Superman (2025)

Truth, Justice ...and the Puerile Goofiness of the Funny Papers!
 or

"1-A!1-A!1-A!1-A! 1-A!" 

 

So, what does a Superman movie written and directed by James Gunn (The Guardians of the Galaxy, THE Suicide Squad) look like? 

 

Well, it's different. Uncomfortably so. But, that's not necessarily a bad thing. A roller-coaster ride from start to finish, Gunn manages to channel the 'Big Blue Boy Scout" aspects of the character that has always been a part of it—but, without the Hollywood temptations to mock them, contemplating "Bad Superman" or the brooding "misunderstood Christ-like alien" of the past films (complete with a lazily slavish devotion to the 1978 Christopher Reeve film—although this one does have a couple character call-backs from it...and the marchable John Williams theme)—while also dusting off some cliches, tossing others, and embracing some of the bizarre aspects that lie deep in the character-archives of the extended DC Comics Universe.

 

Gunn likes the bizarre. He cherishes it. What others might find childish and puerile, he uses with giddy delight. And Superman (2025) leaps into all that in a single bound. Well, actually, too many bounds to count. It's a dense movie that will leave many in the dust, but doesn't take itself so seriously...or iconically...that some of the details don't matter much. Not when you're dealing with sci-fi tech and concepts that verge into "woo-woo" territory almost constantly. Pocket Universes? Check. Manufactured black holes? Okay. Unexplained and unexplainable kaiju? Sure. Getting insurance for anything in the city of Metropolis? Okay, that one's a bit much, with all the mayhem that's tossed at the beleaguered city every few minutes in this film.

Gunn tosses out the destruction of Krypton—how many times have we seen it?—but keeps the red trunks because...the red trunks embarrassed other film-makers...but embraces the tendency of creating mass-destruction set-pieces. There is a scene deep in the film where Supes and Lois Lane are having a heart to heart, while in the far background, members of the "Justice Gang" are battling a "dimensional imp" with clubs and green-energy baseball bats. It's a risk that the serious conversation will be overwhelmed by the goofy action in the background. But, it's also a salve about things getting too grim 'n gritty...this time.

Who are this "Justice Gang"(not to be confused with the "Justice League")? Well, it's a little "inside baseball", but, here goes—they're Earth Green Lantern Guy Gardner (Nathan Fillion)—in the comics, this sector of space has 3—Mr. Terrific (Edi Gathegi), a scientific genius who actually has ethics, and Hawkgirl (Isabela Merced), whose origin story has had so many complications even DC comics hasn't decided what it is. Anyway, they're a weird choice for a super-team—but, director Gunn likes weird and even preposterous. But, they're in marked contrast to Superman: these guys want action. In an earlier kaiju fight, "The Gang" want to just kill it; Superman wants to put in an Intergalactic Zoo. He's in marked contrast to the "grim n' gritty" and adrenaline-junkies that mark most superhero movies. It's a stark contrast from the Zack Snyder/Christopher Nolan films. But, then, Supes' himself is a stark contrast.

Gunn starts the movie in media res...no back-story, no explosive origin...with Superman suffering "his first defeat", falling into an Antarctic snowscape after being uppercut by "The Hammer of Moravia", a mecha-Hulk villain out of an autocratic country with a history of invading countries. Evidently, it's pay-back for Supes interfering with one of those invasions. He thought it the proverbial "right thing to do," but when interviewed by Daily Planet reporter Lois Lane (Rachel Brosnahan—she's great!), he is flummoxed when he is accused of an illegal act, not sanctioned by the U.S. government. Politics doesn't play into the Kryptonian's thinking, nor does race, color, or creed...like it has since the character's first publishing in 1938. He has human values, raised by as rural a couple (Pruitt Taylor Vince and Neva Howell) as you can imagine, but who have the moral fiber and strength to raise a kid who could fry their entire farm with an angry look, But doesn't. More importantly, wouldn't.

Who's behind the daily slings and arrows Superman has to deflect when he could be doing something else? Why, Lex Luthor (Nicholas Hoult, at full arrogance-mode), of course—maybe the movie people haven't read enough Superman comics...he has other enemies, but they seem to be stuck on Luthor the same way the Batman movies are stuck on The Joker—but, he's back to being a scientific genius (albeit a sloppy one) and tech-bro...not a crooked real estate developer this time...who hates the Kryptonian with a passion ("Super...'man'. He's not a man. He's an 'it'. A thing with a cocky grin and a stupid outfit, that's somehow become the focal point of the entire world's conversation."). 

