In Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, Marvel Finally Embraces Its Weird Side

Thank the Star-Lord.
Image may contain Human Person Water Nature Outdoors Art and Painting

Star-Lord, Rocket, Drax, Gamora, Baby Groot. The A-holes are all back together again in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, and there's a hell of a lot to talk about: how Drax is secretly the funniest character, how Chris Pratt seems like he was born to play Star-Lord, how Gamora just rules, or how Bradley Cooper just seems to go terribly under-appreciated for his surprisingly good voice work as Rocket. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 is a Marvel film that feels like it's playing by its own rules now that it has established these characters as runaway favorites, and the sequel definitely has a swagger that feels earned.

This image may contain Human, Person, Goga Sekulić, and Natalie Dormer

Dang, the New Guardians of the Galaxy Video Game Is Great

Telltale's latest takes Marvel's weirdest heroes for a witty, thrilling spin.

Mostly, though, I want to tell you about how weird it is.

There's a strange plainness to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, with all of its overt efforts to ground even the most out-there parts of its stories—presumably to maximize commercial appeal. It's a self-consciousness that leads to moments like this one in the first Thor film, where Thor goes out of his way to explain to Jane Foster that Asgard isn't really magical, they're just really really good at science.

This is something that carried over to the first Guardians film, which had plenty of truly wild stuff in it, but there was a nonchalance to its deployment that didn't allow the film or viewers to relish in, say, the fact that a big chunk of the film is set in the severed head of a deceased space-god. It showed that the Marvel Cinematic Universe could be vibrant and fun in entirely zany ways once it broke free of Earth's gravity, but it also couldn't help muting its color a little bit.

Not so this time around.

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 is an '80s light-and-laser show, a nerdy-ass party with Chuck Jones-style antics, rude-as-hell jokes, an adorable little tree-baby, and all the Fleetwood Mac the Marvel Universe was missing. It's downright batty at points, with mildly disturbing imagery and a genuinely moving emotional arc. It will almost certainly hold up far better than most Marvel movies will over time, thanks to a story that's largely unconcerned with connecting to the wider Marvel scheme, instead frolicking in its own weirdness.

This time around, the gang from the first movie has become a team of freelance space cowboys, selling their services to people who need big nasty aliens taken out or precious doodads protected. Even though they're a team now, they're still a bunch of bickering mercenaries just as likely to cause trouble feuding as they are to save lives. Early on in the film, Peter finally finds his father—Kurt Russell, playing a powerful alien known as Ego—and embarks on a journey with the Guardians to learn more about his alien origins.

If there's one big problem to be had with Vol. 2, it's the way the movie doesn't clearly set up its ultimate conflict, preferring instead to spin out a bunch of minor ones over the course of its two hours and sixteen minutes before reeling everything in for its big finale. It's a remarkably internal movie, tremendously interested in exploring the reason what made this collection of funny assholes the way they are and devoting lots of time to exorcising personal pain. As a result, there's a surprising amount of scenes where characters just sit and talk to one another. Guardians resists the urge to go straight for making everything bigger.


It does go big at times, of course—the film opens with a fight scene bigger than just about everything in the first film and relegates it entirely to the background. But it doesn't settle for mere bombast. There's compelling character work being done here, to the point where it's kind of disappointing that Gamora, Rocket, and Yondu all eventually have to take a backseat to Peter Quill's arc, which the movie is more or less centered on. That story is where Guardians spends most of its time, to both its strength and its detriment. It's Daddy Issues in Space, which is a little bit tired—genre stories love daddy issues as a theme, blame Star Wars—but Guardians manages to elevate its take on such well-trod ground in the ways it mirrors it in other character's subplots (namely Gamora and Yondu's individual struggles) and by director James Gunn being such a damn weirdo.

In his previous films like Slither and Super, Gunn established himself as a filmmaker interested in telling very human stories wrapped up in extremely uncomfortable imagery—think tentacle monsters and gross-out viscera—and very dark, very funny comedy. That was dialed back some in the first Guardians (which was also co-written by Nicole Perlman), but Vol. 2 is unquestionably a James Gunn film, for better and for worse. Some weird shit happens in this movie, and it's great to see a Marvel film just cut loose in this way. It's a little too loose at times, though, and could probably stand to be a bit shorter—not that you'll mind, as the movie is liberal with jokes that all land tremendously well, and Easter eggs cropping up throughout.

It's also a great reminder of something that's easy to forget: Comics are fun as hell. They're full of odd and outlandish sights, created by people who never in a million years would think movies could depict the crazy stuff they dreamed up on the page. That's the allure—the idea that you could find literally anything in the pages of a comic book. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 is full of these grand comic book ideas, taking every possible opportunity to splash vibrant colors across the screen, cut to a wonderfully obscure bit of Marvel lore, or play a terrifically indulgent classic rock track.

And that's the other thing: You're gonna listen to "The Chain" a whole lot after seeing this.

Watch now:
Brad Pitt Takes An Epic Road Trip Through America’s National Parks