There are not one, not
two, but five mid-and-post-credits sequences at the end of the movie. Five!
John Serba stated in his review, “Normally, I'd dutifully mention the presence
of such things as an aside or postscript to a review, so you don't walk out
early and miss a good joke or plot point - although we should all know by now
how pretty much every Marvel Cinematic Universe movie will feature one or two
of them, teasing the next in the series. But including five of them in "Guardians
2" is emblematic of the film itself, which is passionately overstuffed, as
if filmmaker James Gunn was, as a kid, told he could bring three action figures
on a car trip, and despaired at the thought of not having his 40 favorites. So
now that he's an adult, he gleefully crams all of his fun ideas into one movie.”
What this means is that
this movie will definitely be worth the ticket price. It’s filled with
eccentric characters, action, comedy, music and locations. What makes this a
great experience is paint – design, dialogue and deep emotion. Serba said, “And
it's all slightly crazy, offbeat and garish without alienating the consumers
who made the first film a $773 million-grossing global smash in 2014.”
Serba goes on to say, “In
spite of its bonkers sci-fi extravaganza-ism, the "Guardians" series
feels like the uber-conglomerate Marvel franchise's most personal project.” It
came from writer/director James Gunn’s dignity than from a huge company
throwing in plot points connecting so many movies together into one huge story.
He’s making kids happy watching space rangers shooting each other with laser
beams and flying through the cosmos in spaceships (you can’t connect this to
anything else other than “Star Wars”), along with the strange roles in Marvel
Comics, including Steve Gerber’s original “Howard the Duck” franchise (which
Seth Green made a brief cameo voicing him in here) and the crazy B and C-Level
makings of Jack Kirby.
On top of that is the
eclectic nostalgic songs that you hear on the radio now, Gunn again effortlessly
and flawlessly made his favorite ‘70s soundtrack to highlight themes and
inspire scenes. Serba noted, “He uses the film to quietly will ELO and Glen
Campbell towards pop-cultural kitschy-coolness.”
Speaking of which, ELO’s “Mr.
Blue Sky” plays in the amazing opening credits, where there’s a long tracking shot
where everyone’s favorite tree root, Baby Groot, reprised by Vin Diesel, and
rejuvenated to a small root with big eyes after what happened at the end of the
first movie, dances to the song in the foregrounds as his comrades fight a humongous,
tentacle beast behind him, in small focus. Serba credited, “The scene is representative
of the sequel, which is a little bit funnier and shows a smidgen more technical
panache than the first, but sticks to its successful formula, and therefore
satisfies in much the same way.”
The story can be compared
to “Empire Strikes Back” in a way, where Gunn separates the team, looks at the
love between the main male and female characters and focuses on the high
tension of paternity as the main plot point. In the first film, half-Earthling
Peter “Star Lord” Quill (Chris Pratt) briefly mentioned in sorrow of not
knowing his alien father. He and the other Guardians – Gamora (Zoe Saldana),
Drax and Destroyer (Dave Bautista, who kills it this time), one-liner spewing
Rocket Raccoon (Bradley Cooper) and Groot – are now mercenaries being tracked,
and when their latest joke gets messy, their ship is saved by Ego, a powerful extraterrestrial
God played with hilarity by Kurt Russell.
I don’t think I’m giving
any spoiler when I say that Ego is Quill’s father. Serba noted, “The film's
preamble flashes back to 1980 for Ego's time on Earth, giving Quill's pregnant
mom (Laura Haddock) a ride in his T-top Mustang, but oddly not giving her a
ride on his amazingly feathered hair, which is even further beyond "Big
Trouble in Little China" than we ever thought possible.” On Ego’s planet,
Quill tries to tell Gamora how he feels about her, but she doesn’t believe in
those feelings. Serba mentioned, “She's too busy smelling a rat in this plot,
symbolically speaking, and of course, that symbolic rat would probably be a
six-eyed, tri-tailed flying space rat, because in this movie series, a six-eyed,
tri-tailed flying space rat would be way awesome, and also too much, and too
much is almost never quite enough, it seems.”