Lex wants the Kryptonian's reputation...and he wants his power. If he can't have them, no one will, so he either wants to tarnish Supes' image...or kill him. Because that's how you climb that ol' megalomaniacal ladder, not by winning hearts and minds, but by making people lose theirs.

So, though it may still a very fantastical comic-book world in this one, it sure echoes our times...the way the comics version of Superman periodically does since his debut in 1938. Its a different world, where anybody could use their phones to film you changing clothes in a phone booth (if there WERE phone booths, and isn't that ironic?), where information, good, bad or indifferent, is faster than a speeding bullet. Where anybody with a grudge or a cause can, at the very least, bloviate like they're doing a TED talk. And lie through their teeth like they were telling Truth. More people have more access to the power of technology, but use it in the worst ways. 

What differentiates Gunn's Superman from all the iterations that have come before is that he's a good guy despite the "powers and abilities far beyond those of mortal men." He knows he's an alien, but when given the old Nature versus Nurture question, he lands with a thud on the latter. He assimilates, and tries to be 110% human to compensate. He doesn't mope, he doesn't question his fate, he's not tempted to abuse his power or even be snarky about it. It's the old comic-book Superman, but without Warner Brothers messing with it to make the character "more hip" for "modern" audiences. Gunn keeps the character pure, but surrounds him with the goofy, the childish, the arrogant, and the just plain bad. To mark the contrast.

Gunn leans into the humanity, but an outsider's view of it, seeing the good, the hope, the striving, and the yearning to be free and wanting to be that. I see an awful lot of internet blather about moments of "cringe" in this Superman, particularly this speech: 

That is where you've always been wrong about me, Lex. I am as human as anyone. I love, I-I get scared. I wake up every morning, and despite not knowing what to do, I put one foot in front of the other, and I try to make the best choices that I can. I screw up all the time, but that is being human, and that's my greatest strength. And someday, I hope, for the sake of the world, you understand that it's yours too.

Good Lord. Maybe it's "cringe" because he admits he makes mistakes, but we could use a lot more of that these days, but that would take character, humility, honesty, and a whole lot of other things missing in this PR-saturated spin-zone we call a world.

For a time now, I've been grousing (and boring friends) about certain notable politicians and corporate Masters of the Universe, by describing each one as an "Anti-Superman." Why? Superman (so the old TV show announced) "fights a never-ending battle for Truth, Justice, and the American Way." But, now its an every-day, non-prosecuted occurrence 180° in the other direction with these guys. There's no relationship with Truth (which has never been so degraded and discarded), Justice, which is consistently delayed and dismissed...and as for The American Way? It's the way of the thug-gangster, that icon of American pop-culture (until it affects us personally). 

And common decency is becoming more and more uncommon.

 

No wonder the last Superman movies were so grim, gritty and stewed in their own existential juices so much. We don't need that kind of inspiration. 

We need this Superman. A Superman who can push against a falling skyscraper, but also push against the inexorable fall of civilized behavior or civilization itself, and not break a sweat or crack with angst. And leads...by example...for the good. The common good.

We need this Superman now.

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3

"The (10th) Greatest Marvel Film Since Avengers: Endgame!"

or

"The Ballad of Rocket Raccoon"

 

I notice an up-tick in the number of people who looked at my review of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2. I've long since stopped trying to figure out the patterns of what people are looking at, but I suppose it had something to do withe the release of Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 3—the movie that James Gunn was working on when he got hired as the High Evolutionary of the DC Movie Universe.

But, there was no incentive to see it. I haven't watched the last couple of Marvel movies, as they've been sputtering as far as quality, depending on call-backs, cameos, or with no clear sense of where things are going—other than contracts need to be fulfilled, promises made must be delivered on, and a general running-in-place while Kevin Feige tries to come up with a follow-up to the colossal success that was the first batch of Marvel movies. It seemed like, at those times, they were taking chances, swinging for the fences, and hitting home-tuns. Now, it seems they're just counting the receipts, waiting for the Next Big Thing to happen.

 

Trouble is the fan-base is lying in wait. Disappointments among the "TrueFans" may collapse the enterprise like a stack of back-issues no one's bothered to box.

 

Still, folks DID look at the review. I made a point to see it. 

