YMMV / Guardians of the Galaxy (2014)

• Adorkable: Groot's kindly, slightly air-headed personality make him come across as awkwardly adorable, as do his responses to seeing animals eat each other during a gambling match at the Boot and to Rocket mocking Drax over the death of his family.
• Alternative Character Interpretation:
  • Yondu:
    • Did he know he'd been given a fake orb? There's certainly an argument to be made that it was in his best interest. He couldn't admit to not wanting it, but he likewise knew that selling it to anyone he'd be likely to do business with could only bring disaster, and it would be much safer with the Nova Corps. Likewise, did he not deliver Peter to his father because he really was "a jackass" as claimed, or because Yondu would much rather steal the kid for his own purposes? Though the sequel implies the former.
    • Did Yondu ever really intend to kill Peter at any point in the film, or was he just putting on a tough act in front of his men whilst also using it to get Peter to cooperate with him? The idea that he'd been telling Peter the story of the Ravagers wanting to eat him when they picked him up over and over again for years, Kraglin claiming he'd always been soft on Peter, as well as Yondu being something of a Troll lend some favour to the latter idea. Then there's Yondu's reaction being him grinning widely and warmly when he finds Peter tricked him and switched the orb.
    • Did Yondu ever realy intend to participate in boarding Ronan's ship, or was he playing the part of The Chessmaster, letting himself get taken out of the fight only to show up afterwards and claim the Orb? It seems suspicious that he let himself drop so far behind Quill and the Guardians, even before his collision with a Kree fighter...meaning he could've been intentionally looking for a chance to get his ship disabled and drop out. His last words ("I'll see you at the end of it") show he seems very confident that Quill will pull off the plan without him, and falling out of the battle gives him the chance to gather his Ravagers for a show of force and seize the prize once it's over.
  • Rocket:
    • At the end when Rocket attacks Ronan, is it because he blames the Kree for Groot's death and wants to punish him for it? Or is it because he knows the Dark Aster crashed because he flew his own ship into it in a failed attempt to kill Ronan, and, knowing he can't possibly win, no longer cares what happens to him because he blames himself for Groot's death?
    • Rocket's replying Gamora's "You must be joking" with "No, I really heard they find you attractive", is he really missing the point or is he just being his usual Deadpan Snarker?
  • Thanos:
    • Despite having only a brief appearance, Thanos has generated two opposing first impressions. Is he an all-powerful master schemer that the loss of the stones and the betrayals and failures of his underlings is beneath his attention, or an overconfident, out-of-touch fool who cannot keep his underlings from betraying him? If the ending of Avengers: Age of Ultron is of any indication it may be that Ronan's betrayal was the last straw which led him to go on a ruthless quest to get the Infinity Stones himself. And some dialogue by 2014 Thanos in Avengers: Endgame gives the impression that maybe he did predict Ronan's betrayal from the start.
    • And after Avengers: Infinity War explored his motives in-depth, was Thanos ever going to honor his agreement to destroy Xandar for Ronan? Helping him commit genocide seems to go against Thanos' M.O. of restoring balance to the universe by leaving half of a planet's population alive. Was Thanos lying to Ronan the whole time, or did he see Xandar as a necessary sacrifice for his end-goal of assembling the Infinity Gauntlet? Or, was he going to find another way to fulfill the agreement to the letter?
  • Ronan:
    • Is he really a renegade of the Kree... or is he their agent, but acting as if he went rogue? The Kree Ambassador clearly didn't give a rat's ass about what Ronan is doing, and there are riots going on in the Kree Empire over the treaty. It WOULD be in the Kree Empire's best interest that Xandar be destroyed, and there's a distinct lack of Kree acting against Ronan or helping Xandar.
    • Did Ronan really remember killing Drax's family in their second encounter, or was he merely pretending to as a way to taunt Drax and Kick the Dog?
    • Did Ronan betray Thanos out of spite for being disrespected? Or, was he planning on betraying Thanos far early on because wiping out half a population (most of which aren't Kree nor races he likes) wasn't satisfying enough, and wasn't allowed to take any more than that amount? Avengers: Endgame gives strong credibility to the latter, given Thanos says this when he's introduced.
    Thanos: Ronan's located the Power Stone. I'm dispatching you to his ship.
    Gamora: He won't like that.
    Thanos: His alternative is death. Ronan's obsession clouds his judgment.
