Guardians of the Galaxy

In last year's hollow and dutiful Thor: The Dark World, the climax took place in a red cloud. In James Gunn's busy and dispiriting Marvel comic-book adaptation Guardians of the Galaxy, it takes place in a purple cloud. Progress! With an ensemble cast that includes a talking raccoon and a sentient tree, Guardians of the Galaxy is more ostensibly a comedy than other Marvel properties like Thor and Captain America, but it offers roughly the same amount of jokey and juvenile bickering as those other films. Far from upending the Marvel formula, this is just another entry in its spreadsheet, The Avengers minus the monstrous egos. Gunn juggles several different MacGuffins, but the only point is to create a through line to the next movie: Just like everything else in the Marvel cinematic universe, Guardians of the Galaxy exists solely to advertise its own as-yet-unmade sequels.