How is it? A pretty good send-off, actually, while being something different. It's an origin story of sorts—of how Rocket the Raccoon (voiced again by Bradley Cooper) came to be a wise-cracking, take-no-prisoners, but still fuzzy-funny animal came to be, mostly told in flash-back, after he is left near-death after an attack on Guardians of the Galaxy HQ (Planet Knowhere) by Adam Warlock (Will Poulter). The super-powered Warlock is on a mission to steal the mercurial mammal for his mother, Queen Ayesha (Elizabeth Debicki) of the Sovereigns at the behest of The High Evolutionary (Chukwudi Iwuji), a sort of gene-split Dr. Mengele/Dr. Moreau of Space, who's on a mission to create the perfect utopia based on his manipulating evolutionary traits.

Yeah, that trick NEVER works, but His Highness (Evolutionarily) wants Rocket—or as he designates him, Test Subject "89P13"—back, as the little varmint was the only test subject of his that displayed original thought, and may be the key to achieving his perfect utopia. Too bad that the way to get him back puts him in a coma.

The Guardians band together to try to save Rocket's life, but discover that he has an implanted kill-switch on his heart that will explode him if they trying any extraordinary efforts to save him. But, Peter "The Star-Lord" Quill (Chris Pratt), still nursing a broken heart after losing his lost love Gamora (Zoe Saldana) during the events of "The Blip"—then getting back an earlier version of her that can't stand him—determines that he's going to find the code to disable the kill-switch and save his little bandit-buddy, even if he has to travel the Galaxy, kill a bunch of multi-legged creatures and even *gulp* face his ex-girl-friend to do it.

And so, they do, over 2½ hours (which feels it, probably due to some rocky transitions that director Gunn has trouble with), meeting new friends and old friends of Gunn's in new roles (Nathan Fillion, anyone?), squeezing in Sylvester Stallone (the guy cannot handle tech-talk), Liz Debicki, and even an appearance by Howard the Duck (voiced by Seth Green, nice), and actually providing "I'm worth-being-here" arcs to Mantis (Pom Klementief) and Kraglin (Sean Gunn). Plus, we get another example of why Karen Gillan may be the most unsung-acting hero in the MCU and a "giving it 100%" performance by Pratt. Throw in a talking space-dog (voiced by Maria Bakalova—"He just called me 'a BAD DOG!'") and you have a vast cornucopia of cutesiness mixed in with Gunn's "ick" factor. Call it "Anthropro-Marvel"—the place where the studio can really get silly (even by comic-book standards).*

Take, for example, the look of the High Evolutionary's Orgosphere—an organic planet made out of meat—which is pure 20th Century Fox sci-fi tacky, ala Fantastic Voyage or Barbarella. It has the look of spareness, but the detail of something well-considered, rather than what the budget could spare. And one just knows, going along that one is missing a gazillion references stuffed into the thing with minor characters and such, but, frankly, there's enough for the non-Marvel Zombie to appreciate.

At the same time, there's a nice little message about universality and worth, where one's lab-rat could just be worth saving if only they were noticed. It's an extension of the original GotG movie, where everyone was, basically, a cast-off, but were worth more than the sum of their parts put together. Here, no one's a loser, except for the one's who never would have suspected they were in the first place. And, once again, it shows that although Gunn will always make films that feel tough-as-nails-cynical, they still have a core of sentimentality to them that puts them a notch above the usual super-hero fare.

 

It's a good movie for the series to go out on (if, indeed, it ends).

* Although judging by the Marvels trailer, they're not going to stop there.

The Suicide Squad

Task Force "Ecch!"

or

"Here's Hoping I See You in 3 Hours"

 

David Ayer's Suicide Squad was a sad affair. The trailers looked great, and the fan response was so positive to them that the Warner Brothers team took the movie away from Ayer and tapped the trailer team to re-cut it. There may have been two cuts and some "genius" mixed and matched, but the sum total was not as lively as it should have been, and a lot less anarchic as it was called out to be. It was glum with the sole high point being the introduction to Margot Robbie's version of Harley Quinn.

 

So, now, here's the 2.0 version, with a "The" adjective inserted to tell them apart (the next "Batman" film is "The" Batman), and the Warner Bro's do what they usually do when they think one of their tent-poles is in trouble—hire a director with ties to Marvel to re-do it (because that's worked so well in the past!). In this case, it's Troma director James Gunn, who directed the "Guardians of the Galaxy" films for Marvel, and got fired by Disney for some "bad tweets" he'd made in the past. While Disney got their mouse-knickers in a bunch, Warner grabbed him for the next "Suicide Squad" before Disney/Marvel turned tail and asked him to come back.

It was Warner's gain. Gunn's "take" on "Task Force X" "works".