  • Carina:
    • Why did she take the Power Stone even after the exposition from the Collector about the sheer havoc it could cause outside the Orb? Was she genuinely trying to use it to overthrow the Collector and was too desperate for freedom to think about what she was doing? Or was she aiming to kill herself and take the Collector with her?
• Americans Hate Tingle: The movie was poorly received in China, mostly due to the atrocious translation job done with the Chinese subtitles.
• And You Thought It Would Fail:
  • Many people were claiming the film would do so, especially because it has bizarre little known comic book characters, like a Badass Adorable humanoid Rascally Raccoon. Of course, after the film became a mega-hit, Rocket is now credited as a big reason for its success.
  • Amanda Seyfried turned down the role of Gamora because she thought the movie would bomb.
• Award Snub: The movie lost the Academy Award for Best Makeup and Hairstyling to The Grand Budapest Hotel, which had substantially less makeup work.
• Base-Breaking Character: Ronan the Accuser. Either he was an entertaining Large Ham with a clear motivation and a clear goal in comparison to Malekith or he was a boring villain who is dragged down by having none of the Anti-Villainous traits carried by his comic book counterpart and making him a Hate Sink. Or alternatively, that he works because he's so generic and he takes himself so seriously, causing a contrast between him and the wacky main characters.
• Catharsis Factor: Let's face it, Ronan being destroyed with extreme prejudice, for the level of brutality he wanted to inflict on Xandar. After seeing him preach violence and genocide and commit countless murders, it's just so gratifying to see the most despicable being in the film pay for his bloodshed.
• Complete Monster:
  • Ronan the Accuser is a genocidal Kree terrorist and renegade wholly devoted to the destruction of the planet Xandar out of xenophobic zealotry and slighted family pride over the deaths of his forebears. Once in charge of the Accusers, Ronan would lead them in bombing planets suspected of harboring Skrulls, at one point trying to do the same to Earth. Disgusted by his people signing a peace treaty, Ronan enacts massacres throughout the galaxy and confronts a captive member of Xandar's Nova Corps, crushing the helpless man's skull with his Universal Weapon. As a henchman of the Mad Titan Thanos, Ronan seeks to gather an item for Thanos so that he will destroy Xandar for him. Under Thanos, Ronan has committed multiple murders, including the deaths of Drax the Destroyer's wife and daughter. Ronan later pursues the motley band of Guardians to the space prison the Kyln, and orders a full massacre of every prisoner to Leave No Witnesses. When he realizes the power of the Infinity Stone he has been sent to retrieve, Ronan double-crosses Thanos and vows to kill him after he's finished with Xandar. Assaulting the planet, he even orders his own men to become suicide bombers by flying their ships into Xandar, injuring and killing numerous civilians, before killing over 80,000 members of the Nova Corps in one fell swoop. After mocking Drax about finally remembering murdering his family, he declares Xandar "guilty" by his psychopathic philosophy and attempts to purge it of all life.
  • Junior Novel, by Chris Wyatt: Ronan the Accuser, also known as "the Butcher" and "the Warlord", revels in his titles and proclaims his only motive to be the complete annihilation of all weak life in the cosmos. Judging compassion itself a blight on the universe, Ronan has committed genocide against entire worlds for many years after judging them "weak", wiping out Drax's people in just one instance of his cruelty. Introduced crushing the skull of a Nova Corps officer, Ronan orders his minion Korath imprisoned and killed for failing a single mission, and wipes out the entire Kyln prison colony to cover up his hunt for the Orb. Ronan plans to obtain the Orb and then use its power to wage a slaughter on all the galaxy, traveling from world to world and exterminating life until only the strong remain.
  • Alexander Irvine's novelization: Ronan the Accuser, also known as "The Warlord" and "The Butcher", views weakness as the greatest crime of all and seeks to expunge it from the galaxy. Introduced crushing the skull of a member of the Nova Corps out of spite and rage, Ronan has led the massacre of countless planets and people, to the point that when Drax confronts him about the murder of his family, Ronan can't remember who he's talking about. After slaughtering everyone in the Kyln to cover his movements and leading an assault on Knowhere, Ronan gets control of the Power Stone and launches a full-scale invasion of Xandar, killing countless innocents. Though the Guardians of the Galaxy stop him, Ronan comes mere inches away from destroying the entire planet and killing billions of innocent people.
• Crazy Is Cool: Rocket Raccoon is a Trigger-Happy Heroic Comedic Sociopath who believes in More Dakka, hoards bombs in a shoebox, can mastermind a Great Escape in twenty minutes flat and hangs out with a talking tree. No wonder he's so popular.
