I first thought that this movie would be a risk for them. Guardians is a niche group in that universe. I thought they could have done a half dozen other movies on other characters/groups that would have been more familiar to the general public. That said, it looks entertaining, and I'm curious how they will tie these guys in with the Avengers and the soon to be rebooted Fantastic Four and Silver Surfer.

This movie will either do great or fizzle out quickly. It won't be somewhere in-between.

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hea...iskiest-681656


Why 'Guardians of the Galaxy' Is the Riskiest Marvel Film Since 'Iron Man' (Analysis)
11:53 AM PST 2/19/2014 by Graeme McMillan

With the first trailer, Marvel's first nonsequel in two years attempts to reassure viewers that the unfamiliar isn't as alien as it first appears.

The biggest surprise about the first Guardians of the Galaxy trailer isn't that it looks exciting, with impressive visual effects and a snarky sense of humor; we've come to expect those things from Marvel Studios movies by now, after all. No, the surprise is that it addressed the big problem for the movie immediately: Nobody really knows who these guys are.

Much has been made about the relatively low profile of Iron Man before 2008's inaugural Robert Downey Jr. vehicle, but the idea that the character was a complete unknown before then is, at best, mistaken. Not only was the character one of Marvel's core properties, having continually been in comic book use since his 1963 creation, but he had crossed over into other media many times before -- including a solo cartoon series in the 1990s, and solo video game in 2002. So prior to 2008 there certainly was some level of awareness of who Iron Man was.

STORY: 'Guardians of the Galaxy' Trailer Debuts [4]

That's not so true for the Guardians of the Galaxy. Not only is this particular version of the team relatively recent -- they first came together under that title in 2008 -- but it hadn't been a particular success the first time around, with the first Guardians series being canceled after two years due to low sales (Although the characters have made appearances in Marvel's animated series, those appearances came after the movie was announced, in an attempt to build audience awareness).

Guardians is the riskiest Marvel Studios project since the first Iron Man for that very reason. This is when everyone discovers whether or not the Marvel brand can thrive outside of the characters that everyone already knows on some level. Audiences already had an idea about who Captain America, Thor and even the Hulk were before their movies -- arguably, the Hulk's earlier success hurt him, with the movie not hewing closely enough to the 1970s TV version -- and even if The Avengers was an unfamiliar title to many, the concept of "It's all those guys in the same movie" is an obvious enough one to grasp.

For Marvel's boasts of its vast character library to have any value, however, the studio has to prove that the characters can be successful no matter how obscure to mainstream audiences who didn't grow up with a complete collection of The Official Handbook to the Marvel Universe (Deluxe Edition). In other words, Guardians of the Galaxy has to be a success (as does Ant-Man and whatever initial "Phase 3" movies are in development at the studio).

It's no surprise, then, that the first trailer for Guardians places so much emphasis on introducing these characters in easily digestible chunks of information. That actually makes it an odd trailer -- how many other movie trailers actually spend so much time saying these are our characters, this is their names and what they look like and what they do instead of concentrating on plot teases or sheer spectacle -- especially given that the team turns out to be surprisingly familiar after all?

The names, of course, are different, as are the costumes. When it comes to personalities, however, the trailer sets out to reassure: Is there a Tony Stark-like snarky lead? Check. Black Widow-like deadly female lead? Yup, and this time she's a green alien for all the Star Trek fans out there. What about a Hulk-esque big bruiser? Yes, there's one of those, with added tragic backstory. Admittedly, the raccoon and tree dude appear to be something else, but let's face it -- we have no idea whether or not Captain America fantasizes about being a gun-toting furry mammal (Thor's definitely Groot-esque, though).

In terms of visual aesthetic, Guardians similarly doesn't break a lot of new ground based on the trailer. That's a plus; less "new" to scare people off while they're trying to get used to these new characters, which helps explain the music in the slot, as well -- the percussive beats are part of our aural landscape by now, as is "Hooked on a Feeling," but the mix of the two is dissonant enough to get our attention and act as subtext for the movie itself.

Whether it's mixing cliche genre movie drums and the sound of Blue Swede or combining super heroes and space opera, the Guardians trailer wants us to recognize that what we're seeing are two great, familiar, tastes that -- hopefully -- will taste great together. If the trailer is successful, the answer to "Who are these guys?" becomes "They're just like the other Marvel heroes -- but in space," with those last three words acting as enough of a selling point alone that you're ready to buy a ticket right now.

