This is what watching superhero movies for one week taught me

Guardians of the Galaxy (2014)

There isn’t much not to like about Guardians of the Galaxy. Chris Pratt as Peter “Star-Lord Quill is as charismatic as ever. He’s kind of the poor man’s Han Solo. He has great chemistry with Zoe Saldana who is covered with green body paint instead of Avatar blue.

By the time my journey led me to Guardians of the Galaxy, I had a vague recollection of something called Infinity Stones, and the name Thanos was familiar even though I couldn’t pinpoint the source. But what I really like about this Marvel movie is it doesn’t matter.

I struggle keeping the villains –Yondu, Ronan and Thanos — straight, confusing Ronan with the Robert De Niro movie, Ronin. I also now find myself referring to “Xandar” as “Xanax,” but that may simply be wishful thinking.

I recall a crash course about Infinity Stones, but you could seriously Clockwork Orange my eyes open and force me to watch every Marvel movie, and I still wouldn’t fully grasp all the details about those darn colored rocks.

Between Thor: Ragnarok and Guardians of the Galaxy, I found the frost between myself and Marvel thawing. Watching these movies didn’t feel like a job. I could check my phone and not miss some integral piece of information that forced me to rewind the movie (it took me four hours to finish Avengers: Age of Ultron for this very reason).

As Russell Crowe says in Gladiator, “Are you not entertained?” Yes, I am.