Guardians of the Galaxy

Guardians of the Galaxy (retroactively referred to as Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 1) is a 2014 American superhero film based on the Marvel Comics superhero team of the same name. Produced by Marvel Studios and distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures, it is the 10th film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). The film was directed by James Gunn, who wrote the screenplay with Nicole Perlman, and features an ensemble cast including Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana, Dave Bautista, Vin Diesel, and Bradley Cooper as the titular Guardians, along with Lee Pace, Michael Rooker, Karen Gillan, Djimon Hounsou, John C. Reilly, Glenn Close, and Benicio del Toro. In the film, Peter Quill and a group of extraterrestrial criminals go on the run after stealing a powerful artifact.

Plot
In 1988, following his mother's death, a young Peter Quill is abducted from Earth by the Ravagers, a group of space pirates led by Yondu Udonta. Twenty-six years later on the planet Morag, Quill steals an orb, after which Korath, a subordinate to the fanatical Kree, Ronan, intercepts him. Although Quill escapes with the orb, Yondu discovers his theft and issues a bounty for his capture, while Ronan sends the assassin Gamora after the orb.

When Quill attempts to sell the orb on the Nova Empire capital world, Xandar, Gamora ambushes him and steals it. A fight ensues, drawing in a pair of bounty hunters: the genetically and cybernetically modified raccoon Rocket, and the tree-like humanoid Groot. The Nova Corps arrives and captures the four, detaining them in the Kyln. While there, a powerful inmate, Drax, attempts to kill Gamora due to her association with Ronan, who killed his family. Quill convinces Drax that Gamora can bring Ronan to him. Gamora reveals that she has betrayed Ronan, unwilling to let him use the orb's power to destroy planets, starting with Xandar. Learning that Gamora has a buyer for the orb, she, Quill, Rocket, Groot, and Drax work together to escape from the Kyln.

Elsewhere, Ronan meets with Gamora's adoptive father, Thanos, to discuss her betrayal. Accompanied by Drax, Quill's group escapes the Kyln in his ship – the Milano – and flees to Knowhere, a remote criminal outpost in space built in the giant severed head of a Celestial. A drunken Drax summons Ronan while the rest of the group meet Gamora's contact, the collector Taneleer Tivan. Tivan opens the orb, revealing an Infinity Stone, an item of immeasurable power that destroys all but the most powerful beings who wield it. Suddenly, Tivan's tormented assistant grabs the Stone, triggering an explosion that engulfs Tivan's archive.

Ronan arrives and easily defeats Drax, while the others flee by ship, pursued by Ronan's followers and Gamora's sister Nebula. Nebula destroys Gamora's ship, leaving her floating in space, and Ronan's fighters capture the orb. Quill contacts Yondu before following Gamora into space, giving her his helmet to survive; Yondu arrives and retrieves the pair. Rocket, Drax, and Groot threaten to attack Yondu's ship to rescue them, but Quill negotiates a truce by convincing Yondu that they can recover the orb. Quill's group agrees that facing Ronan means certain death, but that they cannot let him use the Infinity Stone to destroy the galaxy. On Ronan's flagship, the Dark Aster, Ronan embeds the Stone in his Warhammer, taking its power for himself. He contacts Thanos, threatening to kill him after the destruction of Xandar; hateful of her adoptive father, Nebula allies with Ronan.

Near Xandar, the Ravagers, the Nova Corps, and Quill’s group confront and breach the Dark Aster. Ronan uses his empowered Warhammer to destroy the Nova Corps fleet. On the Dark Aster, Gamora fights and defeats Nebula, she unlocks Ronan's chambers while Nebula is escaping, but the group finds themselves outmatched by his power until Rocket crashes the Milano through the Dark Aster. The damaged Dark Aster crash-lands on Xandar, with Groot sacrificing himself to shield the group. Ronan emerges from the wreck and prepares to destroy Xandar, but Quill distracts him with ridiculous dancing, allowing Drax and Rocket to destroy Ronan's Warhammer. Quill grabs the freed Stone, initially, he starts burning just like others who touch it but he starts resisting it long enough for Gamora to grab his hand his hand so she can share the burden of the stone, followed by Drax and Rocket. Together, the Guardians of the Galaxy use the stone to kill Ronan for good

In the aftermath, Quill tricks Yondu into taking a container supposedly containing the Stone and gives the real Stone to the Nova Corps. As the Ravagers leave Xandar, Yondu remarks that it turned out well that they did not deliver Quill to his father per their contract. Quill's group, now officially known as the Guardians of the Galaxy, have their criminal records expunged, and Quill learns that he is only half-human; his father being part of an ancient, unknown species which explains why he survived the vacuum of space holding the Infinity stone with his bare hands for so long. Yondu quickly finds out that the orb he took has a Troll Doll but instead of getting angry he simply burst into laughter and keeps the doll as a souvenir. Quill finally opens the last present he received from his mother: a second cassette tape filled with her favorite songs. The Guardians leave in the rebuilt Milano along with a sapling cut from Groot's corpse which is growing into a new Groot.

