Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2
(2017)
(SPOILERS) Most of the time, we’ll settle for a solid,
satisfying sequel, even if we’re naturally going to be rooting for a
superlative one. Filmmakers are currently so used to invoking the impossible
standard of The Empire Strikes Back/The Wrath of Khan, of advancing character
and situation, going darker and encountering sacrifice, that expectations are
inevitably tempered. Guardians of the
Galaxy Vol. 2 is indebted to at least some of those sequel tropes, although
it’s arguably no darker than its predecessor, if more invested in character
development. Indeed, for a series far more rooted (grooted?) in gags than any
other in the Marvel wheelhouse, it’s ironic that its characterisations thus far
have been consistently more satisfyingly realised than in any of their other properties.
Perhaps the most significant aspect writer-director James
Gunn is clearly struggling with here is how to keep things fresh knowing he’s
developed an instantly satisfying, hugely winning formula. What he arrives at,
rather than simply giving his characters another galaxy-saving adventure
against impossibly powerful supervillains (although both come up tangentially)
is to dive into another staple: the origins story.
Amusingly, and perhaps antithetically to the standard action
formula, this is by way of something resembling a talky TOS Star Trek plot: crew land on a planet ruled
by a godlike being offering rewards/powers that seems too good to be true, which
is because, inevitably, they are too
good to be true. There’s nothing very wrong with this, and Chris Pratt and Kurt
Russell establish a convincing rapport, but neither is it something that feels
essential or, so early in a general audience’s introduction to the
character(s), truly earned.
Gunn’s keen visual palette for Ego the living planet is as
wild and whacky as ever, and very much the better for it, but for all the coup
of casting Kurt – and, as per usual, there’s de-aging tech, although why Ego
would need to age is anyone’s guess; ‘80s Kurt looks pretty spot-on, at least –
there’s no point where he’s really enabled to have that much fun with the part,
because it isn’t that much of a fun part (his Fast & Furious role is more so); Ego isn’t a fun villain the
way Rooker’s rehabilitated Yondu is. For that matter, Stallone’s glorified
cameo is a starchy as it gets; neither is allowed to have Tango and Cash repartee or japery, and they don’t even share a
scene.
Maybe that’s for the best; it can’t all be fun, and the rest
of the cast are having enough of it. The through line here, though, as with Vin
Diesel’s other franchise hit, is another “f”: family. The saving grace of this
is that Gunn, for all that he indulges sentiment, is too self-aware to get
mawkish in a detracting way. Besides Quill, there are family issues for Gamora
and Nebula and ruminations on loneliness and loss for Rocket and Yondu, and
most of them stay the right side of indulgent. Even if they occasionally tip
over, Gunn has too much else going on to linger to the point of distraction.
If the god planet feels OST Trek, Yondu’s sacrifice is Wrath
of Khan Trek, albeit again, it
isn’t something that necessarily feels earned (especially so in respect of the
funeral trappings of the end – I kept expecting it to be revealed as another
gag) in such a compressed space of time; the bad dad being revealed as a good
dad and vice versa. Rooker absolutely rules with the role, but his, and the
movie’s, best plot strand come in his pairing with Rocket and the more
action-packed, split-the-crew decision as Rocket, Groot and Nebula first get
caught by Yondu and his Ravagers, leading to various betrayals at the instigation
of Nebula and Taserface (a running gag the stupidity of the latter’s name is
possibly carried a little bit beyond the point where it can sustain itself.
That, and almost any gag is better when delivered by Rocket).
This firing-on-all-cylinders subplot exposes the issue with
the main thread, that of momentum. Gunn as a director has only improved since
the first movie, and when he hits his stride he maintains a perfect synthesis
of elements, but the flipside is that you notice the lulls all the more. The
structure of Vol. 2 is slightly
awkward, in that it moves from prologue to a kind of medley of first and second
acts that only really settles when Ego’s motivations are revealed, and the
third act itself, while a significant improvement on the first movie’s, which
stuck to the standard Marvel template and so reduced to sameyness at the final
hurdle, is still a little too reliant on bigger-bigger-bigger CGI spectacle.
