'Guardians of the Galaxy' is 'Avengers' in Space

And so it begins. We've already been warned that Marvel has every intention of making movies until we were old enough to be taking our grandchildren to see the newest one, but the most clever way that they ensure we'll keep going to see them is tying these films all together. The Avengers, for example, required a cinematic knowledge of Iron Man, Iron Man 2, Thor, Captain America, and The Incredible Hulk, while the upcoming The Avengers: Age of Ulton has a back story of Iron Man 3, Thor: The Dark World, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, and... Guardians of the Galaxy. If the exclusive MTV Guardians of the Galaxy trailer is anything to go by, you're probably better off skipping this one.

The trailer introduces a thief named "Star-Lord", a name that would be ridiculous if not for the tongue-in-cheek acknowledgement that he's the only one who calls himself that. The people arresting him have never even heard of him and he's only able to escape them by using Tony Stark-esque technology to fly off while they're still confused. Zoe Saldana features as a green-skinned alien named Gamora, who is the adopted daughter of Thanos — first seen in the bonus scene at the end of The Avengers. There's also Dave Bautista as Drax the Destroyer, Vin Diesel as Groot the tree monster, and Bradley Cooper as Rocket the raccoon. Together, the five of them make up the eponymous guardians of the galaxy.

"What a bunch of a-holes" indeed. Introducing an entire new gang of characters into The Avengers universe feels both late and intrusive. How do I know if I want to shell out money to see any of these criminals if they haven't cameoed in a Marvel movie I did want to see yet? It's a pretty big gamble for Marvel, who were at least clear on the five movies leading up to The Avengers being part of a chain. Guardians of the Galaxy comes out of the same left field as the Ant-Man movie, even if the explosions and soundtrack do seem on par with the Avengers blowing up New York.

This trailer doesn't do as much to differentiate itself from the rest of the movies in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but with three months left until it comes out, there's plenty of time to change our minds.

Watch the trailer below.

Image: Marvel