Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2.

Guardians of the Galaxy: Bigger, Longer and Uncut is the latest offering from the Marvel Movie production line and it is up against a lot in its quest to engage audiences. For one thing the Marvel Opus has rarely succeeded in providing sequels that deliver on the promise of their predecessors. Thor: The Dark World, Iron Man 2 and Avengers: Age of Ultron all fall towards the bottom end of the WhatCulture-esque ranking lists of the internet. Captain America: The Winter Soldier fortunately bucked the trend being one of the most interesting Marvel movies but this is because the first Captain America movie The First Avenger acted more as a prequel to the character’s adventures whilst Winter Soldier introduced the audience to his place in the modern world. It was surprising and rewrote the pattern established in the first movie.

Perhaps this is the biggest problem with Marvel sequels, more often than not they aim to do the same, but bigger! Thor featured an alien hopping between planets. Half of the story was set on earth and half in Asgard. Thor The Dark World featured an alien hopping between hundreds of planets, fighting an enemy who was trying to manipulate a phenomenon that tears holes in the universe that could take him anywhere! He hops between scores of planets. The Avengers sequel introduced MORE Avengers and they went to MORE countries. Iron Man 2 Featured ANOTHER business rival with ANOTHER mechanical battle suit. It’s a time honoured tradition in Hollywood to repeat cinematic successes by literally repeating the films that were successful.

Guardians 2 follows this pattern of “same but bigger” and yet it offers something more, meaningful development of our characters. It is hard to say if this film will remain in the memory for much longer than some of the previous Marvel-fares. A sad effect of much current cinema is that the writers and directors have gotten accomplished at packaging their stories in compelling, engaging packages but are less accomplished at delivering on the promise of those films. Part of the reason that Marvel’s successful films work is that they focus on simple yet imaginative stories with meaningful, emotional cores. They aren’t built on promises or hollow mysteries, they are built on relationships between bizarre imaginative characters and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2. is one example that I would tentatively place into that category. The film is, like all Marvel offerings big, flashy, fun and filled with jokes and so the immediate effect for the audience in the cinema is a great experience but unlike some others there’s an emotional journey for the characters. This is the reason that I believe it will rise above its competitors in the future public consciousness.

The film was also battling against the legacy of its predecessor. The Hollywood landscape has been permanently changed by the original Guardians film. Films like Suicide Squad directly attempted to repeat its success by being a film about a group of anti-heroes, sound-tracked by a jukebox playlist. Trailers from Star Trek Beyond to Justice League have attempted to portray their films as being light hearted good-times by including montages of their action to retro rock classics. Even Logan and the trailer for the new Pirates of the Carribean film use unexpected songs in their trailers, clearly emulating the most superficial aspects of the Guardians formula. The original Guardians was successful because it was so surprising. It was a film about renegades and misfits which undercut its dramatic beats with cathartic jokes and a rebellious attitude. The songs were only the tip of that. It would be difficult for director/ writer James Gunn to repeat the intrigue and freshness when he had already laid out his stall, bold and bright, for the first movie. This worry was prominent in my mind for the first half of the film.

Guardians 2 begins with a very similar scene to opening scene of the first movie which introduced our hero, Star Lord investigating an Indiana Jones style temple whilst dancing to Redbone’s Come and Get Your Love. This film begins with an extended dance scene featuring the newly reborn Baby Groot dancing along to The Electric Light Orchestra’s Mr Blue Sky as the Guardians battle a terrifying squid monster in the background. This is a good scene-setter for it once again introduces all of the ingredients of the Guardians formula. Music, Imagination, Weirdness, Characters, Jokes, Action and, unfortunately, a new ingredient for the sequel, length as this dance sequence features almost the entirety of this 5 minute song. Throughout the dance/ fight sequence one’s mind has plenty of time to wander over certain topics. It starts at, “this is wonderful, will all of this fight scene be in the background? That’s quite funny.” It heads towards “This might be getting a little too long, I hope no-one else in the audience is getting bored because it’s not boring me but it could be boring someone else.” And ends up on, “I suppose that many films have opening credits but none are quite as entertaining as this, so it's OK? Oh look, Drax is saying something funny.” The rest of the film plays out a bit like this, never boring but also not nearly so tightly paced as the first film. It's never painful but you will sometimes worry that you might lose interest if the director doesn’t play his cards right. Fortunately Gunn does play his cards right. There are no real missteps in the film but there are many scenes which are wonderful and funny but just a fraction of a second away from being stretched out too long.

