 As a father of two, if you were to set both of my children in front of me and tell me to pick out which one I like more, that would be a borderline impossible task. Today, I've done exactly that to James Gunn. I've taken two of his greatest films, set them side by side, and for some reason gave us the task of picking which one's better. What kind of a sick twisted son of a bitch am I? I'm one that appreciates good films and talking about them, so let's see which film is truly better. It's the Guardians of the Galaxy versus the Suicide Squad on Movie Feuds. James Gunn certainly likes his quirky characters, so it doesn't surprise me that both Guardians of the Galaxy and the Suicide Squad would be right up his alley. He also apparently likes his pro wrestlers as both Dave Boutista and John Cena are present in these films. Drax and Peacemaker are great characters and there is some similarity overlap. For one, they're both gigantic individuals, they're monsters of men, they're also very dense. Drax doesn't understand sarcasm and Peacemaker can't seem to understand that everything that comes out of his mouth is contradictory to a previous value. All in all, both sets of teams feature a bunch of a-holes. Chris Pratt plays Peter Quill in his first big time film. I mean, we knew him as Andy Dwyer, we loved him on Parks and Rec. Now he's really jumped into that superhero role. He's got the stoic looks, he's got the physical prowess, and he's got a Walkman with a bunch of kick-ass music on it. The most depraved of the group is Rocket Raccoon, voiced by Bradley Cooper. He's a selfish, murderous little garbage panda, I can't help but like. His best friend is Groot, a walking, talking tree Pokemon, voiced by Vin Diesel. Another thing James Gunn seems to like doing is casting action stars in these roles. You have Diesel here, you have Sly Stallone playing King Shark in Suicide Squad, and that's another tough combination. I've spent a lot of time with Vin Diesel's Groot, but man, I like King Shark a lot. If the next Suicide Squad features a baby shark, not the song, well maybe the song could be there too, but if it's a baby Sly Stallone shark, oh my god, could you imagine? I might have to rethink that one. The most well-adjusted and competent of the group has to be Zoe Saldana's Gamora. Her dad is the absolute worst though, I'm not a real dad, but you know, Thanos. Her sister's crap too, until the later films. Nebula's is layered, she has a lot of issues in her life, a lot of daddy issues. Karen Gillan, however, she's got no, I got no issues with her. James Gunn's staple, Michael Rorkers in both films, he plays Mary Poppins, aka Yondu, and then a character named Savant in the new film, who's really good at handling his balls, and hates birds. So far I think the Guardians of the Galaxy has the edge up, but then you throw Margot Robbie into the mix as Harley Quinn, that just throws everything into a whirlwind. Viola Davis is always nice to watch play a complete bitch in these films, plus you got cameos by Nathan Fillion, Sean Gunn playing a few different characters, I mean he's also in Guardians of the Galaxy, but still he's got two roles here, and then you got Pete Davidson, actually that drops things back again for me. That cancels out at least two characters. So does Jai Courtney as Captain Boomer Anx, and now we've actually taken a few steps back, although James Gunn kills them almost instantly, so that it's almost like he casted them to kill them for my benefits, so now we're moving up again. Oh this is tough. I mean John C. Riley's in Guardians, Glenn Close is randomly in there, Benicio Del Toro, and then Ronan as the villain, who's not not great, pretty pretty generic bad guy, but that kind of works in the film's favor because everybody else is so colorful, so then by contrast he's just this lame generic bad guy to defeat. Suicide Squad is a giant starfish named Staro, and it's an alien. Oh that's just tough. This is tough. I'm gonna go with Guardians of the Galaxy, I just, I think the core team is a little bit more solid than say the blood sport, and the Harley Quinn, and the King Shark, and Ratgirl, what's I don't remember her name. She's a sight though, what a beautiful actress. I just, and Polkadot, oh Polkadot guy died too, and he had mother issues, that was really funny. Frickin' eight, yeah Guardians of the Galaxy takes the win. When it comes to the Suicide Squad, James Gunn definitely goes back to some of his roots from Slither, and more of the R rated affairs he's done, like super. It's violent, it's gory, it's bloody, looks beautiful though all the same. Guardians of the Galaxy is also colorful, but it's got that Disney sheen on it, it's got that shine, that polish, it's very highly produced, and that music once again plays so well in this thing. These movies are both very comedic, both dialogue wise, and just some of the visuals that are put on display. In that respect, I think the visual comedy works better in the Suicide Squad than it did in Guardians of the Galaxy. Since he's able to get away with doing anything he wants, I can just see Gunn having fun with things, whether it's using Polkadots to burn people alive, or having a shark dude almost eat a woman, it's all very well handled. The Suicide Squad almost has a chronicle, I'm throwing out a movie that a lot of people probably haven't heard of, it was almost indie-ish, but it has almost a chronicle vibe, where the camera's not quite shaky, but there's movement to it, you know, there's those hard zoom ins, there's a lot of effects that look like they're done practical, but they are definitely done with CG. It all blends really well together