Yup.

The traditional Guardians of the Galaxy are set in the distant future (1000 years from now) and are none of these guys. But in 2008 Marvel repurposed the name for a current-time bunch of space characters, pretty much the same ones as in this movie.

I'm mildly astonished that they're going the route of a light-hearted romp, but it could work, especially with Chris Pratt. Also, a couple quick shots of Karen Gillan as Nebula (bald space pirate lady), at 1:54 and 1:58.

Is it even possible for it to be serious after a talking raccoon and tree were added?

They rebooted a totally new Guardians of the Galaxy around 2008, led by Starlord, and with Drax, Gamora, Rocket Racoon and Groot (and others) as main characters.

I think it's a good strategic choice.

The Avengers and the component movies are making stupid amounts of money. They have one big cash cow to milk through sequels and solo movies, why use up another big name hero or group when you're riding high when you can test the waters for saturation using much less iconic characters? Once Avengers money tails off they can pick another AAA franchise to pick up from there. Besides, it means they can try and keep Avengers a bit more serious while this goes into goofy land and seeing how the audience likes it.

"Is it even possible for it to be serious after a talking raccoon and tree were added?"

Well, suppose they decided to cast Chris Pratt as a brooding, slightly emo lead, and the raccoon and the tree were inserted as comic relief to lighten things up. I've seen worse from superhero movies, so I am relieved that they seem to know which end is up.

It's not surprising at all, really. It's Marvel's "Cosmic" stuff, which (if successful) opens up the Avengers/Earth heroes to threats from SPAAAAACE without them seemingly coming from out of nowhere. This movie will probably lead to us seeing the Kree, Skrull, Captain/Ms. Marvel, etc.

what SPK said. Sci-Fi isn't doing too hot these days, and Disney isn't just going to throw Tony Stark into a spaceship and hope for the best.

The main two Marvel properties that connected the Marvel Universe to... I guess the outer spacey parts of the Marvel Universe were the Fantastic Four and X-Men. Since Disney can't really touch either of those properties, it makes sense they would introduce the extraterrestrial element with something bold and self-aware enough to shrug off the pretty reasonable criticism that it sure didn't take Marvel Studios long to run out of ideas on Earth.

Boy, that's a _lot_ more analysis of of fucking comic book universes than I was ever expecting to find on here.

It looks to me, someone who has never read an Iron Man, Captain America, Thor (of course), or Hulk comic book and had never heard of The Guardians of the Galaxy before this movie that this will just be its own thing. My understanding is that the key to if they are tying into their Avengerverse, Samuel L. Jackson will put on his coat, sit down in a chair, and muster up as much shout as his boredom will permit in a post-credits sequence nobody will stick around to watch. So, we'll see.

Comic books are for children and this site plus the internet in general is populated with man-children.

At 1:59 is the Collector, which was the post credit thing on the last Thor film, supposedly that'll tie into the next Avengers too

If Gamora is still Thanos's adopted daughter / henchwoman / whatever, and if Drax is still the same reanimated Arthur Douglas what is seeking vengeance on Thanos (who killed him on the way to an Elvis performance in Las Vegas), either or both could be what connects this to the Avengers sequel.

It's a great choice because it comes just at the time that people are perhaps getting a bit sick of two superhero movies a year. Branching out into wacky interstellar hijinks seems like a wise choice.

Also, the original Guardians comic was just a lazy ripoff of DC's Legion of Super Heroes. The best thing to ever happen to that brand was the 2008 revamp. BEARD HAS SPOKEN.

Hooker, this is a Marvel/Disney film. Until one of these movies bombs beyond all redemption, none of them will "be their own thing."

And if I read your comment correctly that you've never read this stuff, then it's no surprise it might seem really odd. A lot of the cosmic (space, future) comics were 1960s gonzo-Jack-Kirby-LSD trips for the most part. I'd say this movie owes some of its being greenlit to Doctor Who, Farscape, and other sci-fantasy series that paved the way in the culture for a "weirdness in space" film.

As weird as those comics were, they also occasionally gave the Marvel U. some interesting villains, heroes, artifacts, etc. that would find their way to Earth to fight/threaten/join the superheroes there. I think the current rumor is that we'll be seeing some kind of Object of Ultimate Power(TM) called "The Infinity Gauntlet" sooner or later, and that'll probably be revealed in this movie, perhaps post-credits.

