just swats him down like a fly. I get that they did that to show how badass Ronin is, but since they never really showed us how badass Drax is, it kinda comes off as showing how much of a pussy Drax the Destroyer is. Again, 90 seconds of him doing anything, to show us why he's Drax the Destroyer and that ronin fight scene would of had far more impact and the character would of stood on his own a bit better.

Starlord's intro was perfect. From the trailers we get this sense that he's some goofball avg joe guy who just happens to be in this space opera and we're left questioning how does this jackass manage to hang with these intergalatic heavy hitters but those preconceptions are immediately challenged when he says "fuck it" and just lays waste to those kree/ronin lackeys and makes his escape with what turns out to be a mother fucking infinity gem. He is a trickster/conman/goofball but he combines gadgets, cunning, and athleticism into one cool gunslinger archetype. Everything we need to know to feel out this character we learn in 90 seconds.

Groot and Rocket are just sooo different that they actually don't need as much exposition to establish who/what they are, but they still get it and it's delivered in a way that is not only comical (such as rockets intro where we are looking through his eyes as he's scanning for bounties and commenting on the people) but also has good pacing and doesn't impede on the the story (ok they are bounty hunters, got it, let's go).

The more human the characters (starlord, gamora, drax) the more the audience feels a need to identify with them and know what they are about. Quill got enough time but Gamora and Drax didn't. The more bizzare characters got enough even though they didn't need it, so it seems like they just stole the show. Honestly we got enough from the previews: Here's a walking talking machine gun wielding racoon, and that's his bodyguard/house plant. They are so out there that that's enough exposition to establish those characters.

I don't think a 2 hour 4 minute run time (as opposed to the 2 hour 1 min run time we got) would have harmed the film in anyway, but those 3 extra minutes of character building would have done a ton to alleviate the minor squabbles some of the general movie going public has had with the film.

as far as the butthurt from the comic guru's over the films representation of Nova Corp, well, I hadn't even heard of GotG until a year ago when the first trailer came out so I don't care/can't really speak to it. I'm betting 95%+ of that 160mil opening weekend are in the same boat as me and that's probably what the execs were counting on when they greenlit the film. How much of the storyline would have had to change/how inept would the GotG be if they had decided to stick with the source? Someone said NovaCorp is like the Marvel equivalent of the Green Lantern dudes? Yeah so why the fuck would you need starlord and company to save the universe from Ronin if he foolishly decided to attack the HQ of the Greenlantern equivalent army? Yeah fuck that. Maybe they should have called the Xandarian defense force something other than Nova Corp as to not tarnish what NovaCorp is, but as it's presented in this film it was fine.

Oh Jesus, you did not just repeat the Nova Corps/Green Lantern thing!

To perhaps head off some of the rage I feel coming over that, that's an entirely inaccurate portrayal. The Green Lanterns are all super badasses because they patrol an entire sector of the galaxy by themselves. The Nova Corps is comprised of millions of lesser soldiers, with only a select few being the real powerhouses. They are there primarily to protect their world (although they act like something of a galactic police force to an extent), not every world in existence equally like the Green Lanterns are. There are myriad less powerful Novas that are the equivalent of beat cops, and while still much more powerful than your average Joe, wouldn't stand a chance against even someone like Rocket. Any Green Lantern should, in theory, wipe the floor with Rocket, if not the entire team of GotG.

In short, that's an inaccurate analogy that someone else gave, and I'm sure someone more knowledgeable will be along to expand upon my limited knowledge. But in the meantime, that's essentially why it wouldn't have been that big a deal to have the actual Nova Corps there instead of their ships, because most of them really are just glorified space cops, so it wouldn't have been much different except it would have been dudes in suits instead of ships. And Glenn Close would have had to be a monumental badass, which she wasn't.

So you are saying that the movies portrayal of Nova Corp was basically fine and perfectly in line with the comic books with the exception of their leader and a 10 sec clip saying the 5% of the dudes who are more than just space cops were busy doing something else?

Then what the fuck are the comic nerds raging over?