Road to Infinity War: GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY Retrospective


Welcome to the Road to AVENGERS: INFINITY WAR. This is my own little retrospective of each of Marvel Studios' films every week of 2018 and by the time I am done looking back at all of the MCU movies, Infinity War will be releasing in theaters in the U.S. on May 4 worldwide on April 27. I've already talked about IRON MAN, THE INCREDIBLE HULK, IRON MAN 2, THOR, CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE FIRST AVENGER, and THE AVENGERS to conclude Phase 1.

Phase 2 has taken shape with IRON MAN 3, THOR: THE DARK WORLD, CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE WINTER SOLDIER, and now GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY...

The summer of 2012... I can remember this moment vividly... I was sitting outside of the little bungalow hotel suite I rented in San Diego looking out at the Pacific Ocean in complete shock, and astonishment, at what Marvel Studios has just announced in Hall H earlier that day. The studio took San Diego Comic-Con International 2012 by surprise when announcing their Phase 2 lineup which included the introduction of the cosmic superhero team GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY. I was shocked because the announcement to bring an unknown space opera team into the Marvel Cinematic Universe came out of nowhere; and I was astonished because the studio had to balls to actually do it.

Sure, THE AVENGERS had already been released several month before and took in over $1.5 billion worldwide, but this was before IRON MAN 3 made another $1 billion in May 2013 and way before director James Gunn was hired on to helm this space opera film. I also remember thinking how great this movie could be since this could be Marvel's version of a Star Wars movie.

When I went back into my suite, I started some Google searching as well as buying up some comic books and immediately purchase the complete run of Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning's run of Guardians from 2008. Once I got back home and those comics arrived, I started to read them and immediately understood why Marvel Studios wanted to bring the Guardians to the big screen... mostly due to how great Rocket Raccoon and Groot were in those stories.

But bringing GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY to the big screen wasn't the craziest thing the studio was about to do as it brought on former Troma Entertainment writer and director James Gunn to helm this ambitious, and at the time, very risky movie. Gunn had never worked on a big budget film production, although his work on the superhero satire movie SUPER is what caught the attention of studio head Kevin Fiege. Gunn put in a tremendous amount of preparation for his pitch to get the gig as it has been reported how he wrote a massive, and very detailed, treatment of the opening scene that made it into the film.

However, hiring Gunn wasn't the only shocking news out of the development and pre-production of this film as Gunn hand-picked actor Chris Pratt in the lead role of Peter Quill / Star-Lord. Fans were unsure about this casting choice as Pratt was well-known as the doughy funny man in the television series PARKS AND RECREATION. Pratt went on to make himself over by getting ripped, and this role is one of the biggest reasons he is one of the brightest stars in Hollywood right now. This was his breakout role and a role of the lifetime as he channeled his inner Indiana Jones and Marty McFly into Star-Lord.

All doubters were silenced once the first trailer hit the web and at that moment it seemed more than evident that the studios biggest risk was about to be one of their biggest hits, too.



For being a totally unknown comic book property to both the mainstream movie audience, as well as even the most hardcore comic book readers, this film still opened big with $94 million in its domestic opening weekend. Not only did Marvel Studios' risk pay off big time, but it paid off to the tune of a brand new tentpole franchise in the MCU, while also opening up the Marvel Cinematic Universe to a lot of much needed weirdness in the cosmos side of the universe.

Worldwide, GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY made $773 million ($333 million domestic, $440 Internationally) proving the Marvel Studios brand was one of the strongest, if not the strongest, in all of Hollywood.

This ragtag band of anti-heroes, took the world by storm and while most (including myself) figured that Rocket Raccoon would be the big breakout star of this movie, it was actually Groot who stole the show. Especially at the end as a tiny little Baby Groot was born in a flower pot dancing his way through the end credits.

The infusion of a brighter color palate, and lots of aliens, was exactly the type of change in tone the MCU needed at this time. And since its release, the cool weirdness of GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY has influenced other parts of the MCU as both DOCTOR STRANGE and THOR: RAGNAROK would borrow from the colorful space opera franchise, as well as some of that weirdness, too.

A true standalone movie, GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY did not connect too much to the other MCU franchise, although it connected via introducing the Power Stone into the equation which will be back in AVENGERS: INFINITY WAR when Thanos and his Black Order minions are hunting for all six stones for his Infinity Gauntlet.

Written by Daniel Wolf, Founder & Publisher



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