Thumbs up for Guardians of the Galaxy II

GotG II was on in our lounge room not so long ago. I’m not a huge comic book fan – haven’t seen the Avengers movies, or many of the superhero things, but I quite enjoyed GotG I (especially the music – and Rocket and Groot) so what the hey?

Final verdict – I probably liked it better than the first movie. Except for the music. I’ve had the song “Brandy” playing in my head since I saw the movie. I always liked that song (yes, I know the words) but enough, already. It was probably the only song in the movie I actually knew – which shows I wasn’t a great pop music fan in the ‘80’s. Probably one of my classical phases. Verdi, anyone?

Anyway, back to the movie. It was fun seeing Kurt Russel in action as Quill’s father. I remember Russell from lots of SF type films. Escape from New York, and especially the original Stargate movie. And a cameo from Sylvester Stallone, with promise of things to come. It seems Hollywood’s Old Guard are seeing the value of the comic book genre. Baby Groot was an absolute delight, Rocket was his usual irascible self, getting everybody into trouble, Drax took everything literally, as always, and Quill and Gamora danced around each other. The baddies were a mix of pirates and sophisticates. The sophisticates turned out to be much nastier than I expected, and the pirates were – pirates. Not nice at all.

 That's not to say the movie was perfect. One particular scene between Quill, his father, and his mother's memory jarred for me. But for the rest, I could keep myself in suspension of belief pretty easily. 

What I really love about these movies is the SFX. Quill has armor tucked behind his ear (wow). Spacesuits are available at the press of a button - and although they look insubstantial, they do the job. Rocket puts the very wrecked spaceship back together by running a device over the shattered panels. One assumes the ship’s AI reconstructs the atoms the way they’re supposed to be. Quill’s dad (Ego) has some wonderful tech, including a ship that refines its shape as required.

The plot was the usual mix of fast action and derring-do as our band of warriors get each other out of trouble.  What holds it all together is that the action has a theme. It’s all about Family. What is family? What is it not? You might get a little misty-eyed here and there, and the teasers in the credits will have you hangin’ out for GotG III. I suspect it will be more interesting than this December’s new Star Wars. (Lord, I hope I’m wrong about that…)

Just one more small thing. Remember that song in the opening credits of the first movie?

 Back in the '80's some of us were bulk unimpressed with that mangling of this song.

 Time flies when you're having fun :)