One shot that hit me this viewing was the quick shot towards the end of Dey (John C. Reilly) returning home after the obligatory Marvel third act battle to his family, his partner and his daughter. John C. Reilly has about four minutes of screentime in this film and thirty seconds of that is seeing this minor character happy with his family who are alive because of the Guardians. It’s a moment of groundedness among the cosmic that serves as a synecdoche of what James Gunn (and on this first film, Nicole Perlman) achieve with the Guardians of the Galaxy films: a respect for characters, even minor ones, and an emotional understanding of the human (/ Xandarian) concerns behind the smashy-crashy action.