The Ties That Bind: Regarding Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2
A lot of my early days of pop music appreciation came from my father's vinyl collection and listening to classic rock radio in his 1980 blue Toyota Corolla; my mom was more into traditional Korean music and classical which I developed a healthy appreciation for as well. But the stuff he would play on that old turntable was stuff more from Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 than its predecessor: Fleetwood Mac, Glen Campbell, Cat Stevens, John Denver. Something about those tunes are perfect for contemplative night drives or background music alone in the apartment. A standout for me was always The Chain by Fleetwood Mac, a song that perhaps best embodies its album's mission statement of relationships becoming frayed and unwound with that song recognizing the ties that bind coming loose in one final declaration to keep it all going. That song figures more prominently than any other in the Guardians of the Galaxy sequel at a moment when the team runs the very real risk of completely falling apart and when they emerge from the crucible even tighter than before.
There are two ways a studio can handle the production of a sequel to a runaway successful film with a returning filmmaker: They can either tighten the clamps to zealously protect what made its predecessor a hit in the first place (See: Iron Man 2) or run wild and put their own personal stamp on it (See: Batman Returns). Disney exercised the latter option as they had not-so-quiet hopes that Guardians of the Galaxy would be their Star Wars (remember that the movie was greenlit before the LucasFilm acquisition and opened a full year before The Force Awakens) and immediately commissioned a sequel giving returning writer/director James Gunn even more free reign creatively.
With his confidence in working with a major studio solidified, Gunn was more comfortable with getting a little more weird and a lot more personal. Whereas the 2014 original saw Peter Quill confronting unresolved issues over his mother, the 2017 sequel would be all about Quill's titanic daddy issues. In a way, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 would also take cues from Age of Ultron: Another story about an ensemble uneasily learning more about each other while trying to settle into a team dynamic. And just like the Avengers sequel, it would fall into the same pitfall of really only working when going deeper rather than bigger.
Taking place several months after stopping Ronan, the Guardians find themselves as a band on the run after Rocket recklessly steals some volatile power batteries from the perpetually gold and perpetually British Sovereign and the Ravagers, Yondu's crew of unruly space pirates. Saved by Quill's father, Ego the Living Planet, Star-Lord cautiously leaves with his father with Gamora and Drax in tow while his partnership with Rocket is at an all-time low. Hijinks, as they are wont to do, ensue.
Couple things I need to get off my chest right away: I had to hesitate when I called the action scenes in the first Thor the worst in the MCU because so much of the action here takes place off-camera or just out of frame. That opener against the weird, impenetrable tentacle beast? Almost entirely fixated on dancing Groot. The finale that has Star-Lord, et al. take on dear old dad with the team taking on the planet sized threat while his seed (...?! That opens a whole host of other questions what exactly is going on there which I won't delve into) threatens to engulf the cosmos? Kind of an anemic fight with Ego's tentacles (a lot of tentacles in this movie...?). And just like Joe Johnston in Captain America: The First Avenger, Gunn seems to have discovered slow motion and 3D for the first time; a lot of shit is coming at the viewer almost always at diminished speed be it screaming space pirates or Yondu's ridiculously overpowered whistling arrow.
The other thing is that we don't really get a true antagonist until basically the final act of the film. It's pretty easy to determine that the Sovereign are little more than a catalyst for the greater events of the film (Perhaps the biggest action scene in complete focus is their arcade inspired space chase) while the Ravagers are either just inept comic relief or a means to lock Yondu and Rocket in a room together to work out their respective issues which, I suppose, are the same issues of pushing people away so others can't get close enough to see how damaged they truly are. That just leaves Kurt Russell and the big twist of him being the sequel's big bad has never really come off as a grand surprise.
It has never really made sense to me why Ego would kill Meredith Quill. He explains it off as him running the risk of forgetting his mission because he loves her too much but he also notes multiple times previous and subsequent that his immortality makes the human's natural lifespan nothing but a blink of the eye; he could've just waited it out. But hey, I guess if wiping out all non-Celestial life in the universe wasn't motivation enough for Quill to turn against his newfound father, causing his mom's cancer will more than do in a pinch; I always like how quickly Star-Lord guns down his father after the reveal, all that bonding most of the film is preoccupied on going out with a mistimed revelation and hail of laser blasts.
