#I wanna make one from haddock's perspective too

[strawberry-selfships]

ten thousand miles away (sea shanty) // artwork by me // ocean man by ween // my wife by worm quartet (x4) // the crab with the golden claws by hergé (the adventures of tintin) // the tide is high by the paragons // fish in the sea (sea shanty)

[joboysu]

GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY VOL. 2 – FUNNY AS IT IS EPIC AS IT IS DRAMATIC

(image source: JoBlo.com)

(image source: JoBlo.com)

**PRECAUTIONARY NOTE: Most of what is written here are my opinions. Don’t take them in a bad note. Everyone’s got opinions.**

Since 2008, Marvel Studios has been delivering us massive films based on their comic book works and so far they are doing a pretty good job. They’ve been earning tons of box office money—approximately $11 billion worldwide—and almost all of their entries are well-received by critics and fans, even those who don’t read the comics, like me (I’m too lazy to read but I sometimes acquire knowledge from those materials; sometimes I thank the YouTube series of Marvel called “TL;DR”, which stands for “too long; don’t read”, for acquired knowledge, and so far the episodes I watched were about Spider-Verse, Infinity Wars, and the Deadpool Kills series). Anyway…

The first entry of Marvel Studios of this year 2017, Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 2, opened internationally late April and in the US May 5th. With a box office performance record of about $145 million domestically and about $430 million worldwide and an 82% “Fresh” Rotten Tomatoes rating, Guardians Vol. 2 is becoming an enormous hit in cinemas everywhere, from its special effects to its storytelling.

I for one am extremely amazed with the delivery of Guardians Vol. 2, and I had to watch it twice so I can see again how really great this film is, and also so I can write this review/reaction post. The visual effects were mind-blowing, the verbal humor was lovable, despite the mild cusses (no complete F-bombs, don’t worry), the visual comedy was colorfully funny, the pacing was fast enough to be satisfying, the characters were well-developed, and the drama equates the level of its comedy. Oh, the soundtrack was also pleasing; good for that “chillax” feeling you want. Those qualities of the film, from my perspective, can surpass those of the first Guardians and even those of Ant-Man, which almost shares the comedic concept (did I mention that Edgar Wright was the exec producer of Ant-Man and supposed director? That man’s really good in visual comedy. Take The Cornetto Trilogy and Scott Pilgrim vs. The World as examples. Also, don’t miss his new Baby Driver film.).

**SPOILERS AHEAD! DON’T READ IF YOU HAVEN’T WATCHED GUARDIANS VOL. 2 YET!**

Again? Another CGI de-aging? Well, this one from Guardians Vol. 2 is just as okay as that from Ant-Man’s Michael Douglas. That from Captain America: Civil War on Robert Downey, Jr. as young Tony Stark? It’s not actually bad, but it’s also not good enough. It looked unfinished, but that really nailed the young RDJ look. Tron: Legacy’s Jeff Bridges-de-aging wasn’t good-or-bad as well. All I can say is CGI de-aging is just meh-okay, but hey, it’s necessary to the story so, okay, go with it.

I have said that I don’t read comics but gain sometimes knowledge about them from the internet or hearsay, but Ego The Living Planet (played by Kurt Russell) being the father of “Star-Lord” Peter Quill (Chris Pratt) instead of the comic-original J’Son of Spartax is kind of ridiculous, but somehow it worked, as the creators gave a different take on the origins of Star-Lord, making a powerful Celestial-hybrid version of him.

I didn’t expect to be Ego to be a villain at first, but unlike what a lot people say about “underdeveloped” villains of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, like the first Guardians’ Ronan The Accuser (Lee Pace), Ego’s villain development was a huge jump from supposedly-good-guy, and man, it was good and a nice representation of his power, and a good twist as well, when Star-Lord finds out that Ego was the one who caused his mother Meredith (Laura Haddock) to have that cancerous tumor on her head that lead her to her death in the first film.

Talking about comedy, we expect Baby Groot (Vin Diesel) to be the biggest funny highlight of the film, but he’s just under who’s actually the highlight: Drax The Destroyer (Dave “Batista” Bautista). Yes, the brawns of the titular ragtag group is the comic relief. Sorry, Groot, but you’re still the cutie relief of the film. You’re so adorable to be killed, as said by—*chuckles*—Taserface (Chris Sullivan).

What makes him so are his laugh reactions, like when Mantis (Pom Klementieff) revealed that Star-Lord is romantically, sexually in love with Gamora (Zoe Saldana), his (back to Drax) awkward descriptions to Mantis, calling her ugly and horrible but beautiful on the inside (before for you criticize this part, I just wanna say that I have zero problems with “ugly” people), and his misinterpretations of figurative language. Also, his riding-along with Rocket’s (Bradley Cooper) quips are the best, like when the latter threatened Star-Lord to put something under his pillow, and it’s gonna be turds of Drax, Drax laughed and responded “I have famously huge turds”. His awesome moment, however, is when he shot down one of The Sovereign’s drones whilst screaming “DIE, SPACESHIP!” That I can say is one of the subtle signs of Drax’s character development of finally understanding nonliteral speech, aside from the first movie’s “finger-to-the-throat means death” scene.