In a post-credits scene, Tivan sits in his destroyed archive with two of his living exhibits: a canine cosmonaut and an anthropomorphic duck.

Why It Is Groot

 * 1) Great casting and acting from actors like Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana, Dave Bautista, Vin Diesel and Bradley Cooper.
 * 2) A completely different theme from other Marvel Cinematic Universe movies since most of it is set in outer space, which is executed very well.
 * 3) Memorable and great soundtrack that includes lots of classic songs from the late 60s and early-to-mid 70s, such as Hooked on a Feeling, Moonage Daydream, I'm Not in Love, Cherry Bomb and I Want You Back.
 * 4) *Not only that, the songs are also relevant to the movie's plot in the form of Star-Lord's Walkman.
 * 5) Lots of well-timed humor.
 * 6) The pacing is well-done.
 * 7) Fantastic visual effects.
 * 8) Awesome action sequences that are very fun and entertaining.
 * 9) Amazing cinematography.
 * 10) The Infinity Stones are officially introduced to the MCU.
 * 11) *And Thanos would be able to use them until he dies.
 * 12) If you remove the Marvel Studios logo, this is still a solid sci-fi movie.
 * 13) There's a cameo of Howard the Duck at the end of the movie in the after credits scene, and it's nice to see him again after a long time.
 * 14) While being a generic doomsday, paper-thin villain as mentioned down below, Ronan the Accuser is much, MUCH darker than his comic book counterpart, which amazed many Marvel fans.
 * 15) A surprisingly emotional and heartfelt opening with young Peter Quill witnessing the death of his mother Meredith, before the Marvel Studios logo is shown.
 * 16) The members of the Guardians of the Galaxy are very well written and likable.
 * 17) Thanos makes his first proper on-screen appearance (despite not having that much screen-time here), and in fact, he would later be the main villain in Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame.
 * 18) Awesome directorial effort by James Gunn.
 * 19) Some very memorable dialogue such as:
 * 20) *"I am Groot."
 * 21) *"Ain't no thing like me, except me!"
 * 22) *"That is the most real, authentic, hysterical laugh of my entire life, because that is not a plan!"
 * 23) *"You just wanna suck the joy outta everything!"
 * 24) *"Once the battery is removed, everything is gonna slam into emergency mode."
 * 25) The space backgrounds and locations look amazing, and they definitely fit well with the movie.
 * 26) It spawned a sequel 3 years later and a another sequel in 2023, due to doing really well at the box office.
 * 27) The ending is really awesome.

Bad Qualities

 * 1) Ronan the Accuser (despite being a lot more darker than his comic book counterpart, as mentioned above) is a completely boring, paper-thin villain. He's not only generic, but incompetent and stupid at points. He could've been a bit more threatening to the Guardians of the Galaxy members.
 * 2) Thanos doesn't have that much screen-time in the movie.

Reception
When the movie was first announced, most audiences shrugged off because the Guardians of the Galaxy were some of Marvel's most obscure characters even among Marvel Comics readers. The movie was predicted by many to be a big flop.

However when the movie was released, Guardians of the Galaxy was praised by critics, audiences and fans alike for its screenplay, direction, acting, humor, soundtrack, visual effects, and action sequences. The review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reported a 91% approval rating with an average rating of 7.81/10, based on 327 reviews. The website's consensus reads, "Guardians of the Galaxy is just as irreverent as fans of the frequently zany Marvel comic would expect—as well as funny, thrilling, full of heart, and packed with visual splendor.". Metacritic, gave the film a weighted average score of 76 out of 100, based on 53 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A" on an A+ to F scale, while earning an "A+" among under-18 and 25- to 34-year-old viewers. After the movie's success the Guardians of the Galaxy became extremely popular.

Trivia

 * This movie spawned an animated series for Disney XD in 2015. Two years later, the show spawned a spin-off series of shorts called Rocket & Groot.
 * The characters from this movie were also part of the cast of Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame.