Just a heads up, y'all might think this is somewhere between 8 and 10 on the rant scale.
I've been holding it in for a long time now, but I have to come clean: Guardians of the Galaxy completely wasted its villain. I don't read the comics, I don't know how the movie fits into the Marvel Movie timeline, and I do know that the movie wasn't about Ronan, but I can't help but feel like there wasn't a single confrontation in that movie between the two sides that paid off.
Look at this guy, he's like a cool evil Thor
Now, I admit I have a pretty soft spot for ambitious villains like this guy, but look at him! How could you not want to see this guy in action?! I don't know how many of you saw the movie, but I'll tell you how much action this guy gets: Like, three minutes tops. This dude just carries his giant God Hammer everywhere and doesn't fight crap with it. Now maybe the directors were worried about him being too OP (and he probably was), but I went through an entire two-hour movie without a proper confrontation and I was unsatisfied with this aspect of the movie. Poor guy just played right into the hands of Thanos, which I thought was just really boring. So cliché.
That first time when he faced the Blue Man Group guy, I was okay with the curb stomp because it was clearly supposed to be a curb stomp, and it was only like halfway through the movie. Ronan was asserting his power, a necessary step on the path of villainy. However, towards the end of the movie, where I expected a climactic series of events, I was treated to what I think of as a climb up Mount Everest only to be hit by an avalanche just before reaching the top. I could live with the first confrontation because that kamikaze was pretty cool and the scene after was a masterpiece with Groot's moment and all, but the second really rustled my jimmies.
It was just Ronan and the Guardians. The perfect opportunity for a final showdown. But of course the writers want nothing to do with a final fight between the primary protagonist and antagonist. No, they have to take the Iron Man 3 approach, where Tony Stark tries to call his suit so he can fight burning-on-the-inside-guy and it just kind of crashes and so he cracks a one-liner. When Chris Pratt started dancing, I admit he nailed the comedy (as always, I love that guy), but I thought it totally killed all of that buildup. I can think of at least three ways they wouldn't have to fight Ronan with his OP hammer, but they just completely killed the action with that moment. That crafty Starlord just distracts him, and finishes Ronan off with OP power so cheaply. That part at the end was cool, but they could have had their cake (or fight, in this case) and eaten it too. I know it was a funny movie, but wasting two perfectly good chances for an amazing fight for the sake of a joke was just unnecessary in my opinion (also I know I'm being a bit hypocritical since a climax like this is also a bit cliché and predictable, but I still wanted it).
My thoughts exactly, professor.
Tl;dr: Guardians of the Galaxy was a really good movie with a bunch of wasted potential.
