I am fondly remembering how crazy the lead up and release to Guardians was.
1. Few outside of actual comicbook nerds knew who the F the guardians were to begin with. So the title alone was bashed frequently as an unwelcome addition to the budding MCU.
2. The scope of guardians being galactic also confused people heavily at the time. Who cares about these random ass planets?! What do they have to do with Earth and the invasion that Loki led?!
3. The casting seemed odd at the time. The lead was an actor who's big break was as a pudgy but loveable idiot on a longstanding comedy series. The most handsome man in the world reigning title holder is voicing a cartoon racoon. Potentially the most individually famous person in the movie is voicing a cartoon tree that has a single line repeated ad infinitum. An unknown at the time WWE star and a young sci fi actress round out the main cast.
4. The story seems completely unrelated to the rest of the MCU (of course it became central, but at the time this was unknown)
5. The main villain was a not well known adversary even among some comic nerds. Alien race that is sometimes allied with earth? Aliens? WTF
And yet it delivered a total knockout and masterpiece.
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