Guardians of the Galaxy What you didn't like about Guardians of the Galaxy - Flaws/Critiques

[Sexy Magician]

My point isn't that they owe us a develop moment at the end, my point is that Howard the Duck summed up the choices this film made--choices that didn't thrill me. And I don't think the movies are solely for the non comic book readers. The best ones (e.g. Avengers, Winter Soldier) cross over for both.

Hahahaha Marvel dont 'owe' us anything, they just released a movie with a walking gun toting racoon and its a box office smash, and had the guts to pull off Avengers, the fact you said 'they owe us' cements my point that you, like a lot of others, have been spoiled. Don't get me wrong, you are more than entitled to your opinion, you didn't like the movie so much and thats fine, I loved it, its when people complain about the end credits scene, its like you're getting to much of a good thing and feel like you are now owed what you desire, as a guy who has read comics for over 20 years, I loved seeing Howard the Duck.

 

[Sevprince]

First Off:





You're not nuts. I hated those moments. It made me dislike him immensely.

In general, it's a relief to see this thread as I'm only hearing people love it. Not sure there is much to add to this that hasn't been said, but I'd sum up that there are two kinds of complaints.

The first that I agree with expressed here are versus the comic book:

--Ronan being a super thin cardboard version of the a far more interesting character. Completely wasted as a throwaway villain.

--Gamora being way too soft. The deadliest woman in the universe was pretty much a damsel in distress who could kick a little bit. And way too nice.

--Drax was too weak. And not having his specific mission be the destruction of Thanos? It's literally why he exists.

--Rocket was okay, but I agree with some points here that he was kind of a more unlikable sort of sardonic as opposed to the fun kind he is in the comic.

--No mention of Nova. Nova Corps in general being kind of weak. General lack of hinting at all the potential cosmic beings and the power levels at play.

--Physical look of Thanos far worse than in Avengers. And in general, give him an opportunity to show how dangerous he is. Why was he okay with Ronan doing that to the Other?

The second kind is as a movie in general. I agree that it was as though it were trying to distract us with jokes (kind of mean spirited ones at times, at that) to cover for the fact that it didn't know how to develop these characters or their world properly. Sum it up in two moments. The cringe worthy dance to distract Ronan. It's the entire film in a nutshell. Don't know how to handle this so I'll distract you with a dance (or a nostalgia song, or a joke). And the appearance of Howard the Duck--opting for a cheap laugh instead of a moment of development in the MCU.

I get that people found it entertaining, but why I loved Avengers is because it was rewarding if you read the comic and also if you did not. This one feels tailored to appeal to the non-comic reading world.

This movie was very flawed. I wasn't sure what it was trying to be. Was it suppose to be goofy meta commentary about its genre and/or parody? There was a lot of that I felt.
Was it suppose to be honest take on the GotG and the marvel cosmic world?
Was it suppose to be full on comedy?
The movie was all over the place tone wise.
The humor was juvenile and I didn't find most of it funny.
Totally failed Gamora, Ronan and Nebula. Too much telling with clumsy exposition and not any showing. Unfortunately, they were the characters I was most interested learning about. Wasn't impressed by Thanos either in his brief appearance. That had to do with the three characters connect to him being total fail.
They didn't do good job explaining the gems.

Positives are Rocket and Groot. They save the movie for me.
The movie visually was gorgeous. The make up and costumes were great except I didn't like Ronan's make up.
They did great job with the world building and setting of the alien world.

It was total let down.

 

[ATuttle]

Hahahaha Marvel dont 'owe' us anything, they just released a movie with a walking gun toting racoon and its a box office smash, and had the guts to pull off Avengers, the fact you said 'they owe us' cements my point that you, like a lot of others, have been spoiled. Don't get me wrong, you are more than entitled to your opinion, you didn't like the movie so much and thats fine, I loved it, its when people complain about the end credits scene, its like you're getting to much of a good thing and feel like you are now owed what you desire, as a guy who has read comics for over 20 years, I loved seeing Howard the Duck.

I think you misread my post. I was making the point that they don't owe us anything.

 

[Sexy Magician]

I think you misread my post. I was making the point that they don't owe us anything.

Yeah my bad

 

[amazingfantasy15]

I dunno. I think Marvel were just concentrating on this movie being it's own thing without having to delve too much into what's happened in previous movies or what's going to happen in upcoming ones.

I wasn't fussed at the end credits scene, personally. They've been in every other MCU movie so it was kinda refreshing to have a little break from that.

