I had forgotten just how fun Guardians of the Galaxy is. Back when I first reviewed it in 2014, it surprised me with how different it was and just how much it opened up the Marvel Universe. Well, we’ve seen some pretty crazy things since then (Thor Ragnarok springs to mind), but it’s still a pretty crazy movie. I mean, come on. It’s a man obsessed with classic rock, a badass green woman assassin, an overly literal shirtless wrestler, a cybernetically enhanced racoon, and a speaking tree ^{1 2}. Add in the first real hints of the Infinity Stones, Thanos as the continuing ‘bigger bad’, and you have a pretty impactful movie.

And then on top of that, you get an absolutely hilarious movie, some wonderful action scenes (the meet up / fight in the square at the beginning is particularly wonderful, but there are several), and a whole range of colorful new characters. When you don’t have to even try to stick to what works on Earth… things get pretty silly.

Overall, a wonderful movie. I think this time around, I actually rate it higher than the Avengers, although still below Iron Man and Captain America 1 and 2. Well worth a watch.

For the record: the ending scene is still kind of dumb.

Random side note: the idea of a whole fleet of starships linking up (somehow) and literally trying to push a very slow moving enemy spaceship back into space is just bonkers. Among a movie full of crazy scenes, that one came the closest to really pulling me out of the film. But so it goes.

Original 2014 review:

Can Marvel do no wrong?

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From one of the weakest MCU movies to one of the strongest. I loved the first solo entry of Captain American and the second is even better. Much like last time, I very much enjoyed this movie.

It’s a solid contrast against the first Captain America (blind optimistic patriotism versus a darker world, where even your friends… might not be). It’s made all the better having already seen the future of Sam and Bucky/The Winter Soldier now. Last time through, I was hoping they could pull off all the new characters and now… I think they did.

This time around (and so far), the top of my list for the year. An excellent movie.

Original 2014 review:

Out of all the pre-Avengers / Phase One Marvel Cinematic Universe movies, it’s really a toss up whether Iron Man or Captain American was my favorite. In Phase Two? It’s not even a question¹. Captain America: The Winter Soldier.

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I really liked the first How to Train Your Dragon. It was cute and it was fun. Cute, the sequel had. Fun, more or less. But it was still missing something.

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Apparently Jeff Bridges.as been trying to have The Giver turned into a movie for the better part of two decades. Originally, he wanted to have Lloyd Bridges.n the eponymous role. He even apparently went so far as to have a version filmed somewhere, although so far as I know that version has never been made publically available.

I wonder if that one diverged so much from the book?

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Wait, is it 2003 again?

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Disclaimer time: I have a full time job now. And a baby at home. Some combination of these things means that I have nowhere near as much time to go see movies as I once did. So it goes.

But rather than let this particular part of my blog go to waste, I think that I’ll go ahead and keep writing up movies. Just instead of movies in theaters, I’ll aim for new releases on DVD / VOD.

Why?

Edge of Tomorrow.

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If only the writers had used more than 10% of their brains to come up with a better basis for their film…

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Maleficient was magnificent.

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After the awesome first two films, the relative failures of The Last Stand and the Wolverine(s), and the return to form of First Class, I was cautiously hopeful for Days of Future Past. It had potential–near full casts of both sets of X-Men?–but potential doesn’t necessarily mean good.

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I think that–for once–I was the perfect audience for this movie. Just geeky enough that I enjoy a good Spider-Man movie, but not so geeky that whatever changes they made from the comics are going to jump out / particularly bother me.

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