Other comedic highlights include Rocket’s traps set for the Ravagers when they hunted down him and Groot, plus Yondu (Michael Rooker) when they rebelled against him for his “softness” on Star-Lord, Taserface’s name that even made The Sovereign’s High Priestess Ayesha (Elizabeth Debicki) laugh, plus Rocket’s insults to him, the excessive amount of hyperspace jumps caused by Rocket upon escaping from the Ravagers and arriving to Ego (the planet which is also part of Ego the man, of course) which caused the faces of Rocket, Groot, Yondu, and Kraglin (Sean Gunn, brother of director James Gunn) to warp and distort, and of course, Groot misunderstanding Rocket about pressing the right button to set off the bomb to blow up Ego. Another funny Groot moment is him shown to be growing up to his teen state, where Star-Lord scolds him of shedding leaves and growing roots too much to fill his room while playing a tablet game. I also laughed out loud when Star-Lord compared Yondu to Mary Poppins when the latter was holding on to his whistle-controlled arrow while landing in a manner Mary Poppins does with her flying umbrella. And lastly, subtly funny moment is where Star-Lord is given by Kraglin a final memento from Yondu: a Zune player, serving as a replacement for his Walkman destroyed by Ego and has about “300 songs”.

Cameos! Stan Lee’s cameo, shown in both the “hyperspace jump scene” and the post-credits scene, was also a funny highlight when he tells his stories to what seemed to be the Watchers. This somehow is a hint to who Stan Lee really is in the MCU, which producer Kevin Feige confirms that he is a single character roaming around the films. Is he also a Watcher? Cameos also count Howard The Duck (Seth Green) who first appeared in the first film’s post-credits scene, Cosmo The Space Dog’s return, celebrity cameos like Sylvester Stallone, Michael Rosenbaum (Lex Luthor from Smallville), Ving Rhames (Luther Stickell from the Mission: Impossible franchise), and Michelle Yeoh (Yu Shu Lien from Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon) as the first Ravagers, whose characters are based on the original incarnations of the Guardians Of The Galaxy: Stakar Ogord, Martinex, Charlie-27, and Aleta Ogord respectively, Miley Cyrus (WHAT?!) in an uncredited voice role of another Guardians original Mainframe, David Hasselhoff when Ego shapeshifted into Star-Lord’s childhood hero Michael Knight from Knight Rider, and rock icon Rob Zombie as the voice of a Ravager. Jeff Goldblum (David Levinson from Independence Day and Dr. Ian Malcolm from Jurassic Park) appeared dancing along with the main characters in the credits role as his Thor: Ragnarok character The Grandmaster.

Easter Eggs! A Marvel movie cannot be complete without itty-bitty, or maybe as large as the cameos, details referencing other Marvel works. Aside from the appearances of the original Guardians as mentioned earlier, Ego’s Celestial being was one Easter Egg. Yes, it’s a largely seen Egg that’s part of the plot but this can mean the Celestials, known to be “judges” of the worthiness of worlds, will actually be in the MCU. Adam Warlock was also revealed in one of the mid-credits scenes, where Ayesha was shown staring at his birth pod, wanting to call it “Adam”, and as we know, Adam Warlock is a genetically-engineered being and an original ally of the Guardians and the Fantastic Four (whose film rights should have been on Marvel Studios’ hands right now and not of Fox’s) but also a dangerous villain due to his Magus alter-ego.

The visual effects did not fail to amaze. The work of Industrial Light & Magic shows their greatness with stunning visuals of the environments and the powers. Really feeling like they’re actually there and the characters are actually on those environments.

Fun put aside, the story was well done. Its pacing was fast but it told a lot for us to know about the characters. It made those characters grow more and show some changes in them in such situations. Nebula’s (Karen Gillan) relationship with Gamora was somehow built on her quest to win against her, despite keeping on saying she wants to kill her but just wanting to “have a sister”. Rocket’s feelings about Yondu comparing himself to him were kind of heartbreaking when we know of Rocket as someone who doesn’t care about everything around him, and that somehow built also a relationship between the two, and made them realize about losing friends. Speaking of Yondu, his sacrifice to save Peter was the biggest dramatic highlight. His revelation to be the real father figure to Peter was impactful, and his death is heart-shattering and it left no eye dry.

The soundtrack. Ah yes. It’s really good to listen to. Those 80’s songs, like what the first film delivered, are unique add-ons to the film making the viewers feel a different feeling, and they really fit into the scenes, from the swooning “Brandy” by Looking Glass to the tear-jerking “Father And Son” by Cat Stevens. “Come A Little Bit Closer” by Jay & The Americans was a perfect fit, title-wise, to the scene of Ravagers hunting down Rocket and Groot [and Nebula], and as mentioned, “Father And Son” was so sad to show Peter’s realizations of Yondu being his true “Daddy” in spite of wanting to feel the love from his blood-related father [Ego].

Overall I give Guardians Vol. 2 a solid 4.5 out of 5. Marvel has done yet another stunner with this film, compared to Doctor Strange which is also a visually great MCU entry, and Guardians Vol. 2 surpasses the fun and excitement of the first film, while keeping the flow started by it to show good development.

Sources:

http://www.the-numbers.com/movies/franchise/Marvel-Cinematic-Universe#tab=summary

https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/guardians_of_the_galaxy_vol_2/

http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/news/marvel-kevin-feige-stan-lee-cameo-guardians-of-the-galaxy-2-a7707101.html

http://www.radiotimes.com/news/2017-04-30/the-11-best-easter-eggs-in-guardians-of-the-galaxy-vol-2

http://www.ign.com/articles/2017/05/02/adam-warlock-explained-who-is-the-guardians-of-the-galaxy-character

http://www.ign.com/articles/2017/05/04/guardians-of-the-galaxy-vol-2-easter-eggs-references-and-cameos