Guardians of the Galaxy!!!! GROOOOT!!!!

Ok so Monday night I got to see Guardians of the Galaxy, courtsey of a Skype event at the Flatiron building area. They had a little dance video you had to create and post online somewhere and then post the picture of you with the movie poster behind you, pretending you were the sixth guardian. And in that photo you posted, and adding Guardians as a skype comtact, you had to come up with a sixth Guardian name. I came up with Missy the Massacre, because I like alliteration... hehe

Not the best picture with the wind blowing my hair in my face...

At the skype event, I got a sketch from Sean Chen. who illustrated Nova, Iron Man and other such comics. And I found out he worked at Valiant for many years so he actually is friends with my ex-hubby. (whom also worked at valiant for awhile). Sean was uber sweet. Took his time to talk to you and get to know you a bit while sitting there. We talked about my new love of comics and how I only read Lenore from Dirge since I was about 14 and then how only in the last few years I've come into my own, reading more mainstream comics from Marvel, DC, IDW, etc. Talked about women reading comics now and how I got started from meeting other women not ashamed of reading comics and how I branched out knowing these women read comics, too. It was a lovely conversation with Sean.

Sean Chen's Rocket Racoon sketch for me.

Me and Sean Chen

For posting the video, picture and adding GOTG to Skype contacts, we got some cool swag. Some GOTG buttons and roll of stickers packaged in a box that looked like a cassette tape. Yay so cool! And of course a GOTG t-shirt and poster. We also got a Skype seat cushion and a Skype drawstring bag to hold all the goodies in. Fun!

To wait for contest winners call-time, my friends and I then went to dinner and caught up with each other. Then went back to the event to see if we won, via Skype app, tickets to the screening that was happening at 11pm. 9pm was when folks were supposed to start getting notified... we waited... and watied. Eventually I got the message first, around 9:30pm! But I had won! Yay! We waited around some more, knowing it was all being sent manually to each person. Also, we were told if we didn't win, to wait around anyway just in case they had extra tickets. Sure enough, Nate won tickets, so now all three of us could go, and Jon's other friend, Jessica, who was with us earlier, could also go :) Fun!

Eventually we split up so Nate and I could get a spot on line, but Jon and Jess beat us to it. (Subways suck...) Found out Jon got his ticket as well. so now Nate and I still had +1's but no way was any of our friends going to get there in time. So oh well.

The movie was at 11pm. But there was some fiasco with the film or the projector or even the room itself (like not finding the key to the projector room). so the movie started very late - at like midnight... And because of that either you could leave and get another voucher for wed with a +1 guest or wait it out. Nate has no work so he waited. Jon and Jess left because of work the next day and train schedules home. I figured I'd wait a lil longer and sure enough about 15 min later it started. But we also got a free voucher at the end of the night, for another regal movie anytime, to make up for inconvenience, so that was nice. (Just one voucher tho but hey, its something, thanks Regal!)

Ok, onto the movie review - NO SPOILERS!!!!

Guardians of the Galaxy was just as amazing as the commercials led it on to be. Highly recommend and I want to see it again and again. OMG SO GOOOD!!!!!! GROOOT!!!!! So many good action sequences, great character development and some history of course behind it, lots of really funny moments thrown in a lot, especially from Quill and Rocket. Very accurate in that sense. I loved Rocket and Groot (who doesn't?!) Their banter was fantastic. And Karen Gillan. Whoa! Awesome villian!!!! Holy hell she brings it to every scene!!! squeee!!!! She was really amazing as Nebula! Incredible performance. And this is from a girl who didn't much like Amy Pond's character on Doctor Who, but it's how she was written more than telling of her acting abilities. I know she can act because of that role, but it wasn't one I liked much. This, though, this was fantastic! She really was just incredible as Nebula! Sidenote: in the prison scene (no spoilers, I swear) look up in the rafters, when they show the other prisoners, you'll see Lloyd Kaufman. If you don't know who he is, we can't be friends anymore haha -- seriously go watch some Troma movies (ie Toxic Avenger) or even Rocky...

Anyway, I loved the play on each character, the build-up's of each one, their history and then how they eventually come together. I have not read the comics for this so I can't compare accuracy but it all flowed well for the movie. And my comic geeks haven't said a peep about how or if they changed things around (in bad ways) so I think that says a lot too, that it must be pretty close to the comics history if they haven't said otherwise. (You know us geeks like to compare and rip thing apart so if that doesn't happen as the movies credits roll, you know it's gotta be good...)

Of course some recurring characters from Avengers end scenes were there, Thanos and the Collector from Thor: The Dark World. So it was nice to see that storyline continue, as we knew it would.

There's a lot of heart in the movie too, where you don't think it would normally fit into a comic book film such as this, but it really blends well. The writers really did a good job of blending everything well. Nothing really felt too rushed or too forced.

This is just such a fun, fun awesome movie!! Go see Guardians of the Galaxy!!!!!

Oh, and in terms of toys, again no spoilers, something at the end of the movie, they better make a toy of because I was squeeing like a 5 year old in my seat. Everyone, but especially girls will want this thing to be made into a toy!!! When you see it, you'll know exactly what I was talking about...

Note that our version didn't have an after-credits scene. Not sure if it will have one like they did with Avengers, where all the screeners didn't have one yet, but for opening day they got one into the film (shwarma eating scene) at the last minute. There was only the one scene right before the main credits start rolling for our screening. So no matter when you go, stay anyway just in case... (not that I need to tell my friends/fans that though...)