Guardians was met with strongly negative critical reception in Russian media,[2] with many considering it to be one of the worst films ever made.

[6] During the Cold War, a secret organization known as "Patriot" gathers a team of Soviet superheroes, altering and augmenting the DNA of many selected individuals to defend the motherland from superhuman threats.

This prompts Professor Avgust Kuratov, creator of Module-1, to flee to the remote wilderness, away from Soviet authorities, to continue working on his experiments.

This leads to the Ministry of Defence holding a meeting and deciding to revive the Patriot organization under the leadership of Major Elena Larina and to locate their missing super agents.

She finds Ler spending his time meditating in Armenia; Khan living on the steppes of Kazakhstan; Arsus in a remote cabin in northern Siberia; and Xenia performing stunts in a circus in Moscow.

The Guardians go to Moscow: Xenia and Arsus advance through the streets, Ler defeats several soldiers patrolling an underground car park, and Khan uses an airplane to try to fly above Kuratov's force field.

The three Guardians enter a shopping mall, and begin crossing an iron bar linking it to the tower-beacon, but are shot at by more of Kuratov's troops on another pipe.

Khan jumps from the airplane swinging on a grapple line to slice the pipe, causing Kuratov's troops to fall.

Critics outside Russia were only slightly kinder to Guardians; however, the reviews in The Times of India,[14] Birth Movies Death[15] and Mid-Day[16] were negative.

[18] Comparisons to Marvel superhero films such as The Avengers and Guardians of the Galaxy were often made, with Arsus, who can transform into a bear, receiving a significant level of attention.

[3] The gross kept dropping by 90% every weekend, and Russian media[24][25][26] presumes that Guardians became a box office bomb, narrowly recovered due to international viewership.

[citation needed] In the United Kingdom, it was 2017's third best-selling foreign language film on home video, below Operation Chromite and Your Name.

[29] Initially, long before the premiere of the original film and in case of success, a sequel was announced, in which it was supposed to add another superhero from China.

[32] After the critical and commercial failure and declaration of bankruptcy by "Enjoy Movies", director Andreasyan said that he was discussing the sequel with the team, and that they were thinking about "Which of the superheroes to kill :)".

[34] On 20 December 2020, in an interview with “Bubble Comics” Sarik Andreasyan was asked why Guardians 2 never came out and the latter explained that “Deadpool 2 was to blame for everything," as its script was reportedly too similar to theirs.

The comic depicts the Guardians trying to stop a supervillain named "Manowar" from assassinating the Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev.

[38] An iOS game titled Guardians - Defence of Justice was released, in which players fight off hordes of attacking enemies.