There isn't a lot of set-up. We're are introduced to the super-villain Savant (Gunn crony Michael Rooker), sent to Belle Reve prison for blackmail. He has been made a deal by Amanda Waller (Viola Davis, national treasure and who is put to good use here) to become part of "Task Force X"—The Suicide Squad. An explosive charge is put in his neck (amusingly, played by the comics' creator James Ostrander) and is told that if he deviates from his mission that the device will be detonated, killing him instantly, but if the mission is accomplished and he survives, ten years will be taken off his sentence.

 

He is put on a plane to the South American Island of Corto Maltese, which has just had it's American-friendly government toppled by a new regime of cut-throats. The team consists of Savant, Rick Flagg (Joel Kinnaman from the original film), Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie, ditto), Captain Boomerang (Jai Courtney, ditto-ditto) as well as new members Blackguard (Peter Davidson), Javelin (Flula Borg), an alien warlord called Mongal (Mayling Ng), TDK ("don't ask" and played by Nathan Fillion) and Weasel (Sean Gunn). Things do not go well once they make land-fall as their landing has been leaked to military on the island. As some of the posters say "Don't get too attached." More on this section later.

That assault was just a diversion; another team, comprising of Bloodsport (Idris Elba—he's great in this!), Peacemaker (Jon Cena), Ratcatcher 2 (Daniela Melchior), King Shark (Steve Agee and voiced by Sylvester Stallone), and The Polka-Dot Man (David Dastmalchion) land elsewhere and have a considerably easier time of it. How these guys got mixed up in this is done with a flashback as their mission is to infiltrate the capital and destroy all vestiges of what is called "Operation: Starfish," a super-secret project that has been under wraps for years and is in danger of being misused by the current junta. Oh, and their mission gets revised to also rescue Flag and Harley, who have gone missing.

Sounds simple enough, but there's still quite a few characters to juggle, and unlike Ayer, who gave back-stories to Quinn and Deadshot—and that's about it—Gunn manages to weave back-story in without having to build a whole new sequence around it, interrupting the story-flow. Oh, he jumps around in time a bit, but in the service of planning a surprise with a well-timed "gotcha" at moments of extreme duress for the team. "How will they get out of this one?" Well, just wait, we've got some 'splainin' to do.

Now, those who've seen the Marvel "Guardians" movies will be surprised at the difference between a "PG-13" James Gunn movie and a Hard-"R" James Gunn movie. Those who remember his unrated comics spoof, Super, will be more prepared. In the battle sequences, faces get blown off, people are ripped to shreds, blood spurts copiously, bodies set aflame, and limbs come off—intentionally and unintentionally—in a way that feels more like a visit to a triage unit than it does a comic-book fight. At one point (when Harley Quinn is single-handedly making an escape from the island El Presidente's stronghold) the blood-splatter is replaced by flower-petals and chirping birds, which can be explained away that she's crazy, but more probably it's to avoid an "X"-rating. 

And it's persistent. Parents should be warned: "It's a super-hero movie" is not an excuse and taking your kids to this is like taking them to Taxi Driver.

That being said, the movie also goes out of its way to be goofy. Gunn has picked comic-book characters whose power ratings are very low in the D&D deck—"Polka-Dot Man?" "The Disconnected Kid?" "Ratcatcher 2?" "Weasel?"—but very high in the disposability category. That also includes two characters we meet later: "The Thinker" (played by an emaciated—but no less sharp—Peter Capaldi), and the movie's "Big Bad," one of the original villains of DC's "silver age"—appearing in the first appearance of The Justice League—"Starro, the Conqueror."

Yes, folks, he's a giant starfish. But, an intergalactic giant starfish. (Okay, that's still not impressive...) An intergalactic giant star-fish, who can squirt little starfish that will latch onto your face and take over your mind (except in the movie, they kill people dead and re-animate them as zombies). Well, yeah, it's still silly as all Hell, but...ya know...canon, copyrighted, merchandisable DC property...all of that.

A starfish throws a shark into a building. Yeah, tell me you've seen that before...

 
Okay, it's still silly as all Hell—especially when Gunn has stuck a google-eye rolling around in the middle of it—but, for me, it's a little bit of the charm. I liked the Pacific Rim movies, even though my rational brain told me that giant killer robots are a really ungainly system of defense (like the AT-AT's in the "Star Wars" movies, "just go for the legs and let gravity sort it out"), but it's still something of a hoot to see. And look, you can go as grim and gritty as you want to in the quest to make your movie "bad-ass," but in the end it's still a comic book movie. Real junta's flood countries with cocaine or hack computer clouds, they don't launch giant starfish (although I bet they would if they could).