• Crosses the Line Twice: Peter dancing and kicking animals at random? Dick. Grabbing one and using it as a microphone? Starlord.
• Ensemble Dark Horse:
  • Carina, due to being both The Woobie and a Green-Skinned Space Babe.
  • Yondu Udonta immediately became a fan-favorite as Quill's Parental Substitute who, despite being a tough-as-nails Ravager, still has a soft spot for his adoptive son, not to mention showing off what an utter badass he is in his one fight scene, a total Curb-Stomp Battle in his favor. Fans hoped he'd get a larger role in the sequel, where he does indeed become a Breakout Character.
  • Korath is quite well-liked, despite his lack of screentime compared to Ronan or Nebula. Enough to reappear in Captain Marvel (2019) as one of Carol's Starforce teammates and to an alternate version of him make a Heel–Face Turn in What If…? (2021).
  • Howard the Duck due to his hilarious cameo at the end. Marvel predicted this would happen and took full advantage of by digitally re-releasing his original comic series the same week as the movie's launch. He also got a new series in 2015 which likely wouldn't have happened without the film.
• Epileptic Trees: A wild theory is that the scene of the Collector showing the Guardians footage of Eson The Searcher destroying a planet with the Power Stone actually teases Kang The Conqueror in a Freeze-Frame Bonus Early-Bird Cameo.
• Fan Nickname:
  • From the tie-in toyline, Space Sheriff Iron Man.
  • "Baby Groot" for the cute little twig Groot begins regenerating from.
  • "Space Merle" for Yondu pretty much is just Michael Rooker in blue face paint.
• Fandom Rivalry: With Suicide Squad, which some feels mimics Guardians by centering around a group of lesser-known cult comic book anti-heroes who become True Companions while battling a world-ending threat, all set to a contemporary, rock n' roll soundtracks. Guardian fans' attitude towards Squad is summed up pretty well in this comic. It slowly became a friendly fandom with the release of Gunn's The Suicide Squad.
• Friendly Fandoms:
  • With Firefly and Farscape, due to similar tone (both are space westerns) and character archetypes.
  • With Parks and Recreation, due to the shared presence of Chris Pratt.
  • With Space☆Dandy for featuring a Casanova Wannabe with misfit aliens in space.
  • Most Star Wars fans praise the film as well, comparing it favorably to the original trilogy, given that the film is one long Affectionate Parody of Space Opera in general and that franchise in particular.
  • With Borderlands, as both are space westerns as well and the characters from either franchise would fit right in in the other's universes.
  • With One Piece to a lesser extent, as both have a Rag Tag Bunch Of Misfits with tragic pasts as the main characters who become Fire-Forged Friends and eventually True Companions.
• Gateway Series: The movie and its sequel served as one for Marvel's cosmic and outer-space characters. Until Guardians, Marvel's space characters, with a small handful of notable exceptions like the Silver Surfer, were considered to be less iconic and notable than DC's roster, but the films raised both in profile. It also made many into fans of Space Opera and Space Western.
• Harsher in Hindsight:
  • All the hilarious moments involving the prisoners and guards on the Kyln become somewhat grimmer on subsequent viewings, since we know that Ronan is going to have all of them killed once he gets to the station.
  • At the end, Kraglin remarks it was probably a good thing they didn't take Peter to his father, with Yondu quipping about how he was a "jackass". The sequel then proceeds to show that Yondu wasn't biased about said "jackass" by showcasing the freakish lengths he has gone and intends to go to get what he wants, to the point where Yondu's jab just reads like a hell of an understatement now.
  • Amidst their squabbling, Gamora remarks how working with the Guardians to escape the Kiln will result in her "dying surrounded by the biggest idiots in the galaxy", but they all live to make their getaway. This comes back to bite her something fierce in Avengers: Infinity War, in which she really does die at the hands of an actual World War II-era Nazi and an abusive genocidal warlord with horrifically misguided methods of "balancing the universe", inadvertently proving her right in the worst way imaginable.
  • Ronan's introduction scene became this after ISIS began similar tactics against their prisoners later into the month of this film's release.
  • Peter's mother talking so lovingly about his father on her deathbed, in light of what Ego did to her...
  • Following the reveal that Peter's father wasn't from Earth, it was popularly theorized that his mother's sickness and eventual death was a tragic result of her contact with an immensely powerful alien. The sequel reveals that Ego was the cause of Meredith's death, but it was far from unintentional.
