Time for SPOILERS!
The movie opens in 1988, where young Peter Quill (Wyatt Oleff) waits in a hospital. His mother is dying from cancer and he uses his music to escape from the tragedy. But when she dies, he runs off out of grief. In a field by the hospital, a bright light engulfs him.
Twenty-six years later, Quill (Chris Pratt) is a scavenger who goes about the planets locating goods for the man who adopted him, Youndo (Michael Rooker). But while retrieving an orb on a deserted planet, he is attacked by Korath (Djimon Hounsou). He tries to retrieve the orb but Quill makes a getaway.
Korath returns to the being he works for—Ronan the Accuser (Lee Pace). Who is not happy he doesn’t have the orb. Ronan wants to use it to destroy the planet of Zandar, to avenge his family. He’s a rebel from Kree, a planet that has just entered into a peace treaty with Zandar. He doesn’t approve. Nebula (Karen Gillan) offers to retrieve it but Gamora (Zoe Saldana) insists she’s the better one to do so. Ronan agrees and she heads out to Xandar.
On Xandar, Quill tries to see the orb but when he mentions that Korath tried to get it, the broker refuses. He doesn’t want Ronan coming after him for the orb. Quill is shoved back out onto the street where he faces a double threat: Gamora has found him and tries to steal the orb. And Youndu has put out a bounty on Quill which Rocket (voiced by Bradley Cooper) and Groot (voiced by Vin Diesel) hope to collect. They fight and chase each other through the streets until caught by the Nova Corps, including John C. Reilly.
The group is sent to prison as the Nova Corps, led by Nova Prime (Glenn Close), worry about Ronan. The other Kree refuse to confront him or do anything to reel him in. They worry about protecting Xandar, especially with Gamora in prison.
Gamora’s time in prison seems as if it will be brief. Many of the prisoners in there have personal beefs with Ronan and will take them out on his lackey. And the guards are willing to look the other way when a few of them drag her away to kill her. Including Drax the Destroyer (Dave Bautista), who wants to avenge his wife and daughter. But Quill steps in and stops them, saying that Ronan will come for Gamora and then Drax will get the chance to fight Ronan himself. Drax agrees.
And Quill is right. Ronan has gone to the person he is working with—Thanos (an uncredited Josh Brolin), who is Gamora and Nebula’s “father.” Ronan and Nebula reveal that Gamora has betrayed them. Along with Korath, they pursue her.
Gamora wants to know why Quill rescued her. She had earlier revealed her intentions to betray Ronan and Quill wants to know what she was going to do with the orb. She says she has a buyer lined up. Quill and Rocket offer to help her bust out and get her to her buyer if she’ll split her profits with them. She agrees. Rocket plots a way for them to escape, but has to improvise when Groot jumps the gun. As they battle guards and drones, Rocket and the others—along with Drax, who wants to stay close to Gamora to exact his revenge on Ronan—escape the prison and return to Quill’s ship, The Milano (named after Quill’s childhood crush Alyssa Milano according to trivia tidbits).
As Ronan ransacks the prison, Gamora brings our rag-tag group of heroes (?) to Knowhere, a mining colony. There they meet with the Collector (Benecio del Toro), who explains what the orb is. It’s an infinity stone, powerful leftovers from the creation of the universe. It seems related to the tesseract from “The Avengers.” He’s ready to pay when one of his overworked slaves decides to use it to destroy him. She ends up consumed by its power and doing lots of damage to his collection.
Meanwhile, Drax has sent a message to Ronan telling him where they are so he can challenge the maniac head on. And Youndu has figured out where Quill is. They all seem doomed. In the ensuing battle, Gamora and Quill nearly die in space while Ronan gets the orb. Quill tells Youndu where to find him as Rocket heads back to Knowhere, where Groot saves Drax from Ronan’s thorough thrashing. They decide to go rescue Quill and Gamora.
But Quill has convinced Youndu to go after Ronan and the orb by promising him the orb. So once they get Rocket, Drax and Groot onboard, they start to work together and put together a plan to retrieve the orb. Which involves contacting John C. Reilly to serve as their messenger to Nova Prime and the Nova Corps. He tells Nova Prime that they are coming to help and that they should trust them because they’re all escaped convicts. Why would they come back? Also, Quill’s kind of a dick but not that much of a dick. They decide to trust him.
Youndu, his men and the Guardians team up with the Nova Corp to fight Ronan. The Guardians work to destroy Ronan and save Xandar. Nebula and Gamora fight and the latter offers her “sister” a chance to fight with her instead of against her. Nebula chooses “against” and falls from the ship. After Rocket helps evacuate the city, he joins the guardians in taking down Ronan. The ship begins to crash and Groot risks his life to save his friends. I’ll admit, I teared up here.
But Ronan is not destroyed! And he’s ready to destroy Xandar once and for all. He mocks the guardians and the people of Xandar for trusting in the biggest losers in the galaxy. But they aren’t going to let Groot’s sacrifice be for nothing. These losers take a stand and knock the infinity stone from Ronan’s grasp. Quill takes it, knowing it could kill him. As it devours him, he sees his dead mother begging him to take her hand. He does so—but it’s really Gamora’s. She’s not letting him suffer alone. Drax and Rocket join in as well. Together, they are strong enough and worthy enough to handle the infinity stone. They are the Guardians of the Galaxy. And at last, they destroy Ronan and become heroes.
Good job, you losers you!
The Nova Corp erases their criminal records and restores their ship. And they let them go for more misadventures. Included is Groot, who is growing back. Quill opens the present his mother gave him before she died, revealing another cassette tape with more of her favorite songs. The Guardians take to the galaxy as the Jackson 5 sing them out.
Which lead to this:
Isn’t it adorable?
So, I liked this movie. It was funnier than I thought it was going to be. Which was a nice change of pace given the state of the rest of the Marvel Universe what with Hydra ruining SHIELD and making a mess of everything.
Pratt was amazing. I know a lot of people doubted if he could carry the movie but he definitely proved them wrong. Saldana is queen of the sci fi movies at this point, I believe, with Gillan a worthy successor. But of course, I think Rocket stole the movie as did Groot. And their actors were in a recording studio! Apparently, Vin Diesel recorded over a thousand variants on “I am Groot.” And Cooper was amazing as Rocket.
So go see this movie if you haven’t. It’s a great time, I promise you. And stay to the end. It’s a Marvel movie after all.
Here, have a gif of dancing baby Groot because I love it:
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