I actually found the movie to include huge amounts of foreshadowing for the Infinity Gauntlet storyline that Marvel is obviously working toward. I think it's just disguised because no one from the Avengers is there. I think using the end credits scene to tie it into Avengers, which is what it would have needed to do, would've been a mistake.

 

[piccolo]

There were a lot of characters in this movie with histories that deserved more elaborate detail. As comics fans we already know exactly who the Collector, Ronan, Nebula, Gamora, Thanos and Drax are and what they've been doing for the past 60 years, so merely seeing them provides a certain level of fanboy geektasm sufficient to satisfy us on a surface level. And for non-comics fans seeing the movie, they have no idea what kind of incredible histories these characters have, so even if they are left wanting more of a backstory on them, they still only have an inkling of the wonders they're missing out on.

I'm not saying they should have expanded on everyone's story, because they didn't have enough time to do that. But having the knowledge of what was left untold and not shown from these amazing characters makes it more of a shame that we got highly abridged cliffs notes on everyone involved, at most. The reason Avengers came together so seamlessly was because everyone had their solo movies first so by the time we got to the team film, we didn't need hurried, forced explanations of everyone's story and motivation.

I understand that process wasn't possible with Guardians, or even practical, but the entire universe of amazingly cool stuff that got almost zero screentime just bums me out. They showed a celestial (!), which i'm still geeking over, and didn't expand on it at all. It was just briefly....there, with as little lipservice as they could give it. If I didn't read comics I would have had no idea how hard I should have been freaking out.

Will we get more in the future movies? Maybe. Maybe not. But there was little reason to care about many of the figures in this cosmic game, many of whom were just vehicles through which to get the main character to the final scene instead of major MU players whom had meaningful existence before Starlord came into their lives.

 

[marcvader]

There were a lot of characters in this movie with histories that deserved more elaborate detail. As comics fans we already know exactly who the Collector, Ronan, Nebula, Gamora, Thanos and Drax are and what they've been doing for the past 60 years, so merely seeing them provides a certain level of fanboy geektasm sufficient to satisfy us on a surface level. And for non-comics fans seeing the movie, they have no idea what kind of incredible histories these characters have, so even if they are left wanting more of a backstory on them, they still only have an inkling of the wonders they're missing out on.

I'm not saying they should have expanded on everyone's story, because they didn't have enough time to do that. But having the knowledge of what was left untold and not shown from these amazing characters makes it more of a shame that we got highly abridged cliffs notes on everyone involved, at most. The reason Avengers came together so seamlessly was because everyone had their solo movies first so by the time we got to the team film, we didn't need hurried, forced explanations of everyone's story and motivation.

I understand that process wasn't possible with Guardians, or even practical, but the entire universe of amazingly cool stuff that got almost zero screentime just bums me out. They showed a celestial (!), which i'm still geeking over, and didn't expand on it at all. It was just briefly....there, with as little lipservice as they could give it. If I didn't read comics I would have had no idea how hard I should have been freaking out.

Will we get more in the future movies? Maybe. Maybe not. But there was little reason to care about many of the figures in this cosmic game, many of whom were just vehicles through which to get the main character to the final scene instead of major MU players whom had meaningful existence before Starlord came into their lives.

All these things make me excited for this franchise and the rest of the cosmic side of the MCU.

 

[piccolo]

I couldn't have been more excited for the future of the MCU than I already was. I'm all in.

What I needed sitting in that theater was a more compelling movie to watch.

 

[scatterax]

I thought the tone was pretty consistent and over all I really enjoyed the film. My criticisms are just the moments when the film tried to tell us what to think or how to feel, but never why. For instance in towards the end we are told

Spoiler

groot could die

but we aren't given any reason to believe he won't heel himself like before. Are we just supposed to assume there are limitations? Some kinds of damage he can't recover from? We are just told on the spot out of no where that we should worry about him but I wasn't for a second. Then there's gamora. When we meet her we are told she should be feared. That she is the deadliest assassin in the galaxy. But the first time we see her with star lord she just snatches the orb and runs. In a strait line. Away from a guy with a gun. Not only does this go against what we are told to expect from her it's just... Stupid tactics. Then later on we are meant to trust her at her word the way star lord does (why does star lord trust her so easily?) just because she appears to all the sudden out of no where! have a heart of gold? Ok, but why? In this sense the movie is guilty of telling and not showing.