  • The discussion between Rocket and Quill about keeping the moon-destroying bomb in a box, given the Nova Corp's solution to the Power Stone is also "stick it in a box", and judging by Avengers: Infinity War, this goes about as well for them as you'd expect.
  • This line from Gamora, stated upon agreeing to fight Ronan despite overwhelming odds, becomes seriously harsher come Avengers: Infinity War, when Gamora dies alone and scared at the hand of her worst enemy.
  Gamora: I have lived most of my life surrounded by my enemies. I will be grateful to die among my friends.
  • In a similar vein, Rocket's line "I don't got that long of a lifespan anyway" becomes bitterly ironic when he becomes the Sole Survivor of the original Guardians at the end of Infinity War.
  • One of Rocket's first lines to Star-Lord is "Ain't no thing like me, 'cept me." When you consider the Guardians to be "things like him", by the end of Infinity War, Rocket is right.
    • And then Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 makes it worse, where we learn that there were more uplited animals who could be considered "things like him", and they were murdered by their creator, Rocket being the only survivor.
  • After the battle on Knowhere, Rocket (once again) snarls at Drax "Everybody's got dead people! That's no excuse to get everyone else dead along the way!". As of Infinity War, Star-Lord is the one Rocket should have said it to.
    • It's even harsher after Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, because that line implied Rocket had dead people too. To be more specific, Lylla, Teefs and Floor died when he was younger, thanks to the man who experimented on them.
  • When shooting down Gamora's spaceship while she's trying to flee from Knowhere, Nebula remarks "Of all our siblings, I hated you the least". Fast-forward to Avengers: Endgame, and we see Ebony Maw, one of said siblings, pry open a variant of Nebula's memory banks to learn of her future self's affiliation with the Avengers, and then immediately attempts to strangle her out of belief that his sister will betray their father. If Maw is reflective of the entire Black Order's relationship with her, it's no wonder Nebula preferred Gamora over any of them.
  • The Collector showing a recording of Eson the Searcher destroying an entire planet using the power stone is significantly more disturbing to watch after watching Eternals, where it's revealed that Eson is part of a race of beings called the Celestials who have been destroying planets for eons in order to create a cycle of life throughout the cosmos.
  • Rocket's rant to Peter at the bar after accusing of Gamora and Drax of laughing at him is harder to listen to after James Gunn revealed in a now-deleted tweet that he was violated by a teacher when he was young.
    • The rant is also a lot harder to watch after the flashbacks in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 showed exactly how horrifying the experiments that created Rocket were and that his creator was going to terminate him specifically because he considered him a "monster" rather than the perfect being he was attempting to create.
  • Early in the film, Irani Rael calls the Kree Ambassador a prick for refusing to lift a finger to try to stop Ronan from massacring innocent Xandarians. After watching The Marvels, the Ambassador's actions look decidedly less intentionally dickish, as it's revealed in that film that the Kree Empire and their home planet is a fractured, broken mess thanks to Captain Marvel destroying the Supreme Intelligence. Thus, it's more than likely that the Ambassador literally has no power to stop Ronan, even if he wants to.
• Heartwarming in Hindsight: Yondu smiles when he finds out the Orb that Peter gave him contained a Troll doll inside, instead of the Power Stone. This moment becomes sweeter in The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special, when we find out that Peter gave him a similar figurine as a Christmas gift. He was reliving happy memories.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • Brett White was quick to make a post about the audacity of this film and its characters, whilst Wonder Woman's movie debut had been continuously postponed. Not long after, Wonder Woman was announced to be making an appearance in the sequel to Man of Steel. Then the DCEU's Wonder Woman solo movie not only came out before the MCU's first female-lead movie Captain Marvel but also outgrossed Guardians of the Galaxy domestically and internationally.
  • When Peter is ambushed by Korath and his thugs on Morag, he snaps at one of them, "Ninja Turtle, you better stop poking me!" Guess which new film knocked Guardians of the Galaxy off of No. 1 at the box office? It becomes even more hilarious a few weeks later when Guardians actually retakes the No. 1 spot at the box office from TMNT.
  • The Memetic Mutation of Korath's reaction to hearing Quill call himself "Star-Lord". Guess who's the first character in the film to use Quill's "outlaw name" seriously.
  • In an amusing coincidence, when the film was released, it opened opposite to Get On Up starring Chadwick Boseman. Just a handful of months later, he was announced as being chosen to play the Black Panther in future Marvel films. Even better when the series What If…? (2021) features T'Challa as an alternate universe Star Lord.