If you have some time to spare and are interested, look up Thanos. He's the bad guy, and then you'll see the scope of what Marvel is going for by introducing the Guardians of the Galaxy.

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Here is how they were presented in the recent Avengers Earths Mightiest Heroes series.



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Huh, the voice of Peter Quill is the voice of Master Chief from the Halo games. That just won't do at all. I'm going to expect Cortana to show up now.

A laser gun wielding raccoon riding a tree monster, sorry... wont go see, wont rent... why not just have Abe Lincoln riding a polar bear shooting Stinger missiles?

Bowz, the question you put forth in post 81 is what really puzzles me... why do they keep trying to introduce these little known, never really hugely popular characters? that's what comic book movie success boils down to IMO.

Even relatively well known guys like Green Lantern and Daredevil flopped like fish out of water.

How popular was the character/characters to begin with, how long did that popularity last, how far did it cross over to non-traditional audiences? you could even carry that over into 70's tv shows that were made into movies... Land of the Lost, Bewitched, Speed Racer etc.

That's great and all, but they flopped because the parents who actually gave a damn about those shows were too old to drive the box office... kids are all that matters with these movies, now that I think about, this Gaurdians movie might be a huge hit, because the kids might love a badass raccoon.

But for me, I'd rather see 3 different takes on what I know is cool... 3 different Batmans, 3 different Supermans etc... each its own vision, each its own stand alone feature.

I hear ya, and in fact thought this was likely to be pretty stupid. After watching the trailer though, I'm sold. Feels like a sarcastic bunch of misfits. Love that kind of schtick. Kind of like Firefly, but with aliens. Hell, one of my favorite movies had "space herpes" running around.

As far as Batman/Spiderman/Superman goes, I'm getting pretty sick of them. Yes, Dark Knight has been cool with Nolan, but I would rather watch a CGI cartoon than Ben Aflac.

No worries, hope you like it.

Affleck?... I'm tellin ya, give it a chance, its so crazy it. just. might. work.

Shit, I'd rather see Reeves or Cage as Batman if we're talking shitty action actors. Absolutely no interest. I really just hate Aflac. (and yes, intentional misspelling)

You didn't like him in Argo or the Town?

Wait, what? Marvel is getting the rights to fantastic 4 back?

Beniffer stigma

DC 's major **** up is not letting Dinni do it all


he did the animated stuff, Batman, Supes, JL, JLU
you know when it was good

I AM GROOT
you never heard of the GOG?

I first heard of rocket to many years ago and then had to look it up
hate to throw firefly in
but they are semi criminal super heros

They needed a conduit to the galactic side of the marvel universe to make phase two of the Marvel story line possible.
With the Guardians having two members with direct ties to Thanos, they were the perfect choice.
Drax was created to kill Thanos.
Gamora is Thanos' adopted daughter.
The movie will feature The Collector, played by Benicio del Toro, who is holding The Aether. The weapon that was used in Thor 2. It is one of the infinity gems that Thanos collects and is who he takes it from in the comics.
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Ronan the Accuser will most likely be the bad guy with the most screen time, but it looks like it will be Thanos pulling his strings behind the scenes, from what I have read. They won't want too much Thanos in Guardians or it would spoil the goodness that will be Avengers 3.

I don't think Ronan was in the trailer, unless it was him for a split second in one of the parts near the end. Nebula, a secondary villain, is in it a couple times. This trailer was more to introduce the Guardians, as most people have never heard of them. I imagine the next couple trailers will give more of a glimpse as to the plot of the movie.

Or a 7 foot tall intelligent orangutan, a gay robot, a whiney teen, and a 600 year old muppet who is psychokinetic?...

Yeah, that's my bad. Wishful thinking on my part (even though I have heard FF and Surfer are both getting reboots. Too bad Marvel doesn't control all of its property; these guys are a natural fit in the GoG story arc).

Sadly, yes. Want to know why? Ben Affleck isn't in any of it.

All of this and yet you're ok with vampires that sparkle....huh.














































i kid, i kid

I thought they were re-booting FF as we speak because they'd lose the rights if they didn't...

That was my thought too, similar to the Spiderman reboot.

The important thing about getting FF and Surfer back isn't really them, it's Galactus. You can't really have Galactus without Surfer.

Yep, with a black guy Johnny Storm.

I'm assuming the tesseract is the power gem. I wonder which one the aether is supposed to be...

What is this a reference to?

Star Wars...

ROFL

Thanks, I didn't catch it either. Funny though!

Haven't seen the Town. Argo was good, but I just couldn't get myself not to be annoyed.

