#211 – Guardians of the Galaxy (2014): The Beginning of a Found Family

Welcome back to Marvel Maniac and MCU after show. This is your host, Eric Cicada, aka Mr. Honest, back with you for another retrospective. I'm really excited to be talking about this today. Guardians of the Galaxy 2014, the original Volume 1 film. There are spoilers ahead. This episode contains Guardians of the Galaxy, volumes one through three, and Avengers, Infinity War, Slash, End game, major Guardians, appearances across the mcu. This is about the first movie, but it's an. In a retrospect kind of viewing of it, kind of seeing where they go from here and looking back and at how things kind of started and how they lead to where we get. To me, this movie is iconic. It's one of my favorite Marvel films of all time. On its own, standing alone when it came out, it's all it needed to be. Something about the MCU and the. The scripts and the movies, when they do them right, especially around these times, they're nostalgia pieces. I can only think of seeing this in theaters and then sometime, maybe around Christmas at the same year, putting it on, renting it, and just enjoying the hell of this movie on its own. Not about where it was going, but just for what it was. So let's start at the humble beginning that changed everything. Before the MCU knew it needed Guardians of the Galaxy, before audiences trusted a talking raccoon in a walking tree, James Gunn quietly planted one of the most important emotional foundations in the entire Infinity saga. This movie isn't just an origin story. It's a promise. A promise that these characters are going somewhere. Even if, in 2014, we had no idea just how painful that journey would become, especially for such a comedic group. Guardians of the Galaxy arrived in theaters in 2014, and at the time, it felt like Marvel's biggest gamble. No Avengers, no Earth, no familiar heroes anchoring the audience. This was a risk. Just space, music and attitude, and somehow it worked perfectly. Come and get your love, get your love. I love it. I love that song. From the opening seconds, James Gunn tells you exactly what kind of movie this is. Peter Quill dances through the ruins of an empty planet. To come and get your love became one of my favorite songs thanks to this movie. It always still comes up in my rotations. Always still listen to it. The music doesn't sit on top of the movie. The movie moves to the music, and it's very special in that sense because it follows Star Lord as a character himself. In that sense, we see the world and the universe through his lens, and it's a ballad. The soundtrack carries the film and the Film gives the soundtrack new life. And what makes that opening even more special in hindsight is how underplayed it all is. Peter Quill casually stealing the Power Stone, one of the most dangerous objects in the universe, like. Like it's just another job for him. We literally time travel back to this exact moment in Endgame. And Rhodey sums it up perfectly. So he's an idiot. Full circle storytelling. Chills when you get to it in Endgame. Chills when the movie's starting on its own. And that song, it's iconic now because of this moment. It's kind of this MCU's running up that hill to stranger things, in a sense. So let's talk about this rogue crew with an attitude. This movie has attitude. Rocket, Groot, Gamora and Drax. They don't start as heroes. They don't even start as friends. By all means, they start off as adversaries. They're angry, they're broken, and they're selfish. And that's exactly why the Found Family arc works so beautifully. It's earned. Watching them clash on Xandar, fighting over the Power Stone feels chaotic, but it's intentional. These people don't belong together until they do. And by the end of the film, when Groot sacrifices himself, it lands because the groundwork was planted so carefully. We are Groot. That's not just a line. That's the thesis of the Guardians. This Groot, the original Groot, isn't the one we know later. He's stronger, he's older, he's more powerful. He dies so another version of him can live, thanks to Rocket. And by the time we get to Guardians of the Galaxy, Volume 3, many years later, we. Groot finally stands tall again. It feels earned. So let's talk a little bit about Chris Pratt. There's this genuine optimism around Chris Pratt. And in 2014, fans watched him go from Andy Dwi on Parks and Recreation, one of my favorite shows, one of my favorite characters, to Star Lord. He transformed himself physically and creatively, and that mattered. This wasn't just casting. It was inspiration. Seeing someone climb out of the pit and onto the biggest screen in the world gave Guardians an extra layer of heart. That belief bleeds into the character. Peter Quill isn't perfect, but he tries. And that's why Gamora falls for him. Now, let's talk a little bit about Gamora. Timing and tragedy in general. Watching this movie after Infinity War changes everything, because we know where Gamora's story ends. Her love with Peter works here because it's organic. It's timing, it's sacrifice and its moments lived, not memories chased. That's why Peter can't win her back when it comes to volume three. He keeps loving the old Gamora. But the Gamora who fell in love with him only existed here in these moments in volume one. And that's what makes her death in Infinity War one of the most devastating in the mcu. Even though we get her back, this movie is where the pain begins. For that moment, let's talk about Thanos laying in the shadows of this movie. This is the Guardians true narrative purpose. They are our bridge to Thanos before Age of Ultron, before Infinity War. We meet him here. This was the second time we get to see him since that post credit scene in the original Avengers. The voice is deeper, growlier and more menacing than the guy that we get to meet in Infinity War. He doesn't feel fully realized yet, but he's still terrifying. His throne, his smile, and his calm cruelty. Definitely the beginnings of what we get to know Thanos to to be and how he does end up looking. And I kind of am glad personally that he had these moments to kind of throw down and compare