  • Yondu describes Peter's father as "a jackass". Recent events in the comics have shown that J'Son of Spartax (Peter's dad in the comics) actually is a bit of a jackass.
  • After the release of Daredevil Season 2, both one of the lightest entries in the MCU and one of the darkest feature a character reacting to someone's tragic past with a sarcastic "Boo hoo."
  • After seeing Captain Marvel (2019), it suddenly makes a lot of sense that after witnessing what Carol did to his fleet, Ronan would make such an absurdly fortified area on his ship.
  • Try watching The Collector's exposition on the Infinity Stones without thinking about the fact that there's a guy named Casey who lives in an office and doesn't know what a fish is, using them for paperweights.
• Ho Yay:
  • Groot and Rocket are very close, much like in the comics. Groot is very loyal and protective of Rocket and when Groot sacrificed himself to save the team, the normally snarky and caustic Rocket is openly weeping! After the movie got its Honest Trailer, Groot and Rocket became an obvious copy of Science Bros.
  • Also when the team is incarcerated together in the Kyln and a large inmate gets a little too touchy-feely with Quill, Groot and Rocket step in to protect him with Rocket explicitly stating that he was their "booty." ^note  Rocket and Groot wanted to collect on the 40,000 unit bounty placed on Quill's head.
  • Yondu and his First Mate Kraglin. The two are rarely seen apart, and Kraglin is evidently privy to a lot of Yondu's secrets and quirks. Yondu and Kraglin even seem to act like surrogate parents for Peter Quill, with Kraglin remarking that Quill "turned out okay" and Yondu beaming proudly when he finds out Quill literally Trolled him.
  • Gamora and Nebula are typically trying to kill each other during their few scenes together, but one deleted scene has them more literally at each other's throats. The scene is titled "Sisterly Love". That's not what most are thinking.
  • Drax the Destroyer's actor, Dave Bautista, has admitted believing that Drax has "a bit of a man crush" on Quill. This adds another meaning to Drax's declaration to fight beside the "honorable" Quill, and the part in which Drax (accidentally?) insults all of the present Guardians except Quill.
• Jerkass Woobie:
  • Nebula. Like Gamora, she's another one of Thanos's experiments, except she has far more cybernetic implants and is The Unfavorite. The only reason she followed Ronan was in the hopes that he could kill Thanos.
  • Rocket. His gruff, don't-take-crap-from-anyone personality makes him a fairly abrasive and somewhat misanthropic character early on, but it hides a lot of resentment and pain over his origins. His breakdown post-alcohol shows the audience where he's coming from.
• Just Here for Godzilla: Quite a few people watched the movie just for Rocket Raccoon.
• Magnificent Bastard: Yondu Udonta, a former Kree battle slave and later Ravager, was hired to kidnap the children of Ego to deliver them to him for a fortune. Upon realizing the children were being murdered, Yondu rescued the last of them, Peter Quill, and raised him as a flawed but devoted father. Yondu proceeds to hunt down the Power Stone in Peter's possession, keeping a step ahead of employers and enemies alike before showing little but pride in Peter swapping the Stone out for a troll doll. After a mutiny in the second film, Yondu is able to almost singlehandedly avenge his loyalists and wipe out his enemies before heading to save Peter from Ego and ultimately proves instrumental in stopping the mad Celestial. Acknowledging Peter as his true son, Yondu chooses to give his life for Peter, honored at the end with a funeral as a true Ravager.
• Memetic Mutation:
  • "What a bunch of a-holes."^ExplanationFrom Saal in the trailers, in response to Rhomann Dey noting that the main characters go by the name "Guardians of the Galaxy".
  • The various gifs of Rocket Raccoon shooting his guns.◊
  • This summer, it's time to give a shit. ^ExplanationA reference to Peter's Rousing Speech.
  • From this tweet: "DC/WB is all like 'Wonder Woman's too confusing for a movie!' and Marvel/Disney is all like 'Here's a raccoon with a machine gun.'" Becomes Hilarious in Hindsight after DC released a Wonder Woman movie in 2017 and it turned out extremely well.
  • [OOGA CHAKA INTENSIFIES] ^ExplanationFrom the use of Blue Suede's "Hooked On A Feeling" over action shots in the trailers.
  • "I am Groot." Relatedly, "We are Groot."^ExplanationGroot's dialogue "I am Groot" translating to most anything, but during the finale he switches to "we".