Rocket's voice:

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I'm not sure what accent he's going for there. Not much to go on. But doesn't seem to sound any variety of brit.

Ahh, thanks. I was way off.

Now that you mention it, I do remember reading about the tesseract as the cosmic cube back when Avengers came out. That makes sense.

I think the tesseract is actually the space gem, and the Aether was the power gem, but I'm not really sure.

They are definitely changing the original material.

Wow. I was right.

I wonder if they are going to introduce Adam Worlock. He is supposed to have the soul gem.

Also curious about which cosmic beings they are going to break out.
I really hope they are not going to act as if the Avengers will be enough to take down Thanos and the gems.

Still soooooo pissd that Marvel doesn't have the Surfer. He would be Huuuge in the new cosmic universe. Fox is just gonna screw him up again.

I remember reading the IG series as a kid and thinking it would make the best movie series ever. Never thought they would ever make it though.
It really is a childhood dream come true. Broke out all my old comics not to0o long back and still have them all in perfect condition.

I wonder if they will continue on the Infinity war when it's over.

For those interested in the best comic series ever (IMO)
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Uh, what?

For ****'s sake, just let Marvel have their creations back.

Yup. Black Human torch.

Yeah. Making white characters black for the movies is nothing new (Kingpin and Nick Fury are two of the best-represented characters on screen), but . . .

A. They've never changed ethnicities to any other race but black. The more this goes on the more it seems like they're singling it out, which sounds a lot like tokenism.

B. Johnny (the Human Torch) and Sue (Invisible Woman) are brother and sister, and they're apparently keeping that relationship intact. They'll have to explain that somehow, and that elevates the ethnic change from "he just happens to be black" to a storyline change, which reeks even more of tokenism.

C. Why didn't they make Reed black? He'd be a perfect candidate, and . . .

D. The guy playing Reed looks about 12; Reed is in his forties or so and one of his defining characteristics is his greying temples. Also . . .

E. Jamie Bell as the Thing? Jamie Bell was Billy Elliott. I've taken craps bigger than him.

F. Honestly, their biggest problem is that they're basing it off the atrocious fanfiction-y Ultimate series. For those who don't read comics, the 'Ultimate Universe' is a sort of parallel world they invented about 15 years ago. It's terrible - all style with no substance, with stories based mostly on shock value alone while butchering perfectly good characters, and perpetually selling only mediocre numbers but inexplicably still around. The 'Ultimate Fantastic Four' is totally unlike the characters and storyline we know: Reed is a boneless jelly-man who becomes an evil mastermind; Sue married Ben; Johnny sheds his skin periodically and hates being on the team; and Dr. Doom is a small-timer with cloven hooves and acid blood like in Alien.

It's stupidity all around, and I'll call it now: It will be a bad, bad movie. Like, Green Lantern levels of powerful bad. I wish they'd left it alone.

This.

I HATE the alternate universe shit. Dumbest shit Marvel ever did. Leave it to Fox to use that story arc for one of the biggest Marvel groups. So stupid.

The FF movies were horrible. No reason to think they will be any better this time.
Selling those properties and, my God, including the Surfer and Galactus with them, is the biggest mistake marvel has made, by far.

I'm done with the Fantastic Four and they haven't even filmed a frame yet. Christ.

What's next, the Silver Surfer is going to have a flying droid sidekick that feeds him the Power Cosmic? Galactus is going to be a collective of two dozen ancient Pygmies riding in a giant construct? **** me.

Don't give them any ideas.

It really is a shame that I have zero interest in seeing a movie that might include the SS and Galactus.
I have zero faith that the movie has any chance what so ever of doing the characters any justice.

God damn it, that looks amazing.

I wonder if that object in the first 30 sec. is an infinity gem.
Doubt it, but who knows.

I'm fine with Marvel switching up race and ethnicity of secondary characters. A lot of these comic book characters were created before the civil rights movement so there either were no blacks or they were extremely stereotypical. Seriously, check out early incarnations of Luke Cage/Power Man.

With that said, I'd agree that they should try a bit harder to include a more diverse palate as opposed to basically just making everyone black. Off the top of my head, the only switch I can think of that wasn't white-to-black was the Asian warrior dude from Thor.

.. Speaking of all of this Avengers and Galactus/Thanos stuff, these next few movies would be perfect timing to introduce guys like Luke Cage and Black Panther. Without being able to get the rights to Fantastic Four and the Silver Surfer, I'm not sure where Marvel is planning on getting the firepower to take down a guy like Thanos, especially powered by the Infinity Gauntlet. They did a pretty good job of showing off Stark and Banner's scientific acumen but a guy like Black Panther could fill in for Reed Richard's brilliance in a pinch.

