Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (2017)
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (2017)
Written and Directed by James Gunn
Rated PG-13
The Marvel Cinematic Universe is a gigantic series of films that I have been largely “meh” over. It’s not that the movies are bad per se it’s just that the movies for the most part don’t keep my attention or interest. I have never found the movies worth revisiting. Even with ones I initially really liked such as The Avengers (2012) became boring to me in the long run. With the exceptions being Iron Man 3 (2013),Guardians of the Galaxy (2014), Ant-Man (2015) and Doctor Strange (2016), I find it difficult to remain interested in the majority of MCU much less remain entertained. I am entertained by the four I listed in particular because they feel the most self-contained. I don’t have to be too annoyed by all the crossover stuff and what amounts to bits of advertising (i.e. talk of infinity stones, references to avengers, cameos of characters from other films etc.) and I personally feel these film are more interesting and entertaining on their own. But this isn’t a discussion about my dislike/indifference of the MCU but rather this is about the sequel to what has been called the best film in the MCU, a sentiment that I share: Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2
So what did I think?
Well… I guess there is no other way to say it but I thought the movie is all over the place and exhausting.
Note: I will be going into spoilers while talking about this film.
Don’t say I didn’t warn you.
After completing a job for the Sovereign race, The Guardians of the Galaxy consisting of Peter Quill (Chris Pratt), Gamora (Zoe Saldana), Drax (Dave Bautista), Rocket the Raccoon (Bradley Cooper) and Groot (Vin Diesel) are suddenly pursued by the Sovereign fleet drones due to Rocket stealing their batteries. They take damage and eventually crash on a planet but are saved by a man named Ego (Kurt Russell) who claims to be Peter’s dad. Ego reveals to Peter that he is a Celestial and that the planet on which he resides is an extension of his consciousness. He tells Peter he is a celestial as well (well, half anyway) and Ego would like his help to fulfill his purpose, which is, to be the only thing in the universe. Over Ego’s travels to other worlds he planted seedlings to help him consume the worlds once he has enough energy and Peter will give him that boost to accomplish this.
Now the Guardians of the Galaxy must stop him!
Unlike the first movie, which I didn’t fairly judge the first time (I went into it in a very bad mood) and on second viewing loved it, I went to this one with an open mind wanting to have fun and had a hard time with it as I felt the narrative was kind of unfocused. This is a similar experience I had with Avengers: Age of Ultron in that there was too much being set up and too much going on.
Let’s see what we have here:
You have the subplot with our heroes being chased by the Sovereign as well as being chased by Yondu (Michael Rooker) who was hired by the Sovereign to capture Quill and co. before his ship is commandeered by Gamora’s sister Nebula (Karen Gillan) who wants a ship to chase and kill her sister which leads to half-baked part involving feuding sisters somewhat coming together to then back track with Rocket, Groot and Yondu breaking free of the crew that pulled a mutiny to go help Peter who bought the cat that ate the rat that lived in the house that…Ok you get the idea.
Like Avengers: Age of Ultron before it, too many things were shoved into the plot and thus you have subplot after subplot occur in rapid succession and thus nothing stuck with me. Not everything felt like it fit neatly into the story.
Let me break a few of these things down.
The Sovereign parts of the movie really didn’t need to be there at least not after the beginning of the movie. They show up and are just defeated in a snap and are just there to set them up in future movies even though they didn't really fit into this one. They are kind of the cinematic equivalent of the Kool-Aid man bursting through the court room wall in the the pilot episode of Family Guy only they don't tip toe backwards out of the film but try to stick around.
The sister feud with Gamora and Nebula eats up screen time and seems to just resolve itself in no time at all. Sure, Nebula’s anger was really directed towards Thanos but the sisters just fight a little bit and seem to come to terms in a very short time. That was unsatisfying particularly since their feud was set up in the first movie and it seemed that, in the first film and in the beginning of Vol.2, that Nebula could have been a serious threat to our heroes and nothing really seems to come of it. Her “redemption” doesn’t really feel earned since it seems to be resolved in a snap. Why wasn't her character developed a tad more in this film and have her redemption come about in another film? All I know about her in this film is that she hates Thanos for taking body parts from her and replacing them with cybernetics and hates Gamora for excelling at everything. Why should I care about her right now? Because the movie said so that's why.