  • Dancing Baby Groot. Who doesn't like Dancing Baby Groot?
  • Rocket laughing at Star-Lord's 12% of a plan, and the subsequent argument between Quill & Rocket.
  • Thanks to The Stinger, the film has been deemed by many as the best Howard the Duck film ever made... Which isn't surprising.
  • Responding to pictures/clips of Andy (Chris Pratt's goofy Manchild character from Parks and Recreation) with "I'm glad he's guarding our galaxy".
  • "I'm gonna need his X" ^ExplanationBased on the Running Gag of Rocket requesting other people's prosthetics for his own amusement. Soon, people took notice of a particular character who had a metal arm. Utter hilarity ensued.^NoteThis became even more hilarious when Avengers: Infinity War comes along and shows Rocket asking Bucky for his arm and then being gifted said arm as a Christmas gift by Nebula!.
  • "Who?" ^ExplanationKorath's reaction to Peter announcing his pseudonym. Also a meta on how unknown the Guardians were prior to the movie.
  • "Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't know how this machine worked."^ExplanationFrom the scene where Peter mimics a wind-up machine with his hand, using it to flip off the Nova Corpsmen.
  • "Oh... yeah."^ExplanationRocket's enthusiastic response to Drax tossing him a gun during the escape from the Kyln.
  • To a lesser extent: "YOU STAND ACCUSED!"^ExplanationRonan's form of accusation against the Xandarians.
  • Pelvic sorcery.^ExplanationGamora's description of Star-Lord's attempt to seduce her with music and dancing.
  • "Nothing goes over my head. My reflexes are too fast. I would catch it." ^note Drax, being Literal-Minded, says this in response to Rocket's remark that metaphors are gonna go over his (Drax's) head.
  • "What are you doing? ....What are you doing?" ^note Ronan's stunned reaction when Quill challenges him to a dance-off.
  • "We're just like Kevin Bacon!" ^ExplanationSaid by Gamora in the final act, in reference to Quill telling her about the legend of Footloose starring the hero Kevin Bacon.
  • "They got my dick message!"^ExplanationPeter sends a letter for help to the Nova Corps apologizing and saying he's not "100% a dick". When the Nova Corps sends a fleet to aid him he blurts out this phrase.
  • This series makes no sense ^ExplanationA reference to several other, unconnected, movies that have the word "Guardian" in their titles, implying that they are all part of a series despite wildly different plots and characters.
  • Activists have picked up on Quill's "Because I'm one of the idiots who lives in it" line as a rallying cry, particularly for defending the environment.
  • "These stones, it seems, can only be brandished by beings who ran out of paperweights."^explanationAfter Loki revealed that the Time Variance Authority uses Infinity Stones as paperweights and office decorations, many jokes were made about the Collector gushing over paperweights in the scene where he exposits on the stones to the Guardians.
• Moral Event Horizon: See here.
• Narm: See here.
• Narm Charm:
  • Drax's dialogue at points can reach Narmic levels, but during the team's Darkest Hour you can really feel his pain.
  • Ronan's extremely theatrical dialogue could have sounded ridiculous, but the character's look and Lee Pace's performance managed to make Ronan into a genuinely terrifying villain.
• Never Live It Down: Among the film's detractors, the fact that Guardians won by a "dance contest" is something that will stick with this movie. Ignoring the fact that Quill's dance-off against Ronan was obviously an act of sheer desperation on his part; Ronan was literally seconds from victory, so Quill did the only thing he could think of to distract him long enough for Rocket and Drax to intervene. It would be more accurate to say the Guardians won through The Power of Friendship.
• Newer Than They Think: Between the pulp-sounding name (including Rocket Raccoon), '70s soundtrack, and Raygun Gothic elements, most people are surprised that the movie is based on an incarnation of the Guardians of the Galaxy from a 2008 series.
• No Problem with Licensed Games: The Universal Weapon mobile video game is a decent, although a bit repetitive, one.
• Not Badass Enough for Fans: Gamora. Detractors dislike the fact that she's not a god-level murder machine that kills everyone and everything the group comes across in two seconds flat (which she isn't in the comics they champion as an example of her badassery, either), and exaggerate her into being "borderline incompetent and constantly needing to be rescued" despite her being anything but.
• One-Scene Wonder:
  • Thanos has only two brief appearances, but he makes a hell of a first impression.
  • Howard the Duck totally steals the show in The Stinger.
