Vandelay
Waxing Intellectual
I checked it out last night. My thoughts if anyone cares...
6.5/10
6.5/10
Admittedly I'm not into the space cowboy aesthetic. And as big of a comicbook fan as I used to be, I didn't know who the Guardians of Galaxy were; 'cept Drax, Gamora and Nebula from other Marvel stories; until the movie was announced, in what 2012?
The Good
The movie and franchise has been the most consistent amongst all MCU franchises, so if you love GotG you'll love this.
Rocket's backstory was wrenching. Really felt for him and his friends, and what their ultimate purpose was and how they still persevered through all of the testing and cruelty.
I thought most of the characters were strongly developed; had motivations and arcs that made sense.
Overall theme of acceptance and finding yourself was a great touch. The franchise is really good at embedding a theme without feeling like it's smacking you over the head with a message it's trying to push.
Hallway fight pretty damn cool.
The High Evolutionary was a good baddie, despicable in a not so throwaway fashion which Marvel tends to do. You hated this guy. (Loved his line about there being "no god".)
The Bad
There were no stakes yet again. Thought Rocket was gonna die. Thought Quill was gonna die, and for a second I thought they were gonna do it. shyt, I thought Drax in the Orgocorp scene was gonna die for a hot second because I know this is his last MCU film. And death isn't the only way to raise stakes. Ragnorok had Asgard get destroyed and Thanos pop up at the end and you knew shyt was gonna go down. Cap 2 made Cap think was he even playing for the right team. Cap 3, literally had the Avengers break up. Black Panther opened up Wakanda to the world, and there was an uncertainty that came with doing that. Those are stakes without having to knock someone off.
There was no need for Adam Warlock to be in here. He was a poorly executed deus ex machine who was written nothing like his comicbook counterpart. Originally thought it was a strange casting, but Will Poulter did ok with what he was given.
No connection to what's to come. We know it because they told us, but beginning with phase 4 they've done a bad job at showing us. I mean, The High Evolutionary is influenced by Mr. Sinister, all of the chess pieces have been set up and they just aren't doing shyt with it.
There is no ugly. Movie was just slightly better than average to me, but noticeably better than what the MCU has been offering for the last 2 years. It's on par with No Way Home for me, which in my opinion was saved by nostalgia and cameos. I'm of the mindset we're just going to have a slew of B and C+ movies until X-Men and Fantastic 4 show up.
I think Jonathan Majors is a great actor but between his offscreen controversy and what seems to be an inevitable oversaturation of his portrayals of Kang that are going to feel inconsequential, I'm not even excited for what he can do.
The Good
The movie and franchise has been the most consistent amongst all MCU franchises, so if you love GotG you'll love this.
Rocket's backstory was wrenching. Really felt for him and his friends, and what their ultimate purpose was and how they still persevered through all of the testing and cruelty.
I thought most of the characters were strongly developed; had motivations and arcs that made sense.
Overall theme of acceptance and finding yourself was a great touch. The franchise is really good at embedding a theme without feeling like it's smacking you over the head with a message it's trying to push.
Hallway fight pretty damn cool.
The High Evolutionary was a good baddie, despicable in a not so throwaway fashion which Marvel tends to do. You hated this guy. (Loved his line about there being "no god".)
The Bad
There were no stakes yet again. Thought Rocket was gonna die. Thought Quill was gonna die, and for a second I thought they were gonna do it. shyt, I thought Drax in the Orgocorp scene was gonna die for a hot second because I know this is his last MCU film. And death isn't the only way to raise stakes. Ragnorok had Asgard get destroyed and Thanos pop up at the end and you knew shyt was gonna go down. Cap 2 made Cap think was he even playing for the right team. Cap 3, literally had the Avengers break up. Black Panther opened up Wakanda to the world, and there was an uncertainty that came with doing that. Those are stakes without having to knock someone off.
There was no need for Adam Warlock to be in here. He was a poorly executed deus ex machine who was written nothing like his comicbook counterpart. Originally thought it was a strange casting, but Will Poulter did ok with what he was given.
No connection to what's to come. We know it because they told us, but beginning with phase 4 they've done a bad job at showing us. I mean, The High Evolutionary is influenced by Mr. Sinister, all of the chess pieces have been set up and they just aren't doing shyt with it.
There is no ugly. Movie was just slightly better than average to me, but noticeably better than what the MCU has been offering for the last 2 years. It's on par with No Way Home for me, which in my opinion was saved by nostalgia and cameos. I'm of the mindset we're just going to have a slew of B and C+ movies until X-Men and Fantastic 4 show up.
I think Jonathan Majors is a great actor but between his offscreen controversy and what seems to be an inevitable oversaturation of his portrayals of Kang that are going to feel inconsequential, I'm not even excited for what he can do.
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