So, the stuff I know about Marvel is from reading the Ultimate comic lines, Wikipedia, the 90s cartoons, and general zeitgeist knowledge, plus a little of a close friend of mine being a substantial lesser nerd of comics. Through all of that influence, the dumbest thing in comic books seems to be the "infinity gauntlet." Worse than time bullets, teleporting Superman, Matchsticks Malone, etc. I really hope we get that soon so Hollywood can finally crash the superhero genre into the ground and we can move back to wushu-inspired action movies or something.

Meh. It doesn't have to be like the comic exactly. It's a macguffin (just like any other movie) that has several parts that have to be assembled before it works, and the heroes have to keep it out of the hands of the bad guy and/or not be tempted to use it when they do.

It's pretty Indiana Jones standard stuff. And frankly, I don't see much difference between superhero and wushu movies. A bunch of people with powers (yes, wushu is a real martial art, just like punching people is real. It's when you can do it and kill someone/break rocks that it's kind of hard to justify) go up against a big-bad to get a thing, save the world, etc.

I'd also argue the Marvel/Disney setup is something to keep an eye on, not just for comics. This bodes well for larger stories that could span more than one film and more than one set of main characters. But if you don't care for it, you don't care for it.

No, that was Green Lantern.

you still haven't told anyone why you like Kingdom Hearts II so much

It looks awful, I was about to submit this with the description "wherein the actors would like you to know that they just don't care."

That dude is my favorite actor, he can sing and dance, and he is funny as fuck.

And his apparent partner, Peter Serafinowicz

and Vin Diesel as the tree

me too...there have been....so many

He talks.

If it makes you feel any better, they seem to have left out the Cosmo telepathic Russian space dog.

Never mind, I don't know how to read imdb. His directorial debut was Slither, which I really liked.

I'm pretty sure his directorial debut was "Tromeo and Juliet" but he might have just wrote the screen play. On a side note this is the same guy that directed motherfucking Super and that movie was seven shades of the shit.

Oh wow! I really don't know how to read imdb. I heard good things about Super, but kind of avoided it because it looked a little like a twee-fueled Kick-Ass to me, which was in-itself pretty damn twee.

Maybe it's one of those movies that falls under the "mall cop" thing.. two movies that shared many things in common but were in fact opposite films. I guess this one was my Paul Blart, and I liked Kick-ass (and Kick-ass 2) but I felt like both were reaching for their humor and shock value.

(without looking I know that Tromeo and Juliet was Lloyd Kaufman directed.. I was going through a big Troma phase back then) :)

Without doing any research (which is always a bad idea) I think one came out a year after the other and in many people's minds there was not a lot to distinguish between the two movies. I myself got a little confused and thought they it was just one movie that was called Super Kickass or that they were two related movies or some shit. Anyway I didn't care enough to find out and neither did a ton of other people I'd wager.

I'm curious to see Super now.. I had kind of forgotten about it. Kick-ass is just an ordinary kid who wants to get laid and beat up bullies so it's like a superhero Superbad. He falls in with a crowd of people who actually can do superheroic things, and the story begins. Super looks far more tragic and real (and funny and fucked up) upon rewatching the trailer.

That being said, I'm becoming more and more excited and interested in Guardians of the Galaxy with everything I learn about the director, the cast, the comic history, I really really think this will be awesome, fingers and toes crossed.

looks like I can watch "super" on youtube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TCnw2RIiXsw) con subtitles en espanol so I'll post a review :)

naw fuck it. I'm 6 only minutes in and this is one of the most charming things I've ever seen. Everyone on poeTV should watch it. There.

It's kind of weird because the further I got into the film, the more I realized that I have indeed seen this.. but I cannot for the life of me remember the context. I was going through a similar experience to Frank's in 2010 (minus the vigilantism) and remember very little of that year.

Anyway, movie's awesome from start to finish. I really hope all the special effects and Marvel backing don't ruin the charm, but I think it's in the right hands.

fucking waterfalls. Waterfucking falls. I'll shut up now. Watch it.