and contrast probably when they were making Infinity War, to what aspects of him they wanted to keep from this performance and to what they really wanted the character to be and sound like and look like. And they really define that and get it down pretty good. By the time Infinity War comes in and when Roman Ronan defies Thanos, it feels dangerous because we know what's coming. The outer universe already fears Thanos. Earth just hasn't met him yet. So let's move into Xandar. The victory at Xandar and what comes next. The Guardians save Xandar, they save the entire galaxy and they earn their freedom. Ronan, in my opinion, definitely a Thanos level threat. With that Power Stone, if he goes for other Stones, we have Infinity War all over again. With maybe a more bloodthirsty villain. John C. Reilly tells Peter at the end of the movie, my family is alive because of you. And that line hurts later because we know Thanos eventually decimates Xandar word for word out of Thor's mouth. The Power Stone is taken and the Nova corpse fall off screen. That unseen battle may be one of the greatest tragedies the MCU never showed. A full scale war. Thanos unleashed. And all we get is the echo. That's powerful storytelling. There's a hero named Nova in the comics. I've talked to Ryan Airy about this, maybe even on air in our first interview, episode 100 special. Go back and listen. Ryan Area Screen crush. Awesome guy. He came on the show two times. 100 episode 100 episode 201. He graced us with his presence and his literal encyclopedic knowledge of the characters that we talk about, like Thanos and technically about the Infinity Saga as a whole. Going into doomsday in our second interview, in my opinion, one of the very best parts of Guardians of the Galaxy. Even in its darkest moment. Like, well, I guess in all the movies in their darkest moments, there's a lot of comedy. The comedy is undefeatable even in the highest risk of situations. The dance off to save the universe. Ronin looking so stunned and confused at what Peter's doing. Like he's never seen a guy do a hip thrust that confidently and do this very confident dance to just distract him to get the power stone out of his. What's it called? His hammer. There's a name for it. Later, I think we see the enemy, the bad guy, and the Marvels uptake the same weapon, but no Infinity Stone in it. But before we get too off topic, let's just say this Guardians of the Galaxy isn't just fun, it's foundational. It proves that the MCU could take risks. We didn't know who they were. They weren't connected to the Avengers. They weren't from Earth. Peter was very beginning of the movie, very sad beginning of the movie where his mom has cancer and he refuses to hold her hand because the pain is too real and then she dies. It is heartbreaking. And I think that's why they need to lift us up real quick into that spaceship and then straighten to the come and get your love beginning part of Peter Quill walking through the credits to grab that power stone, bringing that light hearted twist to a very sad and emotional moment. A sequence of emotion that we definitely see through throughout their story. It even slides into Infinity War. They still got their music. It just proves that found family could rival super soldiers and gods. And knowing where these characters end up, especially by volume three, makes this first movie feel sacred. It's where the love starts before the loss, before the grief, before the end. This was the beginning and it was perfect. This is Marvel Maniac, where we don't decide what should be cut. We remember why we cared, especially in a shorter episode like this, just to kind of go over their story, remember them knowing Peter Quill will return in one way or another for sure. As told by the end of Guardians 3. I'd personally like to see the Guardians and Guardians 3 have their own movie. The New Guardians. That'd be a great name for it too. So we would love we isn't me. I would love if you could just do me a favor and rate the show. Give it 5 stars on Apple or wherever you're listening to it. But Apple's very important. We want to get in those algorithms. So if you're listening to the show, your help counts. Every single one of you. Any one of you going to the section of rate to show and leave a review and it will be read on the show. You'll be honored. You'll be a Hall of Fame super member. We love you for that. We haven't had a review in a while because I haven't really asked for it. I wanted to make the episodes. I have fun with the show, but it's time to start moving the show to a new level. So I'm going to just call this to action. Rate the show, give us five stars, tell us some cool things in the review of your rating and it'll really help the podcast grow. That's all I need you to do. And if you want to stay connected, we just started a new discord called the Honest Verse. Discord. It's our new nowhere. It's linked in the description. There are roles you could pick just from Marvel Maniac. I also have connected in there little roles for Magic Muggle, my Harry Potter after show and my Twitch channel which I'm playing Spider man right now. That is all in the Discord linked in there. You can come see me on Twitch play Spider Man Talk Marvel, you are completely welcome there. No matter who the heck you are. You are appreciated, you are loved and it means the world to me that you've listened to this episode. Thank you so much. We will be going into the future Guardians movies and breaking them down one by one. I'd recommend going back and finding my first video or sorry podcast on Guardians of the Galaxy where me and TJ go through the whole series. Whole different type of episode. If you're in that Guardians of the Galaxy mood. It's long overdue that we talk about this movie on its own though, so I'm really glad we had the time to do that. Again. Rate the show Honest verse Discord in the in the about section. And that is all for today. Thank you for listening. I hope you have your special Guardians Volume 1 soundtrack blasting in your ears this weekend or week, whatever, whatever, whenever you're listening to this. And until next time, Avengers disassemble.