Of course, Quill's true father figure is Yondu which, in the biggest tragedy of the film, he only realizes as Yondu sacrifices himself to save his surrogate son's life as Ego implodes upon himself. On a more positive note, Gamora and Nebula finally begin to sort out their sisterly issues with each other after a lifetime of lethal competition to appease their father Thanos; Nebula will probably have the biggest surprising role to play of all the Guardians of the Galaxy in Infinity War as everyone goes head-to-head against the Mad Titan.
Just like Age of Ultron, everybody's pain comes to the fore in Vol. 2 except for Drax who really just is comic relief and laughs a lot to underscore that something is funny while Groot is just there to be cute and occasionally steal a toe (?). More interested in meditating during quiet moments than slam-bang action and a collection of jokes that don't land anywhere near as well as its predecessor, Vol. 2 is weird little film, almost an extended epilogue to the original and how they didn't put Cat's in the Cradle by Harry Chapin on the soundtrack is the ultimate crime.
But they do play The Chain by Fleetwood Mac twice and that song fucking rips.
There are two ways a studio can handle the production of a sequel to a runaway successful film with a returning filmmaker: They can either tighten the clamps to zealously protect what made its predecessor a hit in the first place (See: Iron Man 2) or run wild and put their own personal stamp on it (See: Batman Returns). Disney exercised the latter option as they had not-so-quiet hopes that Guardians of the Galaxy would be their Star Wars (remember that the movie was greenlit before the LucasFilm acquisition and opened a full year before The Force Awakens) and immediately commissioned a sequel giving returning writer/director James Gunn even more free reign creatively.
With his confidence in working with a major studio solidified, Gunn was more comfortable with getting a little more weird and a lot more personal. Whereas the 2014 original saw Peter Quill confronting unresolved issues over his mother, the 2017 sequel would be all about Quill's titanic daddy issues. In a way, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 would also take cues from Age of Ultron: Another story about an ensemble uneasily learning more about each other while trying to settle into a team dynamic. And just like the Avengers sequel, it would fall into the same pitfall of really only working when going deeper rather than bigger.
Taking place several months after stopping Ronan, the Guardians find themselves as a band on the run after Rocket recklessly steals some volatile power batteries from the perpetually gold and perpetually British Sovereign and the Ravagers, Yondu's crew of unruly space pirates. Saved by Quill's father, Ego the Living Planet, Star-Lord cautiously leaves with his father with Gamora and Drax in tow while his partnership with Rocket is at an all-time low. Hijinks, as they are wont to do, ensue.
Couple things I need to get off my chest right away: I had to hesitate when I called the action scenes in the first Thor the worst in the MCU because so much of the action here takes place off-camera or just out of frame. That opener against the weird, impenetrable tentacle beast? Almost entirely fixated on dancing Groot. The finale that has Star-Lord, et al. take on dear old dad with the team taking on the planet sized threat while his seed (...?! That opens a whole host of other questions what exactly is going on there which I won't delve into) threatens to engulf the cosmos? Kind of an anemic fight with Ego's tentacles (a lot of tentacles in this movie...?). And just like Joe Johnston in Captain America: The First Avenger, Gunn seems to have discovered slow motion and 3D for the first time; a lot of shit is coming at the viewer almost always at diminished speed be it screaming space pirates or Yondu's ridiculously overpowered whistling arrow.
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| These dudes totally kill a lot of people in this scene but it's cool because they're listening to Come a Little Bit Closer. |
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| "Behold, my greatest achievement: Big Trouble in Little China." |
Of course, Quill's true father figure is Yondu which, in the biggest tragedy of the film, he only realizes as Yondu sacrifices himself to save his surrogate son's life as Ego implodes upon himself. On a more positive note, Gamora and Nebula finally begin to sort out their sisterly issues with each other after a lifetime of lethal competition to appease their father Thanos; Nebula will probably have the biggest surprising role to play of all the Guardians of the Galaxy in Infinity War as everyone goes head-to-head against the Mad Titan.
Just like Age of Ultron, everybody's pain comes to the fore in Vol. 2 except for Drax who really just is comic relief and laughs a lot to underscore that something is funny while Groot is just there to be cute and occasionally steal a toe (?). More interested in meditating during quiet moments than slam-bang action and a collection of jokes that don't land anywhere near as well as its predecessor, Vol. 2 is weird little film, almost an extended epilogue to the original and how they didn't put Cat's in the Cradle by Harry Chapin on the soundtrack is the ultimate crime.
But they do play The Chain by Fleetwood Mac twice and that song fucking rips.