Guardians 2 is, much like the first film, constructed from three intertwined stories or conflicts, woven together in interesting ways. In the first film three forces of Ronin the Accuser/ Thanos; the space “ravagers” led by Michael Rooker’s Yondu; and the Xandarian Nova Corps each pursue the Guardians for various reasons and come into conflict in interesting ways. This film too contains three plot strands/ antagonistic forces; Yondu’s space ravagers have a sizable plot dedicated to them this time round; a society of golden angelic creatures are also involved whilst Kurt Russel appears as Star Lord’s father, Ego. Watching each of these forces push and pull our heroes, crossing over and coming into conflict is part of Gunn’s brilliance. The plot is like a science experiment which begins controlled but becomes more and more chaotic as more elements are introduced. Watching the likes of Chris Pratt’s glib but soft Star Lord and the ludicrous Rocket Raccoon cause and escape from the chaos is quite a ride.

In the first film Gunn brought his characters together emotionally by for each of them a tragic story from their past which were all revealed to the audience steadily throughout the film. What makes someone a member of the Guardians’ family is a tough exterior, a proclivity for violence and a defining moment of tragedy which set them apart from the rest of the Universe. Gunn continues this tradition, introducing three new technical Guardians to the roster. Nebula, played by Karen Gillan is the foster sister of Gamora who has been similarly damaged by their “father” Thanos, the overarching Marvel bad guy. Her interaction with Gamora gives both of the characters more emotional depths and reasons for the audience to connect with them. They add to the series’ heart and underlying theme of “family” and in spite of her fairly limited time on screen it gives Gamora a satisfying story arc which ties in to the overall film nicely.

The new character Mantis probably came from someone in the production mentioning that there should possibly be a few more female characters in the Marvel filmography. The oestrogen infusion is probably quite a good decision even though Mantis is without a doubt the least important of the heroes in the film. Her presence is still important, however as she plays off the Drax character offering an engaging counterpoint to him. Drax was perhaps the least textured of the characters in the first film. His “thing” was that he was overly literal and his emotional baggage was that he had lost his wife and daughter. It was enough for that film but he needed to develop to justify his place in the lineup. Wrestler Dave Bautista earns his place on the list of WWE professionals who make surprisingly wonderful actors. Drax is simple as a character. He says what he is thinking and isn’t overly emotive unless the scene involves him laughing uproariously which appears to be his new favourite pass time. Mantis is powered with empathy. She can feel and manipulate other people’s emotions which brings to the screen a lot of the hidden depths of Drax. There is a beautiful scene where the two sit together outside Ego’s palace Mantis barely able to contain the grief that Drax feels over the tragedies of his past and Drax as stone-faced as ever.

Such moments where two unexpected characters interact in new interesting ways are sprinkled throughout the film. Mantis and Drax, Rocket and Yondu, Everyone and Baby Groot. Such moments help to progress the characters into interesting new places, building them and changing them without betraying them, and all of this is written within the confines of a big, “dumb” space blockbuster.

Perhaps the character who undergoes the most development, becoming the unexpected star of the show is Michael Rooker’s Yondu. The character is responsible for perhaps the most memorable action scene at the midpoint of the film when he escapes hoards of villains with nothing but an arrow and a talking raccoon to help him. Yondu played a fairly small role in the first film. He never quite fulfilled his potential even though he was responsible for the memorable battle tactic of controlling an arrow with a whistle. Here he is brought into contrast with Rocket and his relationship with Star Lord is examined under a little more light. In between these two, perhaps the most important Guardians, he is given depth and contrast. The worst of him is reflected in Rocket, the two of them feel immense resentment over the way that life has treated them and project a lot of bluster to cover up their pain. We also get to see a great deal of his hidden affection for Chris Pratt’s character which was only hinted at in the previous film.

Fathers and sons seem to be the focus of this movie as the coming together of a “new age”, a “space age” family was the focus of the first. (I imagine that the third film will focus on the notion of legacy when it comes out.) One of the biggest cliff hangers from the first movie was the question of Peter Quill’s heritage. Human-Plus, a hybrid but who was the father? Kurt Russell is a perfect choice to represent the answer to this question. Reminiscent of Sean Connery being cast to play the father of Harrison Ford in the Indiana Jones films, it makes sense that the all-American anti-hero Russel should be hired to play Chris Pratt’s father, who is in many ways his Hollywood predecessor. The two interact well, giving Pratt a chance to show off that vulnerable, insecurity that he does so well to contrast his cocky abrasive characters.

When we take Russell’s participation into consideration we come to see what makes the Marvel movies which work, work. It’s all about story. The previous Marvel sequel to outstrip its predecessor was Captain America The Winter Soldier which did so because it had something to say about the state of the world today. It had strong themes of trust and friendship and that beating heart which was the troubled relationship between the Captain and his childhood friend Bucky. This film also has a story to tell about fathers and sons and (to a lesser extent) sisters and it uses it to forward the characters of Rocket, Groot, Gamora, Drax and Star Lord whilst introducing Mantis, Nebula and Yondu in new lights. The roles are changed and expanded and the imagination is rife. It’s a thoroughly satisfying movie. Guardians of the Galaxy looks set to be the most solid, consistent and dependable series that Marvel has to offer.