  • Despite press releases making a bigger deal out of Benicio del Toro's involvement than Glenn Close's, The Collector is only present in one scene for an Info Dump and in the stinger. But hell if he didn't milk his scenes for all they were worth!
• Questionable Casting:
  • The casting of Vin Diesel as Groot was met with this, but not because the role doesn't fit like most examples, but because most people expected him to appear in a different role in the MCU (such as The Punisher). Of course, there's still the possibility that he could play a different character as well as Groot, given that Groot is only a motion-capture character anyway. However, he has since teased the possibility that he could be in a movie based on The Inhumans. Another common complaint is "Why would they hire a big-name actor to only say one line over and over?" (Of course, he milks the heck out of that line and gives a very meaningful tweak to it near the end.)
  • Dave Bautista as Drax raised some eyebrows, as wrestlers aren't usually famous for being good actors in good movies. Not only did Bautista provide a funny and badass character, when Drax got some emotional moments he pulled them off great.
  • Fans had this reaction upon learning that Andy Dwyer would be a Marvel superhero, but most were pleasantly surprised. Even James Gunn was skeptical when he heard Pratt was auditioning, before meeting the man and instantly realizing he was right for the part.
• Retroactive Recognition: Young Stanley Uris as Young Peter Quill.
• Signature Scene: The opening with Star-Lord dancing to Redbone's "Come And Get Your Love". Coming off the dark credits of his abduction, him dancing with 80's music is a reestablishment of what the dominant tone of the movie will be: a bit of Bathos mixed with fun and effective pop culture use. This even spilled into other movies too, with the humor and breeziness coming up often enough in other movies that people started to get tired of it.
• Special Effect Failure:
  • After Yondu uses his Yaka Arrow near the climax against a group of Sakaarans, their Necrocraft smashes into the ground. The explosion itself looks fine, but it's obviously just composited into the practically shot stuff in the foreground.
  • While Rocket mostly looks great in the film, there are some blink and you'll miss it moments where he looks like more of a cartoon character than the photorealistic character he looks like in the rest of the movie. He also subtly changes size at times.
• Spiritual Licensee:
  • To people not as well-versed in comic books, the film is drawing a lot of comparisons to Farscape, due to its lineup including a gentle plant-person character who's not to be messed with (Zhaan/Groot), a snarky white leader guy who is an Earth-human Trapped in Another World (Star-Lord/John Crichton), a small, sociopathic, anthropomorphic talking thing (Rocket Raccoon/Rygel), a big, intimidating guy with a dead wife and an oddly innocent hidden side (Drax/D'Argo), and a repressed, deadly, formerly-evil woman who acts as "the sensible one" (Gamora/Aeryn) who do battle with a deranged rogue alien warlord (Ronan/Crais). A notable number of the changes to the characters from the comic took them in the direction of being closer to the Farscape ones. James Gunn has acknowledged the series as an influence on this movie.
  • It gets a lot of comparisons to Firefly in terms of tone, character archetypes, and visual style. The fact that the creator of Firefly, Joss Whedon, is the director of the first two Avengers movies (and at the time was a large creative force in the MCU) definitely helps.
  • A camp considers it the next-best thing to an adaptation of The Transformers: More than Meets the Eye, in terms of tone and style. Even the writer of MTMTE has commented that the film is probably the closest there will ever be to a live-action adaption of the comic.
  • Despite being in a completely different genre, the movie's rapid-fire comedy, ensemble cast of underdog criminals and memorable 1970's pop soundtrack make it an unlikely successor to Reservoir Dogs. Both movies even prominently feature Blue Swede's "Hooked on a Feeling" — a song that Reservoir Dogs helped re-popularize after it had been largely forgotten — in pivotal scenes.
  • Given that it's a reasonably family-friendly supernatural buddy comedy around a team of "losers", with enough large-scale action and subtle bawdy humor to appeal to adults, many people have called it a successor to Ghostbusters (1984).
  • It's pretty much the best Mass Effect 2 movie we'll ever get. The Kyln is Purgatory, Knowhere is Omega, and the fully suited-up Nova Corpsmen could pretty easily fit in amongst the mercenaries of the Mass Effect universe.
  • It's seen as a good one for Futurama complete with a red jacket wearing time-displaced protagonist (Star Lord/Fry) who pines for an alien woman (Leela/Gamora) who's gruff and aloof, with a bunch of goofy sidekicks tagging along, one of whom has a dubious understanding of language and social interactions (Zoidberg/Drax). Likewise, the film and the cartoon have a similar theme about love and family being the only constant in a vast infinite universe.