There’s even a world-destroying menace depicted by gloop/Ego seedlings oozing
across (destroying) whole cities. Fortunately, Gunn also knows how to mix these
things up, so notable distractions such as Groot and the bomb are there to
sustain what might otherwise have become mindless pixels (and even where it
does, Quill using his god powers to conjure a Pacman is very funny, given he
says he’ll do exactly that earlier, along with Skeletor, which he doesn’t).
As ever, Gunn’s choice of soundtrack is eclectic and attuned
to the eccentric demands of a scene. Mr
Blue Sky has been horribly overused in TV and movies since Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind reinvigorated
it, but it fits like a glove here, with Groot dancing along while a massive
inter-dimensional beast is fought in the background over the opening credits. Nevertheless,
as with Hooked on a Feeling in the
first film having previously been iconic to Reservoir
Dogs, there’s a feeling that Gunn should be pulling out surprising vinyl choices;
the use of Fleetwood Mac’s The Chain
works perfectly, for example.
It’s in the humour that Gunn really excels, of course, particularly
in idiot humour (especially for characters who can be cool and clever one moment
and moronic or clueless the next, which particularly applies to Quill and
Rocket). He fires off more gags per minute than most out-and-out comedies, and
a dizzyingly high number hit their target. Occasionally, he’s in danger of getting
a little too meta for his own good (Quill comparing his relationship with Gamora
to a TV show where resolving the sexual tension kills what was so good about it
– I’m guessing Moonlighting is the ‘80s
reference, rather than the later The
X-Files), but you can’t beat the actual appearance of the Hoff, or Yondu
being compared to Mary Poppins.
As per the original, Dave Bautista walks off with all the
best lines thanks to Drax’s entirely deadpan lack of self-awareness, be it
deciding to fight a beast from the inside out, telling Mantis how hideous she
is (“But that’s a good thing”), acknowledging
his famously large turds, shouting warnings after the fact, “Die, spaceship!”, making reference to
Scotch Tape he doesn’t have, or finding it hilarious how Peter’s inner feelings
for Gamora have just been outed (“You
must be so embarrassed!”)
Indeed, the biggest downside to the more “serious” Peter
storyline is that he isn’t the butt of as many “idiot” jokes as he might be,
which is really Pratt in his comedic element. Everyone’s given good material,
but Bautista and the truly hideous Pom Klementieff are probably the most
consistently serviced. The Nebula-Gamora friction veers a little too close to rote
sibling rivalry, perhaps, but Baby Groot, who I had my qualms about given how relentlessly
cute he is, is actually made a genuinely funny hit. The references to his
adorability (the Ravagers won’t kill him for that very reason), complete with a
suction cup plush toy allusion, is made the most of as a comedic element, as is
his penchant for misunderstanding (particularly during a protracted prison
breakout). He also has easily the best of the end-credits scenes, as a surly
teenager unimpressed with Peter bossing him about.
Rocket’s as effortlessly genius a character as ever – the Jack
Sparrow of the franchise, really – and
Bradley Cooper’s perfect delivery is something else. The “trash panda” is given something of an arc (wilfully getting them
into trouble as a defence mechanism), but it’s at his most unfiltered that he’s
most effective, not dwelling on the pathos of his plight, from laying multiple
traps for Yondu’s men to pushing through a succession of space hopping feats that
was surely inspired by Ren and Stimpy’s
worst nightmares.
Elizabeth Debicki’s also golden and glorious as plot B
villain Ayesha, and there are cameos from Tommy Flanagan, Michelle Yeoh and
Ving Rhames. And from Stan Lee (one of his better ones, although the longer he’s
allowed on screen the more transparent his absence of acting chops are). You
can even spot Jeff Goldblum in there.
I’d hesitate to suggest Guardians
of the Galaxy Vol. 2 is superior to the first. Conceptually more developed,
certainly, not as fresh, for sure, still enormous fun, undoubtedly. What might
potentially be the series undoing is that Gunn has upped the wrong ante.
Focussing on character/family makes the sequel seem more similar, not more
different. What he ought, maybe, to have concentrated on was upping the
anarchy. Maybe he’ll get to that in Vol. 3.
Agree? Disagree? Mildly or vehemently? Let me know in the comments below.
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