Flashback: First Impressions of the Guardians

(Guest post by Russell)

First impressions are often a big deal. I thought I offended my wife during my first interaction with her. Fortunately, for me, she has no memory of it and now we have a great story to tell. When I first heard about the Guardians of the Galaxy back in 2014, I was very much like Korath responding to Star-Lord the first time, “Who?” I knew it was going to be a Marvel movie and I had enjoyed the other movies I had seen up to that time.  I recall hearing on the radio that the soundtrack was the first album that was number #1 and made up of previously released tracks. A classmate of mine at the time told me that the “Guardians of the Galaxy” were to the “Avengers” what the Suicide Squad was to the Justice League. This did not clear things up for me a whole lot, but  I saw the trailer and it looked fun. However, the timeframe for going to see it was not in the “I have to do this right now” section of my to do list. 

In the midst of a lot of moving for a lot of crazy reasons including cockroaches and cop calls for neighbors, we found ourselves in our almost empty apartment when my wife asked, “Do you want to take a break and go see a movie?” I replied, almost with tears in my eyes, “YES! Can we go see Guardians of Galaxy?” My wife replied in the affirmative and off we went. Not only was the soundtrack awesome and still remains one of my favorites to this day, but it was just a fun movie. I had no expectations and found myself laughing while enjoying the action and story as well. I loved the resolution of the Guardians with the people of Xandar. I loved Star-Lord doing a dance-off with Ronan and pretty much all of the funny things he does in the movie. Trying to pick up on Gamora by telling her about Kevin Bacon. Drax taking everything so literally that nothing ever goes over his head. Rocket speaking perfect “groot” language and taking fake legs and eyes just for the fun of it. I loved Groot’s sacrifice and dropping little firefly like things all over the place and on an on. I love when serious things are happening in a movie, but the movie does not take itself too seriously. Do you know what I mean? Yes, the Guardians so an epic walk, but it’s to the song “Cherry Bomb” and it’s right after they are all trying to get into leather pants and jackets, except Drax and Groot, so it’s serious, but funny. Seriously funny, my favorite kind of funny, seriously.

I especially loved how the “good” guys had their flaws and still worked together to beat the bad guys. That is not to say that I in any way, shape, or form condone any of the bad things that the good guys did, but in the end, they all stood together (literally, which was hilarious!) to beat Ronan from destroying Xandar. I guess it’s just a good reminder that in spite of flaws, we can still do good. 

So, my first impression of the movie was, “THIS IS AWESOME! I LOVE THIS SO MUCH! I’M LAUGHING SO HARD! THIS IS AWESOME!” and it gave us the much needed break to get back to packing, unpacking, cleaning, and getting back to life. I have since seen "Volume 1" a number of times, but that first time will always serve as a tender mercy of being able to take a break from life for a while, which, I suppose is sometimes what movies and entertainment are meant to do.