  • It has been compared to Schlock Mercenary, another comedic space opera about a group of heroic ruffians from diverse, morally ambiguous backgrounds. Howard Tayler has himself noted the similarities.
  • Some consider it to be a great Star Wars movie, up there with the original trilogy because of how epic the space style is.
• They Changed It, Now It Sucks!:
  • Complaints were leveled at Gamora for several changes that were done to her character, such as making her more empathetic, compared to a fairly amoral Deadpan Snarker she was in the comics, as well as the reduction in her power level (which numerous other characters also experienced).
  • Some people reacted this way when James Gunn switched Drax's Arch-Enemy from Thanos to Ronan. However, Drax vows that he will kill Thanos after avenging his family's deaths with Ronan's death, reasoning that whilst Ronan killed them, he was working for Thanos at the time.
  • Rocket Raccoon not having the Cockney accent Greg Ellis chose for him in Marvel vs. Capcom 3 and The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes. The comics never indicated that he had one, though.
  • Korath being black instead of blue like in the comics.
  • The fact that all members of the Nova Corps are humans or Human Aliens.
  • The design of the Nova Corps suits are considered bland and generic by some, whilst others are displeased about the members of the Nova Corps not having the Nova Force which gives them superpowers. James Gunn is on record that there was stuff cut from the film because the end of the film was already Nova Corps heavy, and there's some stuff in the MCU lore that make them more like the Nova Corps of the comics, such as the Nova Force.
  • Ronan's Adaptational Villainy has angered some fans who enjoyed his portrayal as a complex Anti-Villain from the comics.
  • Some fans hate how Peter's Elemental Guns from the comics were replaced with generic laser guns. James Gunn's explanation that they'd be difficult to explain didn't help matters.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character:
  • The Collector was built up as being important to this movie in Thor: The Dark World, but he only appears a few minor scenes and in one scene where he serves as Mr. Exposition, along with The Stinger, which unfortunately isn't plot-relevant so much as it is a throwaway gag. It's especially surprising considering that he was implied to be a servant of Thanos in that movie. Nonetheless, he does leave an impact with his charismatic performance, and since the character wasn't killed off, he will likely appear in other movies.
  • Like the Collector, the Nova Corps can seem underused to many fans. The bulk of their military served as a Red Shirt Army that was easily destroyed by Ronan's forces. Unlike Nebula and Yondu, the named members lack any deep close relationships with the Guardians until the end when the surviving members repair the Milano. Fortunately, some named members like Irani Rael and Rhomann Dey survive and can be explored in further installments.
  • Even leaving aside Ronan the Accuser's characterisation from the comics, there are hints that he does have a somewhat legitimate grudge against the Xandarians, and has been mistreated more than a little by Thanos in their various dealings. Unfortunately, thanks to Marvel's philosophy in MCU Phases 1 and 2 that the villains (the ones not called Loki, at any rate) shouldn't steal the show and shouldn't serve much more narrative purpose than giving the heroes something to fight against, these end up going completely unexplored.
• Trailer Joke Decay: "What a bunch of A-Holes," was in nearly every single promotional thing about the movie. Some who liked the joke didn't like it by the time the film came out. Quill's "mechanical middle finger" is also uncensored in the film, which ends up looking pretty awkward, especially since the trailer's "Obscene Gesture Imminent" bit was a pretty good joke on its own, though for what it's worth, this can still be seen in some televised versions of the film.
• Unexpected Character: The movie is a gathering of C-list and D-list Marvel characters that nobody would have expected to be featured in a film. Including Howard the Duck in The Stinger!
• What Do You Mean, It's Not Political?: Word of God has admitted that Ronan may indeed have been an extreme caricature of terrorists, but didn't mean for the movie to be a true political commentary on the subject.
• The Woobie:
  • The entire main cast, but especially Rocket. He's the only one of his kind that he knows of and he constantly has feelings of loneliness and inferiority because of his species, not to mention the pain he probably went through during his creation.
  • Carina, who was abused and threatened by the Collector. No wonder she wanted the Infinity Stone the second she understood what it was. Even worse if you know that, in the comics, she's his daughter. While there is no indication of this in the film, it's still disturbing to think about.
  • Many of the prisoners that are onboard the Kyln are actually quite sad characters, with families and loved ones they won't see again, either because of distance or because they died thanks to Thanos' actions. To add insult to injury, Ronan slaughters all of them.

---