Guardians of the Galaxy (2014)
Retracing the journey of these guys in the lead-up to the conclusion of their journey. This time I got thinking how this miraculously
does everything right that Eternals did wrong....
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (2017)
The first MCU film that I felt a little disappointed by, the juvenile humor here starts stepping on legitimately-earned drama. But the movie
still has a ton of heart and was a pleasure to revisit, even if the "trimmed" version didn't really improve things for me.
Thor: Ragnarok (2017)
Still my most disappointing MCU film to date. I love Thor and the Norse gods as grand, epic beings that are a bit cold to humans, and the contrast is what's funny to me. So when this film just turned everything and everyone into a joke, I felt pretty betrayed as a fan who actually really wanted to see a movie about Thor and Norse gods. Instead, I got
a blatant wannabe Guardians of the Galaxy clone.
Avengers: Infinity War (2018)
Very much like GotG V2, this film uses the Guardians as one of the greatest emotional cores of the film, especially in playing off Thanos. But they also have gags that go on way too long and step on the drama (the deleted scenes with them are great tho?!)
Avengers: Endgame (2019)
Not much of the Guardians in this, even though Rocket, Groot, and Nebula are featured. It's really more in how Nebula becomes a foil for Thanos and old Gamora and sort of earns her redemption and membership as a new Guardian. She honestly becomes a better, richer character than she's ever been in the comics.
Thor: Love and Thunder (2022)
I've gotten to where I skip a lot of MCU stuff when it first comes out now, as most of Phase 4 has looked like a trainwreck to me... sloppy, rushed, populist portrayals of the characters and stories that bear little relation to the comics stories or even characters. Marvel hires up-and-coming writers to adapt this stuff and it's done very blockbuster-style, without attention to the buildup and context that made it work in the comics. This film was just more of the same of that, which I also despised in
Ragnarok.
I expected nothing and I got it. Just watched to see if they did anything with Thor and the Guardians, which no, of course they threw away that rich potential immediately.
The Guardians of the Galaxy Christmas Holiday Special (2022)
Has the vibe of most Christmas stuff, very schmaltzy and kind of soft and glowy, would be at home on the Hallmark channel. That said,
quite a bit of fun, and I love seeing Pom Klementieff get the spotlight.