Ahhhh, that difficult second film...
After the surprise runaway hit of Guardians of the Galaxy (3 years ago. Can you believe that?), Marvel have brought back the eponymous heroes for another film which hits the same high beats as the last one, while not getting drawn into the quagmire of "now we know the audience likes these people, let's bog them down in convoluted backstory and exposition". The second Avengers film suffered from this ailment, and it's good to see that Marvel have side-stepped this time because this film is just fun.
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| Yaaaaaaay! Kaboom! Pow! |
The pop culture references are interesting ones. I wonder about contemporary references, because its difficult to know how they will date a film. If I was watching this film in 20 years time, will I necessarily recall the what is being referred to? This is less of an issue in this film, because the references are already dated, but current culture is for nostalgia and retro, which may be part of the reason why the reaction to this film has been so joyous. The opening scenes of the gang fighting over ELO's Mr Blue Sky was as confident and effective as Chris Pratt's dancing introduction to Redbone's Come and Get Your Love in the first film. The audience reaction to this scene was one of utter delight in the screening I saw.
The main theme, as far as I could tell, was not a new one but it's telling was still engaging. It was the ongoing struggle of defining what family is - family can be your biological relations, but they can also be the people that you gather around you. Nature vs nurture. Fate vs choice. Biology vs circumstance. It's a theme that plays out in a number of different ways: Gamora and Nebula are very cagey around each other due to events of the last film (and events of their entire lives together), and they both struggle to acknowledge each other as sisters, but by the end of the film they have tentatively begun to look at ways of changing their relationship with each other. Starlord explores a relationship with Ego (his biological father), before realising that Yondu had been attempting to parent him throughout his life. Drax continues to come to terms with the death of his family, and is looking for a replacement. There are various endeavours to parent Baby Groot - from Gamora's nurturing of him, to Rocket's ill-advised life lessons, to Drax's constant watchfulness of him. The characters that we already know are developed in small but significant ways as the film progresses.
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| Hey Baby Groot. You are going to be very popular in merchandising... |
I wasn't particularly convinced by the introduction to new character, Mantis. An empath who can intuit the emotions of those around her by touch, she adds little to the plot although she did have some nice scenes. The one where Drax mentioned his deceased family, and Mantis just cries in direct response, was particularly touching. But short of helping the audience understand the characters a little better (and in no massive way that we wouldn't have guessed on our own), this character needs a little more work (especially given that she sounds pretty cool - read here)
For a film about a group of disparate individuals who are the Guardians of the Galaxy, it seems that the Galaxy doesn't need a lot of guarding. Half the plot (the pursuit by the Sovereign Race) was an issue entirely of their own making. That said, this was a welcome relief from the increasingly heavy world of Marvel - no mentions of politics, Infinity Stones, or the "everyone's turning against each other" plot devices of the Avengers crew. Some films are a meal, and some films are just candyfloss - colourful, inconsequential, but tremendous fun. Guess which one this is... |
| Enjoy... |
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