Finally watched Guardians of the Galaxy II Sunday night. i say “finally” because i think Guardians of the Galaxy original is probably my best movie of all time. So. Much. Fun.
And yes, SPOILERS be alerted…
Let’s be honest, pretty much anything with Chris Pratt in is going to likely be a win for me.
Since winning me over as Andy Dwyer in Parks and Recreation season II [hated him in season one, was so annoying, but then the writers figured him out i think] he has replaced Johnny Depp as my man crush because although still the hugest Jack Sparrow fan, his recent movies have been quite a let down… although the trailers for Pirates V really do seem to suggest he may have found his Mojo again… so that is exciting…
Them announcing it is the last Pirates [til it does $2 billion at the box office i’m sure] a little less so.
But back to Guardians, was the biggest Amy Pond fan from Doctor Who days:
So loved Karen Gillan being in the first movie, even though she was a bad guy girl… but then in Guardians 2 we kind of see a transformation there and she has been confirmed for Avengers III so that is great!
Drax [Dave Bautista] had probably the best one liners in Guardians I although in II he completely steals the show pretty much any time he is on screen and particularly his chemistry or anti-chemistry-maliciousness with Mantis is an absolute highlight. He is just an absolute joy and plays the role as you’d imagine an ex WWE wrestler would… oh, wait.
And in Guardians II, Yondu [Michael Rooker] was also one of the most fun characters and so the ending [just as they’d built all that up] was a little sad, because i’d just grown to really dig him, and the interplay between him, Rocket and Groot.
Going into Guardians II, when the news was that Groot was going to be Baby Groot for the entire movie, that felt like such a dangerous move. But from the very first trailer it was obvious that it was an act of genius and that the director [James Gunn] really had a plan and a lot of the humour related to Baby Groot being small and fragile in some sense – the scene where Groot fetches Yondu’s mohawk prototype the absolute highlight of the movie and probably beat out “I don’t need the leg, I just thought that would be funny” from Guardians I.
So with all these positives going into the movie and it being my most anticipated movie of the year [with Pirates and Star Wars close seconds, although Star Wars probably at least tie, let’s be honest!] you would think i would have loved it.
Which i didn’t. It was really good and a lot of fun, don’t get me wrong, but the story felt a little clunky and the ridiculousness of the Kurt Russell subplot [which obviously aligns with the comics and any time you have a planet as a father that’s going to get weird] felt quite silly. So i didn’t fully buy it. But it wasn’t bad by any means.
The other minor negative is that the Rocket vs StarLord subplot felt very similar to the Gomora vs Nebula bickering and so there was a bit of sameness there [which was similar to StarLord/Yondu and the Rocket/Yondu incarceration connection]. So that would be my only other critique.
The gold people and their simulated spaceships were a lot of fun, Rocket’s traps going off in the forest, Drax’s ‘Do you have a penis?’ and as mentioned all the mean interplay between him and Mantis [‘You’re beautiful…” – just-the-right-amount-of-pause – ‘…on the inside”] as well as the whole ridiculous beginning with Groot’s dancing while the rest of the Guardians battle that creature… and much much more are really good reasons to initiate a second viewing and i think Guardians I and II will be multiple rewatch movies as they are just so fun.
Well done James Gunn and crew and cast and special effects people…
Can’t wait for Spiderman Homecoming… and Avengers III [i am very nervous about cos so many characters] and on the DC side Wonder Woman is looking like they might finally have made themselves a decent movie.
Oh and Stan Lee. Just stoppit already. Nuff said.
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