 

[Flint Marko]

Has it explained why thanos isn't getting these stones for himself? Why did he charge Ronan with getting it, if he was so powerful why can't he get it done himself? If it isn't addressed here, then it's something that will need to be touched on later.

 

[DA_Champion]

A criticism from my original review in the user review thread:

a loud climax that is hard to follow and full of cross-cuts between the actions of the different characters. To continue on the Star Wars analogy preferred by GoTG director James Gunn, Red Letter Media once pointed out that A New Hope had 1 climax sequence, The Empire Strikes Back had 2, The Return of the Jedi had 3, and The Phantom Menace has 4. Within the climax of GoTG, we have the actions of Peter and company chasing Ronan, Gamorah fighting Nebula, the fighters navigating an air battle, the ground command of Xandar, that of Rocket Racoon, and that of the bounty hunters, so it's a climax sequence divided into ***SIX*** parallel narrative subcomponents, that's pretty bad.

 

[ThePowerCosmic]

I don't think we ever learned where Drax's scars came from. I hope it's explained in the sequel.

 

[Grimworth]

I was informed by a fellow poster that the scene in which Rocket tells Quill to grab the prosthetic leg was getting a lot of hate on this site. Of course everyone's entitled to their opinion, but as an amputee myself I thought it was hilarious. During the movie I noticed, out of the corner of my eye, my brother looking at me to see if the scene bothered me and he seemed relieved when I burst out laughing.

Believe me, I'm not happy being an amputee and it's been a real b*tch in SO many ways, but I thought the scene was vey funny and some good irreverent humor. I think that, at times, the politically correct society we live in can go over the line sometimes. A joke is a joke.

That's how I saw it. Feel free to disagree. Every opinion is valid. I had a good laugh

 

[Colossal Spoons]

^Not surprised. Now all we need is somebody who's missing an eye to come in here and say they thought it was funny too.

 

[The Endless]

Well my pet rat died when the neighbours 5 year old picked it up and started using it as a microphone. But i thought the opening titles sequence was hilarious.

Does that count?

 

[kedrell]

I'd say the awkward moments in the film bugged me the most. It lacked the polish one usually sees with a film like this. Now I fully believe that wasn't a mistake but rather an intentional choice and so I can't really fault it heavily for that. But it did make me enjoy the film less. All the other MCU films are significantly more polished in than this film, though many of them have their own foibles.

 

[Joe Von Zombie]

^Not surprised. Now all we need is somebody who's missing an eye to come in here and say they thought it was funny too.

I'm blind in my right eye, does that count? I found that scene funny.

 

[P Supreme]

Quill Dancing in the final battle was very WTF moment and the post credit scene was the worst out of Marvel yet
boy reading the last couple of pages I wonder do some of you enjoy ANY MOVIE cause honestly some of the complaints are insane

 

[PunyGod]

...

 

[kedrell]

I didn't mind the dancing bit once it's purpose was made clear but I agree that the lack of any sort of connective tissue in the end credits scenes to any future MCU films was kind of a letdown.

 

[StarLord]

I thought it was alright. Marvel has used it for every movie so far, so it was kinda cool to get a break from the whole ''lets set this next thing up, because that's what we're expected to do''.

 

[PunyGod]

...

 

[kedrell]

I think Avenger's model did it best. You can have 2 with one for universe building and one for simple fan service or a joke. This had 2 and both were jokes.

 

[Colossal Spoons]

I didn't mind the dancing bit once it's purpose was made clear but I agree that the lack of any sort of connective tissue in the end credits scenes to any future MCU films was kind of a letdown.

Yeah, once Quill explained why he was dancing, I accepted the scene. But I was definitely confused for its entirety.

 

[TheHeatKitchen]

I thought it was alright. Marvel has used it for every movie so far, so it was kinda cool to get a break from the whole ''lets set this next thing up, because that's what we're expected to do''.

Incredible Hulk didn't have one. It had a scene with Tony talking to Ross at the end of the film, but it was before any credits.
Iron Man 3 just showed Tony and Bruce talking. It was just as pointless, if not more so than the one in GOTG.

IMO, there is so much going on in this universe that we don't see, it's refreshing and interesting to see a small scene that we normally wouldn't in the background of the MCU.

Also, regarding this specific scene after GOTG, while I agree with others that something to tie it to something else in the MCU would've been nice, this scene itself was a great little laugh, like the Jotun monster after TTDW.