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Kim Hollis: I found it amusing in parts, but I thought the movie was disappointing overall. I had no idea why any of the characters were doing the things they were doing – and worse, I didn’t really care about them much. They give us an early set up of Star-Lord’s back story, but then don’t follow it up with any sort of development to indicate why he would become the man he is at the beginning of the film. Rocket and Groot are fun characters and yet I don’t know why I’m supposed to feel like their friendship is something special. Dave Bautista is terrific as Drax – something I never expected to say – and yet I didn’t particularly feel any empathy or sympathy for his character.

Then we come to the Thanos family tree. Ronan wants to avenge his family, but apparently this makes him evil even though at least two of the good guys have the same motivation. Gamora’s face turn happens too quickly, and we never have the slightest idea why she hates Thanos while her sister Nebula is his most loyal foot soldier. I suppose they should at least be happy that their characters were even slightly developed, though, because Glenn Close, John C. Reilly, Benicio Del Toro and Djimon Hounsou could almost be lifted right out of the movie and never missed for all we understand their role in the story.

Finally, I was really bothered that a motivated villain like Ronan would be distracted by Quill dancing. There’s no reason he wouldn’t have just scoffed at Star-Lord and used the warhammer to destroy Xandar. I feel like I’m a big party pooper with regards to my feelings about this movie, but I just can’t get past the negatives.

Kim Hollis: Get on Up, a biopic of James Brown, debuted with $13.6 million this weekend. What do you think of this result?

Matthew Huntley: To be honest, I wasn't even aware this movie was coming out this weekend until I saw it being heavily advertised on Fandango.com last Thursday. With its low-profile marketing campaign in mind, I think this is a fine debut for an adult-driven biopic in the middle of summer, although I'm curious as to why the studio didn't wait until later in the year to release it. Perhaps they were banking on it having the same success as the director's last movie, The Help, but that's a long shot at this point. Either way, its good reviews and low budget should help Get On Up eventually climb into the black.

Edwin Davies: I think the studio might have been banking on it acting as counter-programming to such a high-profile blockbuster, which it probably did to an extent, but they underestimated how broadly appealing Guardians of the Galaxy proved to be. With titles like this and the aforementioned The Help, which opened higher but wound up having a tremendous run outside of its opening weekend, the key to success lies in being the adult-oriented alternative to blockbusters and comedies (in which case its bigger concern might not be Star-Lord, but next week's Disney offering, The Hundred-Foot Journey), and I could imagine that audiences who opted to go see Guardians this weekend with their families might check it out in the weeks ahead. Its ace in the hole might prove to be Chadwick Boseman's performance, since biopics like this tend to live and die based on how strong the impressions are.

Max Braden: That's an okay opening, and one that I think just indicates that some people who would have seen it put it on hold while they made Guardians of the Galaxy this weekend's priority. It's too bad that this movie won't earn as much as Ray or Walk the Line, as I think James Brown deserves as much attention as his musical colleagues. It must be partially due to the star power Chadwick Boseman, who did a great job playing Jackie Robinson but somehow failed to earn any significant acting awards. I could see the same fate for this movie. Boseman seems to melt into his roles rather than hold the camera, which may become detrimental to his career.

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