though, and I like the the camera being more frantic in this. It makes you feel like you're in the moment more, as opposed to Guardians of the Galaxy where the camera's more tightly framed, we see a lot of those beautiful Marvel type shots where planes are flying, where stuff is blowing up, it's all very manicured. Visual eye candy though, I mean some of those later moments where Groot makes his giant, you know, comfort ball around everyone to have a good night's sleep while he dies in a plane crash, really amazing visuals. I'm trying to think of anything that's comparable in the Suicide Squad, and the first thing that springs to mind is Harley Quinn floating in the eyeball of Starro as rats are gnawing at its face. Somehow James Gunn made that look like a visual feast, literally. I have no issues with either, but I think creatively wise, and since I've seen so many Marvel movies that all look very familiar, I'm giving this round to the Suicide Squad. Even though this is from the twisted mind of James Gunn, these are very different tonally. I mean you still have the staple James Gunn stuff of taking quirky, weird, unnatural characters and making them really feel grounded, really make them feel like relatable characters. If you can get me to fear for the safety of a man eating killer shark dude, then you've done a great job in the script department, and that's exactly how I felt whenever King Shark was in danger. I said I don't care if you kill everyone off, keep the shark guy. I like him for some reason. And the same can be said for an experimental rocket creature. If you can get me to like him and a bunch of terrible individuals who are selfish and have no issue killing for their own safety, then you've done a great job again. And so in that department they're similar. They also both have kick-ass music, we can't forget the awesome soundtracks in these things. I do think the theme in Guardians is a little bit more solid and I do think the music overall is a little better. It's a little bit more catchy and memorable. I mean it's basically part of that story which is why I think it's so clever. Quill's got his tape recorder, he listens to it all the time. So it just makes for a more natural storytelling device. The Suicide Squad has a little bit of an advantage because it's like the second one in this whatever it's going to be, the series, even though it's pretty separated from the first. You don't need to see the first to know the second, but because the first did some of the legwork, we don't have to be reintroduced to some of the characters that are present here like Harley Quinn and whatnot. We get to jump right into it. Whereas Guardians does have the arginist job of showing us new characters, talking about their pros and their cons, and letting us get to know them for a while. He does this so effortlessly though. There's no cheap montages getting to know these characters with a bunch of their names and stats shot onto the screen. No, instead they just come upon each other because the story leads them all to one central device, which is the sphere that contains one of the stones. Gunn does this again with the Suicide Squad where we start the film out with Savant, a guy that I don't think most audience members know from the comic. I don't honestly know if he's from the comic, but we get a little information about him, what he's good at, and then we get that fish out of water scenario where they drop him into the water like a fish and he sees what being part of this team entails and the absolute devastation it causes. All of his members are essentially wiped out. He's used as bait and it's just a brilliant way to start out a film saying no one is safe in this new version. I love the concept in Guardians where these different characters from different parts of the galaxy all rush together to steal this one item. But once they realize what said item is capable of doing, they decide to put their bad morals behind them. Their baggage will set it aside for now. We're gonna focus on working as a team to save the day, to save the universe. This again plays out in the Suicide Squad where you have a ragtag group of just the worst type of people. They don't really give a crap about anyone but themselves, but for a multitude of reasons they decide to team up and get to the bottom of what's going on in the secret tower and then eventually stopping the giant Star Road alien creature that's taking over. And even within that story there's characters that believe they are on the right side of justice and it's resolved in a very satisfying way. I think both storylines work incredibly well but I'm a sucker for a little bit more of the heart, a little bit more of that emotion. So I'm gonna go with Guardians of the Galaxy here. A lot of people are saying that the Suicide Squad is James Gunn's best movie and I don't really have an argument for it. I think it definitely is more James Gunny than even the Guardians is. And this is kind of unfair because these characters have been around now for multiple films so I've grown more attached to them. But I think I still prefer the Guardians of the Galaxy. It's just Guardians of the Galaxy. I keep putting the on it. I prefer Guardians of the Galaxy over the Suicide Squad. There's all these movies with those in front or not. You just don't know anymore. It's complicated in Hollywood because it's stupid. Now I want to hear from you though. Leave a comment with your favorite and why, like the video if you had a good time, and remember this is more than just reviews, this is Movie Feuds. Or right here via YouTube on that join button. You just press that once and you're in.