WOW!

This morning I did something that I very rarely do: go to the movies. I've been excited to see Guardians of the Galaxy ever since I saw the first trailer, but I generally don't like going to the theater because I've had too many bad experiences with other people ruining, or at least dampening my enjoyment of the movie. (That, and I feel it's too damned expensive, and I can generally wait until a movie hits Redbox.) Every now and then a movie comes along that I really have to see immediately, and GotG was that movie.

For those of you that don't know, the Guardians of the Galaxy is the story of a rag-tag bunch of outlaws and losers that band together to save the planet Xandar (and by extension the rest of the galaxy) from an alien fanatic who hate Xandarians. It also ties into the rest of the Marvel Studios movie timeline (Iron Man, Thor, and the Avengers) that appears to be leading up to them bringing the mother of all Marvel stories to the big screen: The Infinity Gauntlet! (Not that you'll miss anything in GotG is you haven't seen any of the other movies, but it wouldn't hurt.)

I have to say that not only did I leave happy to have gone to the theater, but that GotG met and exceeded my expectations, and that's hard to do. It was true to the spirit of the comics and the characters, was exciting, funny, and even very touching at times. I thought the casting was very well done, the FX were fantastic, and left me looking forward to not only GotG2, but also for Avengers 2.

Not only is GotG a great comic book adaptation, but it's also an excellent space opera movie. I've always loved Marvel's sci-fi offerings and GotG showcases this side of the Marvel Universe pretty well. My one and only complaint is that they used so many of the humanoid species and not enough of the more alien aliens in the MU. I get it, it's cheaper and easier to do, but I hope we get to see some of the more alien species in GotG 2.

This has kick started my desire to write again (I've been in a bit of a creative funk lately, hence the lack of activity here). I've still got a mountain of various articles and entries that are in various states of completion, but I'm going to try a little focusing for a change. I'm going to start a (hopefully) semi-regular series on Marvel Universe aliens for Mythic Space. So get ready to see Shi'ar, Kree, Zenn-Lavians, and others on this blog in the near future!