The Avengers vs Guardians of the Galaxy (May contain spoilers!)

Because of the dearth of decent TV over this summer I have been watching many superhero films, including The Avengers and Guardians of the Galaxy. Guardians and the Avengers are the two ensemble Marvel super-hero movies. Neither takes themselves too seriously; and both were critically acclaimed (for summer block-busters) and huge box-office successes.

Synopsis

Both the Avengers and Guardians revolve around a group of heros working with the government to save a planet. The Avengers are Thor, an alien god, the Hulk/Bruce Banner, a guy who turns into a giant green rage-monster, Iron Man, a human billionaire genius playboy in a flying metal suit, Captain America, a guy on steroids with an invincible metal shield, Hawkeye, a bow-and-arrow sniper, and Black Widow, a formerly Russian super-spy. They are deliberately brought together by an American government agency called SHIELD to save Earth. Whereas the Guardians are Peter Quill/The Starlord, a half-human/half-alien thief, Gamora, a green alien raised to be a weapon, Drax, a muscly alien who takes everything literally, Groot, a walking talking(-ish) tree, and Rocket, a genetically/technologically enhanced raccoon. They end up helping Nova Corps save an alien planet Xandar.

Heroes

Unlike the Avengers, Guardians doesn't have a big set-up of the different heros. Guardians has only one set-up scene for Peter Quill the rest are introduced and have some of their background explained smoothly integrated into the story. The Avengers has multiple movies based on the origin of the different heroes (Thor, Iron Man 1&2, Captain America, Hulk & the Incredible Hulk) plus three set-up scenes of SHIELD approaching Cap, Hulk and Iron Man to join them (Black Widow & Hawkeye are already members of SHIELD).

Because the Avengers are each stand-alone heroes with unique super-powers (except Black Widow & Hawkeye). Iron Man can fly and shoots energy beams; Thor flies, controls lightning, is super strong and essentially indestructible with a homing hammer; Hulk jumps really high is super strong indestructible and good at smashing things; and Captain America has an indestructible boomerang shield. A lot of the movie surrounds showing how these powers mesh with each other either used antagonistically (Thor fight Iron Man, Cap, and Hulk at various points) or complementarily (when all are working together for the final battle). Similarly, the dialogue is all about the relationships between the various Avengers (who gets alone with whom). But the characters themselves don't have much of an arc, they don't really grow or change over the course of the film.

In contrast, the Guardians are each nobodies or side-kicks with their personalized gear but without much in the way of super-powers (except Grout). Drax is strong; Gamora is good at martial arts; Rocket is smart; Grout can grow into pretty much any shape needed and is super strong & resilient and Peter Quill is good at... talking? So their film is about them not only learning to put up with each other but deciding to (at least temporarily) be heroes instead of criminals. They each grow from being self-serving outcasts to friends willing to risk their lives for the good of others. The Guardians become heroes over the course of the film whereas the Avengers just stay heroes. 


Villains/Threat

In keeping with just about every Marvel movie the big evil threat in both the Avengers and Guardians is a mystical object with the power to destroy the world/galaxy; Guardians is a metal ball containing a purple glowing ovoid called an Infinity Stone; the Avengers is a blue glowing cube called a Tesseract (which actually contains/is another one of the Infinity Stones but that doesn't matter). Each one is captured by the evil villain who wants to use it to conquer/destroy a planet out of revenge. Where the movies differ is the character of the villain.

In the Avengers the baddie is Loki who is witty, charismatic and psychologically damaged. Loki is also Thor's brother and is partially set up during the Thor movie. Loki's motivation is pretty unclear, he sort of wants revenge on Thor, he sort of lusts for power, and he is sort of being pressured into it by his uneasy ally 'The Other'. The Other provides Loki with an army of Chitauri, disposable generic aliens on flying chariots/jetskis to take control of Earth in exchange for the Tesseract. Despite Loki being an interesting and fun character the Chitauri are actually pretty pathetic compared to the Avengers (it's not clear they managed to kill anybody) so there isn't as much tension during the action as in Guardians. Another slight issue with the Avengers compared to Guardians was that once the Chitauri arrived there wasn't anything for Loki to do because he wasn't actually commanding the Chitauri army (he just stood on the roof of a building or flew around on a jetski waiting for various Avengers to attack him, which four of the six get to do).

The Guardians has a much more complicated plot with several minor villains in addition to the main villain, Ronan, including: Korath, one of Ronan's subordinates, Nebula, Gamora's sister, Yondu (villain/hero), the space pirate kidnapped/raised Quill as a boy, Thanos, and even The Other makes a brief appearance. Each villain is much more straight forward than Loki despite their motivations not really being fully explained. Ronan is a fanatical and wants revenge on Xandar (because reasons), Thanos wants the Infinity Stone (because power), Yondu wants to make money. Korath, Nebula and The Other are just subordinates. By having these separate named villains the audience is more invested in the battles leading up to the show down with Ronan. Also Ronan is actually commanding his massive space ship as well as the fleet of smaller fighters so there is lots for him to do during the different stages of battle leading up to the show-down.

In Guardians the audience cares about the heroes because they've watched them grow and knows that they are out-gunned by the bad guy, and unlike the Avengers they are all mortal. Thus, there is much more tension and emotion in the climatic sequence of Guardians than the equivalent in the Avengers.

Variety is the spice of life

The only element where the Avengers comes out on top is the fluidity of the action & creating transitions. While Guardians just cuts between different characters in different parts of the action sequences the Avengers smoothly and cleverly transitions between them in a variety of different ways. However, when it comes to variety of action or variety of locations Guardians comes out on top. The Avengers is limited by the need to use the particular powers of each of the Avengers, so the action mainly involves individuals punching or shooting each other or braking buildings/building sized aliens (by punching/running into them). In contrast, the Guardians has one-on-one close combat fights, machine-gun mayhem, space battles, and pursuits/escapes. Weapons used in Guardians include remote control jet-packs, an arrow, laser suction devices, knives, various space-guns, Groot's branches, martial arts, bolas, a makeshift missile, and miscellaneous space ships. Weapons used the in Avengers are fists (may also contain a hammer), martial arts, US military guns, a bow and arrows, lightning and energy beams. Similarly all but one of the Avengers is based on Earth so there isn't as much flexibility for locations as in Guardians. Almost all of the Avengers either takes place in/on/around Stark tower in New York or on SHIELD's flying aircraft carrier. Whereas Guardians takes place on/above Xandar, in an alien prison, in a space mining colony, and on Ronan's and Quill's ships.

Both The Avengers and Guardians of the Galaxy are excellent fun and entertaining films. They are both funny without being stupid, they are both beautiful to watch and nice to listen to. But despite featuring less well known actors and being made by a less popular director, IMO Guardians is a better movie than the Avengers.