Moonage Daydream: Regarding Guardians of the Galaxy

The biggest gamble Marvel Studios ever made since getting the momentum going was deciding to make a standalone film about the relatively new Guardians of the Galaxy. When that movie was first announced, it made some (including myself) hesitate. The team that the film follows were created in 2008 and, even then, were more of a cult readership in Marvel's publishing line; a niche within a niche. But it turns out a radical change of pace was just the second wind the already long-running MCU needed and in a lot of ways the first Guardians of the Galaxy was this generation's Star Wars; arguably moreso than The Force Awakens.

I think it's because it was new riffs on old classics, literally. We've all seen bombastic space opera before but this was focused on misfits and outcasts that felt more like outsiders than Luke Skywalker or Spock ever did. Another big part of it is that audiences could tell this all came from a very personal place for writer/director James Gunn which is rare in multimillion dollar tentpole films but the wicked sense of humor (that Jackson Pollack joke...), vibrant neon punk vibe with the film's color scheme, and feel-good classic rock soundtrack are all signatures from Gunn as his love letter to comics and the sci-fi genre.

In a lot of ways, Guardians of the Galaxy is space opera for the MTV generation: serious things happen (I always find a convenient way to excuse myself from the prologue of Star-Lord's mother succumbing to cancer) but Gunn remembers he's making a popcorn flick at the same time. What really sells that aspect is the bubblegum pop sheen that comes from the movie's soundtrack curated by Gunn personally including everything from David Bowie to The Runaways though if I never hear The Piña Coolada Song ever again, I think I'll be okay. The soundtrack was so damn popular it actually topped the Billboard charts when it was first released which is especially impressive considering it's an eccentric compilation of oldies that largely existed under the radar (with the exception of the Jackson 5) when they were originally released.

What really sells the soundtrack (and the film) is that it all came from a place of love for Gunn. Peter Quill keeps on keeping on because of a mother's love. There's a reason he is never without his trust Walkman, why keeps revisiting the same eleven songs over and over; it's all he has left of her. It may be his father's parentage that keeps him alive during the climactic showdown with Ronan but it's his mother that gives him the perspective to see why he needs his new friends, why he fights in the first place.

The Avengers was about an unlikely family coming together but it happens to be this crisp, cool family fronted by the best soldier in history, a billionaire playboy philanthropist, and a super-powered interstellar prince. Guardians of the Galaxy is fronted by an orphan raised by scavengers and a walking case-study for masculine arrested development, a warrior raised by her father to kill first and ask questions later, a revenge-obsessed meathead with no sense of humor (at this point, anyway), a wily raccoon that with a mean streak towering over his short stature, and a simple-minded Ent. The Avengers are the cool kids; the Guardians of the Galaxy would be the theater kids. I was a fucking theater kid. These planet-hopping misfits are my kind of people.

The other thing that seals this film's quality is the likability and chemistry of the actors. Every single one of the titular team excels with suddenly ripped Chris Pratt's Star-Lord and Bradley Cooper's snarky Rocket Raccoon trading wisecracks with Dave Bautista's Drax not understanding any of them. Zoe Saldana's Gamora is easily the biggest badass on the team while Vin Diesel's Groot is the ensemble's literally gnarled heart. Karen Gillan outshines Lee Pace (the film's weakest link with another ho-hum Marvel bad guy) on the antagonist front so I was glad to hear she was coming back for more (that and I kind of sort of have been a fan of hers since her Doctor Who days).

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This movie was fucking everywhere when it first came out like movies never existed before. Kids were dressing up as the characters for Halloween. People started to karaoke Blue Swede's Hooked on a Feeling having just discovered it decades after the fact. Whenever I work a comic show, one of the cosplays from the MCU I see the most often is Star-Lord. There's an animated series that runs on Disney XD now. DC Comics' Suicide Squad tried to rip off this movie's formula with dark misfit characters of their own listening to a much less inspired soundtrack with Jared Leto as an absolutely godawful Joker. Guardians of the Galaxy was another surprise success and capped off Marvel Studios' best year critically. With this movie, Marvel proved they could still connect with audiences with outlier franchises with tenuous ties to their Earth-based properties. And with Gunn already thinking of the sequel, the focus shifted from a mother's love to more complicated feelings about the father.