I think I just liked this movie. Nothing more. I wanted to love it and I kept waiting, but it never happened. And it's not that I had high expectations, because I had them for Winter Soldier and it blew those away.
It's a good space story like JJ's Star Treks or the original Star Wars, but focusing on the Han Solo side of things, except I felt those are far superior when they shouldn't be. They have so many interesting comic book space characters and stories to borrow from.
Sometimes I felt this was Peter Quill's story. It's certainly his origin story and he gets the best introduction of them all, maybe the only introduction. Everyone else kind of just shows up. If it's a Peter Quill story, there isn't enough of that at times either. Rocket and Groot are the scene stealers, but I wish they had a bit of an origin story like Quill got. You got a little taste thanks to Cooper's incredible voice acting in a couple of really strong sentences explaining what he is. Gamora was nice, but there's a potentially amazing origin story they left out for her. She might be far more interesting than Quill having been raised by Thanos and next to the equally interesting Nebula. Plus there's no cool Black Widow type moments that she could have easily had considering how skilled she is at combat. Same with Drax, although I think they did the best they could with his origin and played by Batista.
It's enjoyable, but everything is just given to you rather than built and I can only blame that on the director. You're just supposed to go along with everything and buy into the relationships before they're really developed on screen.
The movie is funny. You don't ever have to see any previous Marvel Studios films to pick up on things, although it helps to have some comic knowledge. Bradley Cooper's voice is unrecognizable. I don't know if Cooper is that good of a voice actor or they digitally changed him a but, it's great and never distracting thinking it's Bradley Cooper speaking through Rocket.
The villains are kind of weak and not because of the actors. At one point you do meet Thanos full on and you realize everyone else is just secondary to him on a grand scale. Lee Pace did the best possible job he could, but just mentioning Thanos overshadowed his character. Although I thought he was much better than the dark Elf in Thor 2. Michael Rooker as a semi on again off again villain was portrayed way too much like his character from Walking Dead. It's Merle with blue face paint.
I suppose Star Wars is the closest thing to compare this to, but mostly character archetypes. Quill and Rocket are both Han Solo, but different moods. Groot is Chewie. Gamora is Leia. Drax is kind of just Drax.
With the first one out of the way, I hope the sequel has them working together as a great team from the start. I still don't think Gunn is the right director for this, but lots of people are loving this, so I'm in the minority. As someone who reads Marvel's space stuff, there's an incredible and awesome universe they left out of this movie, but hinted with Thanos that I hope we eventually get to see.
Loved seeing Thanos, one of my favorite characters EVER. Wished the movie had the helmeted Nova Corpse. They sort of did, but didn't embrace it. Nova would be amazing to watch on screen, but will we ever see him?
Good movie. I personally liked Winter Soldier and Days of Future Past a lot more. It's better than Spider-Man 2, but that movie is a mixed bag of garbage and some awesomeness.
