Guardians of the Galaxy movies are a solid recommendation in my book. The music alone. It is 2 bad that you need all those Marvel movies that are connected to get the whole picture, Still the GotG movies alone are good entertainment. All the necessary ingredients are present

As a movie, Guardians of the Galaxy is decent. Ego is not Quill's dad, though.

The trailer looks fun, thanks for the recommendation, I don't go to the cinema often but this movie would be great to watch with friends who are into dnd. And it can;t be worse than Creed III:D

It's an upcoming... famous adaptation.

Avoiding it entirely. I like fantasy RPGs too much to reward them for that perversion of a movie.

Enough of that god-awful "MCU"-style everything is a joke and constant one-liners tone.

Enough of the "horny/bumbling bard" archetype. And the "constant failure slash humor" mis-portrayal of how tabletop RPGs go. Any expletiving GM who did something like shown in the previews re:speak with dead doesn't deserve to have players.

And certainly screw them with their making the movie by executive committee box-checking fanservice instead of, you know, trying to make a good movie.

We already have word from the directors that they were making the movie they wanted to, and it was just accidental that it happened to have the D&D brand attached to it.

And, even after all that, also screw Hasbro for their terrible stewardship of their brands (D&D, Magic the Gathering) and doing their best to totally destroy them.

EDIT: And per the press, moviegoers are avoiding it too. The previews were certainly good enough to convince people to steer clear of it.

*facepalm*

As for the movie...

... I have no time for giving money to Wizards of the Coast, however indirectly through this production.

I've heard the movie is not great, but also not the dumpster fire some had guessed.

I'll wait for video. Maybe get it to watch from the library for free?

That is every big-name movie/series these days. Got a medieval fantasy script you want to push, just get the rights to DnD. Got a teen murder mystery script, plop in Wednesday Addams. Want to make your own Game of Thrones knockoff, borrow the Witcher franchise.
I'm not saying any of these are good or bad but I've been around long enough to see so many big name IPs be slapped on to someone else's premade script because that is the faster way to get a movie/series greenlit. It also helps that studios usually buy the rights to far more scripts than they produce so they always have something in storage for when the studio does get an IP they want to cash in.

It's extra weird with most game adaptations, but especially with the D&D ones: There are TONS of ready-to-grab-and-adapt, beloved D&D stories out there. Red Hand of Doom, for example, would fit one of the sub-themes that is currently common, that is gritty military fantasy (see also Shadow & Bone).

They'd also be cheaper too, since they can focus on what they're making (especially the CGI) without going the "kitchen sink" approach.

That's why I haven't seen it yet. I've seen a few Captain America films, two or three of the Thanos saga, a few Avengers.. but far from everything. There's just so much Marvel now. I probably know enough now to get some good enjoyment out of GotG though.

The Guardians movies can be perfectly watched as standalone movies, without knowing much of the Marvel universe, they don't really reference other movies other than mentioning Thanos at some point (and you already know that fella).

The later movies (Thanos saga) reference the Guardians, but not the other way around.
In Avengers Endgame and Infinity War the Guardians join the ensemble and continue to be present in Thor Love and Thunder, but before that (and that's the two movies), they are completely separated from the rest, they are all about Quill and his "adopted" family.

At least watch the first one, it's more than worth it.

Thanks. I'll check them out then. The whole Marvel universe tends to seem a bit overwhelming to me, but if they are perfectly fine as stand-alone, then there's no harm in jumping into Guardians of the Galaxy now. And I do have some background knowledge on the characters and lore. And maybe then I can finally understand the "I am groot" references that has been going around in popular culture for the last few years :)

Heh, yeah!
Because I'm Batman! I am Groot! I am Batman! I am Groot! I am Batman! I am Groot! I am Batman! I am Groot! I am Batman! I am Groot! I am Batman! I am Groot!



edit: When you are done with the two movies, make sure to also watch the Christmas Special. The alien Guardians who have no idea of Earth pop culture abduct Kevin Bacon as present for Quill.

Sounds good! And it's probably better than the Star Wars christmas special. I have not watched it, only heard some rumours about it..

That is ... very likely. I saw it and if you think of it as a parody ... no, even then it's not good.
Imagine a teenage wookie with a baseball cap. Yes, I'll leave you with that thought. It's gonna haunt you.

That basically means I can comfortably avoid it, lol. To each their own, but is anyone else weary of this trend where everything has to be comedy (and a narrow subset of comedy, at that)?