So many other things are
thrown into the story. Yandu (Michael Rooker), a sort-of adopted father of
Quill’s and the villain from the first film, is exiled from his space-pirate
Ravager team by their leader (extended cameo by Sylvester Stallone). Gamora’s
sister, Nebula, played by Karen Gillian, is the Guardian’s prisoner, and holds
this long sibling-rivalry grudge. Mantis, played by the beautiful Pom
Klementieff, is Ego’s personal assistant of some type, an empath who can tell
how someone is feeling by touching them. Chasing our main heroes – Rocket foolishly
stole some powerful batteries from them - are the Sovereign, led by Ayesha,
played by Elizabeth Debicki, whose dress and throne are one interlocking unit,
and her huge eyes just barely point out different directions, interpreting her
fellow aliens. Serba stated, “The Sovereign are comically pompous, and are
head-to-toe gold, roughly the shade and composition of, one assumes, Donald
Trump's toilets.”
The character interaction
is again hilarious, and sometimes self-referential. Just when you think it’s
annoying and silly for Quill and Rocket to fight while running away from the
villains, Gamora shouts, “Can we please put the bickering on hold until after
we survive the massive space battle?” Pieced into the narrative is a consistent
and humanizing moral about the meaning of family, whether it is by blood or the
closeness of a group suffering – mainly through loneliness and rejection – the Guardians
share their eccentricities. (Serba noted, “Note, this is the same idea the
"Fast and Furious" movies suck at addressing.”)
Gunn puts together a rebellion
against your typical sci-fi film, which gets to be busy with exposition and
special effects, and not so much on character. Serba stated, “It's nice to see
substantial character asides here, effectively spiced with comedy, although
they seem self-consciously shoehorned in, and a little overwritten.” The climax
of the film does slow down a bit, due to a lengthy one-to-one heart-to-hearts
between many characters, negotiating the narrative swiftness of the movie’s
many action scenes. Serba said, “Gunn indulges a distinctively busy visual
aesthetic, and it's very nearly overwhelming, especially come the third act,
which peaks with a predictably cataclysmic and noisy conglomeration of
explosions and shouting and other dramatic cliches of the genre. The climax is
at least coherent, and is punctuated with Fleetwood Mac's "The
Chain," one of those nifty moments in cinema where film and song are
dramatically in sync, and we feel goosebumps rise on our arms.”
If we’re going to get “Guardians
of the Galaxy Vol 3,” these characters will hopefully appear in the huge
buildup of “Avengers: Infinity War” in May 2018, with a cast list currently of
24 recognizable actors/characters from the Universe. Serba said, “I worry Baby
Groot will get stepped on. Also, that the thought and care and idiosyncrasy
Gunn puts into his films will be steamrollered by spectacle.” He smartly blends
camp and sincerity in his characters and problems, taking them seriously enough
to make these movies enjoyable to watch and look at, but not so serious that
their comedic factor is instead put into the “dark” themes (which was one of
the problems people stated in “Batman v Superman”). Putting these characters
into a huge turmoil of Hulk and Doctor Strange may not have any charm. Serba
ended his review by saying, “But I'm getting ahead of myself - before then,
we'll get this year's "Spider-Man: Homecoming" and "Thor:
Raganrok," which will keep the Marvel narrative and the money-printing
machine chugging along.” This universe keeps growing.
Spoiler alert: the mid
and post-credits scene showcase Kraglin (Sean Gunn) trying out Yondu’s
telekinetic arrow and control fin, the Ravager leader reuniting with his former
team, Groot growing back to his normal size, showcasing typical teenage
behavior, Ayesha creating a new artificial being to destroy the Guardians,
calling it Adam, and a group of uninterested Watchers listen to Stan Lee talk
about his many experiences on Earth.
If you enjoyed the first
movie, this one is definitely for you. I promise you will enjoy it more than
the first one. However, if you end up liking the first one more, I completely understand,
but I personally found myself laughing at this one more, feeling the emotions
more, and overall having a better movie experience in here. This easily makes another one of my favorite comic book movies. The Marvel
Cinematic Universe is running on a high streak right now, and I’m really
looking forward to the new Spider-Man and new Thor this year.
Look out this Friday for
the next review of “Zhang Ziyi Month.”
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