Feb 16, 2018
Given that it's been five months since I reviewed a horror movie, until Mayhem a few days ago at least, it also stands to reason that I have been without my beloved Netflix (and Prime) for that same amount of time. I have missed goodness knows how many movies, that have probably now been removed from both sites, I've missed the second season of Stranger Things, among other series and you don't know how much that pissed me right off. Thankfully, however, that has now changed and, at least for the next 2 months, Netflix is now available to me. Finding a movie to watch was not as overwhelming as I would have anticipated, given the fact that there must have been a bunch of movies added in my absence. I settled on this fairly quickly. I knew I wanted something a little lighter for my Netflix "return" and I was fixing to settle on the last Pirates of the Caribbean movie. Why? I don't really know, the first two sequels of the franchise were bloated and convoluted and kill any real hope I may have had that it would be a fun franchise. I'm still watching it, but jsut because Javier Bardem is in it. Jack Sparrow jumped the shark halfway into the second movie. My decision to watch Pirates was quickly set aside when I saw that this flick was available. I didn't even have to think twice about it. If you've followed my reviews, on Flixster/RottenTomatoes at least, then you'd know that I felt the original Guardians was tremendous. It was fresh, clever and different, at least stylistically speaking, from anything Marvel had ever done at that point. At the time, and this was prior to Civil War coming out, I felt that it was the best film in the MCU. You could make the argument it's also one of the best superhero movies of all time. It's all a moot point, to me at least, since The Dark Knight (in my opinion) is still the best superhero movie I've ever seen. They're all just fighting for the second spot. Granted, I have not seen either Logan (which I own on DVD) or Wonder Woman, so I'll have to watch those to make my assessment. Moving on, and it pains me to say this, but there's no way that this sequel ever comes close to the cleverness, freshness and fun of the original. It's probably the worst first 'sequel' in the MCU since Iron Man 2. That's not to say that this movie is not without its merits, because as the rating suggests, I really enjoyed this movie. But there's no denying that, and maybe this is wrong to assume on my part, that there was some pressure on James Gunn to create a movie that, at the very least, was equal in every way, at least in terms of quality, to the original. I doubt anybody would have expected him to surpass the original, because that would have been an impossible standard to surpass. But matching the original is, in theory, achievable. That goal was not achieved, let me just say that right now. Taken as a whole, this is a very good movie, but when you're down in the trenches, as they say, there's some really glaring pacing issues. We'll get to these pacing issues later. Before we get to that, I want to take some time out to point out how much of a fucking hero Michael Rooker is in this damn movie. Rooker has always been a tremendous character actor and if you disagree then we're just gonna have to throw down. Seriously though, he's always been great, but I don't think he's ever been given the chance to truly play a heroic sort of character. And you might think 'but Yondu is/was a total asshole in the original' and you would be right. But his redemption in the sequel and his relationship with Peter/Star-Lord makes up the emotional core of the film, like Groot was in the first film. You'd think that someone who's spent about 99% of his career playing villains might have a difficult time playing a hero, but Rooker is more than up to the task and he knocks it out. Trust me when I say that his journey toward redemption and realizing the love he had for Star-Lord has the power to make grown men cry. He's the best part about the movie by a country mile and don't doubt that for one second. If there's one thing that can be said about this that can't be said for the original is that it explore character dynamics on a deeper level. It's a more emotionally-driven film than you probably would have ever expected. Peter's desire to meet and have a father is clearly the driven force for the film, for the most part. But you also explore Nebula's relationship with Gamora, her sister, and how Thanos' relentlessness drove a wedge between them when the only thing Nebula wanted was a sister. Rocket's pushing everyone who gets even remotely close to him is also explored through his relationship with Yondu. Drax is the comedic relief and while there's some of his moments that fall flat on their face, which I blame on the writing being a little more forced, I think that Dave Bautista is pretty damn entertaining in the role. His comedic timing and deliver is on point. Mantis is a welcome addition, but they don't really do much with her other than use her for Drax to make fun of, hopefully she's a more prominent player in the sequel. Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana, Karen Gillian, Bradley Cooper are all very good in their roles, but I felt that the supporting characters took the spotlight here over the leads. And Baby Groot is fucking adorable, but he's clearly there to sell toys, it's as transparent as humanly possible. But, and this is where the problems are gonna start. The film sees Star-Lord, Gamora and Drax being taken to Star-Lord's father's home planet. For, you see, Ego (Star-Lord's father) is a God. And this is when the film just absolutely slows to a crawl. When I say slows to a crawl, I mean that quite literally. While there's a 'B-story', as it were, with Rocket, Yondu and Groot breaking out after most Yondu's Ravager crew (who've been exiled by the larger Ravager community for dealing in child trafficking) betrayed him. Basically Ego, who's traveled all over the cosmos and impregnated a large number of females from other planets and species, in order to find a worthy successor. Star-Lord is the only one who has been able to harness that power. Everyone else, he said, disappointed him. Which should be interpreted as saying that he murdered them. Naturally, he doesn't mention this to Peter. Star-Lord, blinded by the beauty of Ego's planet and the fact that he now has a father in his life, ignores the fact that there's something just off about this planet. Essentially, Ego wants to shape the universe in his image, which is why he planted some pods, or what the fuck ever, in all the planets he went to, so he could proceed to take over the world by injecting it with his influence. To do that, he needs another Celestial, which is where Star-Lord comes in. If this was all there was to it, there would be no problem. But from the moment that Drax, Gamora, and Peter arrive on Ego's planet, there's a large chunk of the film where it feels like nothing happens and some of its attempts at humor fall flat on their faces. Like Drax and Mantis making fun and laughing at Star-Lord for having sexual feelings for Gamora. That scene was cringe-worthy and it felt like they were just desperate for laughs. There was another scene back with Yondu and Rocket where they tell Baby Groot to fetch Yondu's fin and he brings everything back BUT the fin. And, again, while it's a fun scene, it still felt like a forced attempt at humor. I will say that once the reveal that Ego gave Peter's mother the brain cancer that ultimately killed her which, naturally, drives Peter into a rage which causes him to shoot his father (who's immortal until, of course, he isn't). After this moment, the movie, thankfully, kicks into high gear and the last 45 minutes of the movie are pretty great all things considered. I just find that spending so much time on Ego's planet really, quite frankly, doing nothing and just sitting still hurt the movie much more than they probably imagined. I'm surprised no one saw this and went, maybe let's make these sections of the film a little shorter. But they take up so much time of the film and it just feels like a lot of dead air. You could have accomplished the same exact thing in half the time. I don't wanna say it kills the movie, because it doesn't, but it was just the wrong creative choice to stick with this setting while not really accomplishing anything. I get that you can't rush Ego and Peter's time together, given the fact that this was a big deal to Peter, but, I don't know. Let's move on. As I mentioned, the last 45 minutes of the movie are an equal mix of fun, clever and heartbreaking all at the same time. Let's just say that there's an eulogy that Peter gives for a character that's, actually, legitimately a beautifully done. It doesn't feel like a forced moment of sentimentality, given everything that went down, the eulogy shouldn't have been done in any other way than what we got. Going back to the large action scene that climaxes the film, it's actually really damn good. Perhaps not as memorable as, say, the Battle for New York in the original Avengers. But the special effects are great, there's some really cool moments involving Pac-Man, you'll know the one. One of my favorite bits of the entire movie also happens during this scene, where Rocket. who's in a cave of some sort, asks Peter if he has tape while there's a battle going behind him. Peter says no and he proceeds to ask every member of the Guardians. This happens all off-camera but you can hear it from Rocket's position. It's silly, but it works in this universe. I'm trying to think if there's anything else I have to say about this. I think this review pretty much covered it all. On Kurt Russell's performance, I found that he was good, but Ego is another forgettable Marvel villain in a long line of them. The only one they really have that's any interesting, given that he's a major part of his franchise's story, is Loki. He's a recurring character in the Thor movies (and the larger MCU as well) so he's instantly more memorable since, sadly, a lot of MCU movies have this 'villain-of-the-week' type thing, where there's a revolving door of villains and none of them really stick or stand out in any way. Ego, as good as Russell is, is just another one in a long line of them. That's neither here nor there. Summarizing my thoughts, this was a wildly inconsistent entry in the MCU. I'd still say I enjoyed it a lot, but there's no denying that this is a huge step down from the original. I appreciate the more character-driven and emotional approach the movie took, it allowed you a glimpse at these characters from a different angle. That was the best thing this movie did. But the pacing was terrible for the first 90 minutes of the film, the last act was great, it definitely undid some of the damage. But it didn't do enough to truly make this, in my opinion, a great film. It's a very good one and I would recommend it to MCU aficionados, but this is neither the best nor the worst entry in this universe. It's the best at letting Michael Rooker be amazing, that's for sure. And, to me, that's more than reason enough to recommend this film.
Verified