Then we have Peter and his Dad issues. Yeah, his biological dad is kind of evil and that sucks but I don’t get the whole thing of Yondu suddenly having parental feelings toward Peter in this film. I always assumed that Peter and Yondu worked together a long time and have a kind of love-hate relationship. It would have been sufficient to have Yondu not hand Peter over to Ego out of some goodness in his heart after seeing what Ego did to his many other children who couldn’t carry the celestial stuff. Sure, one could argue that Yondu is one who wouldn’t show parental leanings for fear of being called soft or something like that but the Yondu-Daddy thing didn’t feel like it belonged here because it was just dropped on us in this film with any real proper build up in the first film and is convienient to fill a void for Peter.
As far as Ego goes, Kurt Russell is as charismatic as always but, as Ego, he’s rather unremarkable. He is just another villain who wants to destroy everything so all that will be left is him. I’ve seen this before with another unremarkable villain named Ultron. You could tell something was off about him right from the start but that's not necessarily a problem. If anything I was hoping that the movie would have done something unique and surprising with him to explain what was so off about him other than "I want to consume everything" thing that is so popular with villains these days. So I didn’t get “Space Plissken” after all. Yes, I know he’s playing someone totally different, and a villain no less, but I still feel Russell was somewhat underutilized here.
The humor in the film was uneven as some jokes would land and many others would fall flat on their face. The gags involving Drax got tiresome over time with him speaking his mind and embarrassing others with his blunt honesty, the open credits with baby Groot dancing to a song while others fight a monster and the part where Groot has to get Yondu’s fin dragged on forever. Half the time I had the stoniest of stone faces and the other half I was laughing when Rocket was being a smart ass.
I couldn’t get involved because it felt like the movie was rushing to get Marvel elements and characters into this movie to set up for future movies instead of taking its time to be a good movie and not just something to fill a release schedule. Some of these subplots could have worked if they split up into different films and let them develop naturally but since they are crammed in this one what I got was a cluttered collection of scenes instead of a fulfilling movie going experience.
That’s not to say it’s all bad though. The film looks fantastic in terms of effects and the designs of the worlds were beautiful especially the scenes on Ego’s planet where the design was seriously reminding me of the work of Jean “Moebius” Giraud. The action was very well done for the most part and the scenes with Rocket and Yondu as they are going through the scavenger ship with Yondu using the whistling arrow to build up quite a body count were especially impressive. And the performances from everyone involved were as good as ever with the standouts being Rocket, as he is my favorite, and Yondu, even if I didn’t buy the whole daddy angle.
If I have to complain about one thing is the whole thing with Thanos. The other movies in the MCU are guilty of this as well even the ones I like but if he is supposed to be primary villain of this whole thing with him showing up in full force in Avengers: Infinity War then why haven’t we seen him more often? We’ve seen him a few times in the first Guardians of the Galaxy and even in end credit cookie in Age of Ultron but if he is a villain to be taken seriously why haven’t we seen him do stuff like work behind the scenes to undermine our heroes and be like some grand mastermind? We are roughly 15 movies in and not much at all has come about in regards to him. We keep being told he is evil and yet in the movies we are never shown him doing evil things so I can’t exactly find him threatening right now especially if these movies constantly waste time on setting up lots of other characters and settings.
This is probably not going to change people’s minds in the least and people who loved the first one or the other MCU movies are going to like this one anyway but I think it is safe to say that I will not be buying Vol 2 on Blu-ray or even watch it again. Once was enough. I’m very simply not a fan of how the MCU does things with each installment being treated more like television episodes than films, the seemingly endless crossover material and easter eggs, making most of the films look and feel the same etc. I continue to go see them because I like going with my family to movies and, on occasion, I do walk away surprised and enjoy one every now and then.
Here’s hoping that is the case as well with Spider-man Homecoming.