I'm not sure they are going to be able to make Thanos as powerful as he is in the comics, and even if so, Thanos was tricked into losing the power anyway.
It really doesn't matter who they pit against him, he destroyed even the mighty Eternity with the IG. He is invincible any way you slice it, and will have to be tricked or something for him to lose.
Maybe they will pull what they did when the Magus had the guantlet, and one of the gems will be a fake or something rendering him vulnerable.
It will be interesting to see how they pull it off.

Cage is going to be in the Netflix Defenders series, so they can't use him. And Hogun (the Asian warrior-dude) has always been Asian in the comics; his people were Mongol Horde-like.

Introducing the guardians gives you quite a bit of firepower against Thanos. Although I wish Adam Warlock was in the movie, as he is by far the most powerful Guardian. The movie will also introduce the Nova Corps.

They are probably making movies for Panther and Dr. Strange before Avengers 3, so those two will help quite a bit. Not to mention Antman/Giantman.

I could see Thanos going up against Asgard and ****ing up Odin/Loki, thus which would force Thor into the King role, and asking for the Avengers and the full power of the Asgardian and all the realms' forces against Thanos.

Damn, for realz? I was thinking I had read some people were outraged about that along with Heimdall being black.

I really don't give a shit about race.

I just want a great movie that's fun to watch.

That was a freaking epic trailer. God, Marvel just needs to keep making movies forever.

I want to know who is holding up Drax by his neck late in the trailer.

Any guesses?

That is most likely Ronan the Accuser, who will be the main villain on screen. It appears that he has his hammer by his side and he is probably the only being strong enough (besides Thanos) in the movie to manhandle Drax like that.

Can someone help me understand how these characters tie into those of the Avengers world? I am really confused as to who the bad guys are we haven't really seen yet and how they fit in as well and this is all leading up that.

Day old, but don't appear to be posted yet aside from Rocket (which I'm gonna repost to keep them all together). Plus the awesome one sheet.

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This thread tells 90% of the story.

Gunn confirmed that it is indeed Ronan.

Here is that and some other good tid bits.
http://comicbook.com/blog/2014/02/19...cs-references/

In the Avengers post-credits scene it was revealed that the Chitauri were working for Thanos.

http://i.imgur.com/SLK57Xu.jpg

Thanos wanted the Tesseract because it is one of the six Infinity Stones. If all six stones are assembled the bearer gets godlike powers. In the comics Thanos wants that power to kill everybody in order to impress the personification of Death, who he is in love with.

Thanos (who is an alien) and the Guardians of the Galaxy are both generally associated with the cosmic/space section of the Marvel Universe. Also, in the comics at least, two members of the Guardians have connections to Thanos. They mention in the trailer that Drax's (muscle guy) family was killed; in the comics that was Thanos. Also Gamora (green chick) was raised and trained by Thanos.

So the Tesseract is one of the six Infinity Stones, the Aether (from Thor 2) is another one. There is a third one in Guardians of the Galaxy. Generally it's assumed that Avengers 3 will have to do with Thanos assembling all six and trying to kill everybody.

Yep. A lot of people don't realize it, though, because (his village having been wiped out when he was a child) he was adopted into Asgardian society. (He did keep his fur-lined helmet and growing a dark beard, though.) Plus, he generally hasn't been drawn the way comic writers typically drew Asians; he made his first appearance in 1965, and Asians at the time (especially the Chinese) were drawn . . . well, let's say differently.

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Sweet Christmas!

Awesome thanks!

Wasn't really interested in this movie initially because I thought it was a stand alone, but I'm intrigued now since it ties into all the others.

There are no stand alone movies in the Marvel Studios universe. Thats whats cool about them. They all tie in together.


The Spider Man and X-Men films dont count because Marvel doesnt own the rights to them on film at this time.

From the pages of an unidentified comic...

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Which is why I think they'll keep using these "Thanos behind the scenes shorts" until they do...

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Not being a dick here, but isn't this the same trailer that has been out for quite some time?

It's like a minute of actual footage from the movie. So.....no.

It's basically just a handful of extra seconds, an extended look at one of the trailer scenes, but either way, it is new.

It would seem just as reeruned if Luke Cage was white.

See what i'm sayin'?

Saw previews for it before Captain America...I think I'll be going to see it just because it's from the past and I don't know about it.

New trailer coming in a couple of days:

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