What I'm saying is the goofiness off-sets the carnage, crossing that bridge between tension and comedy, which, although I say it's a bridge it is actually more of a tightrope. The greater the tension, the greater the release, whether it be shock or laughter. Gunn has always had that sensibility, but the allowance to go "R" just gives him permission to push the boundaries, not unlike the original Deadpool (but without the fourth-wall breaking "meta" quality that quickly wears out its welcome). It's fast, it's funny, and it's more than competent. Recently, I've been decrying the loose/lame action scenes these movies have been sporting, but Gunn lets you know where people are, how they got there, and what the big picture perspective of those sequences are. With so many characters that takes some doing.

Casting helps that process a lot. Fortunately, the film is chock-full of good actors who can do the drama and the comedy. Davis, Robbie and, surprisingly, Kinnaman pull this off amazingly well. But, Idris Elba comes off with one of the best star-turns he's ever done, Cena shows a flair for straight-faced comedy, Melchior becomes the heart and soul of the movie, and Dastmalchion takes a lame part and turns it to an advantage. You care if these guys make it through the movie, and, as it lives up to the title and original concept, that is never a sure-thing.

 

It's a savage/silly romp, not afraid of making fun of and celebrating the silliness of the four-color world.

Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 2

Super-Saturation
or
A Small "s" Sequel

The first Guardians of the Galaxy movie looked like such a lame concept in the trailers (and post-credits set-up of some Marvel film or other—I've lost track*) that it was a pleasant surprise for it to be not only fresh and funny, but an oddly genre-disdainful addition to the Marvel Universe, a story of space-orphans who form a Dirty Half-Dozen and quite against their intentions become a family, a dysfunctional family, to be sure, but a family nonetheless. Indeed, more power to them as they discover they're better as a group than as individuals, no matter how good they think they are, individually.

Given the success of the first film, there had to be the inevitable sequel, called (unimaginatively) Guardians of the Galaxy, Volume 2.  Same cast with a few additions, same writer-director (James Gunn, whose Super was a damning condemnation of heroic vigilantism, comic culture and the ones who are both perpetrators and victims of it) and one would hope, given his past, that any continuation would have the same affectionately anarchic spirit and mess with the formula.

Alas, it doesn't. Alack, someone must have made him read the memo's from Marvel Studios (the animated corporate logo of which is becoming increasingly long and self-important) of the audience metrics from the last one because it starts out catering to the masses with its opening sequence.** 

The self-styled Guardians are on a job protecting a group called "The Sovereigns" (as in the coinage, I'd guess, because they are gilded from head to foot like some Goldfinger fetish-fantasy) whose "something-or-other" batteries are being threatened by a "who-the-hell-cares" squid-ish attacker from outer space that's going to drain them or eat them or replace them with cheap convenience-store-branded batteries and that just ain't right. It feels like a disposable "Men in Black" sequence where they just needed a strong open and this is as good as any to show that the group is still together and functioning as a viable team.

Now, as everyone synchronizes watches and gets ready for the attack, Rocket the Raccoon (he has a lot of good disparaging nicknames in the movie) is busy...setting up a sound system? What the...? It's because one of the delights of the first film was its use of old obscure pop as a soundtrack and the sound system is to play a track...possibly as mood music for the team, distraction for the opponent, or for soundtrack sales for Marvel Studios (my guess would be the latter). Whatever. The Main Titles run along while the Guardians are battling a big-mouthed squid, while in the foreground Baby Groot is boogieing to ELO's "Mr. Blue Sky" to the delight of the audience, while the carnage goes on around him.

Cute. But derivative, one might even say pandering. And a bit of a time-waster, even if the Titles are unwinding in the background. It's a call-back to the previous film's mid-credit sequence where "potted" Groot is grooving to the Jackson's "I Want You Back"—and freezes whenever Drax (David Bautista) notices him. This sort of "memory lane" of audience highlights is lazy writing and dilutes the good will of the original as well as its uniqueness. I keep wondering if someday a movie sequel will ever be a direct copy of its predecessor and I realize that it's been done—Back to the Future II, for most of its length follows a parallel path to its Part 1. It's a weakness of series films that they hearken back to their origins, and there's nothing anyone can say except "I've got a bad feeling about this." It is lazy writing, but at the behest of producers who know it's less risky to do more of the same than tinker with what made the coffers fill the last time.

This is concerning for someone who enjoyed the original Guardians' insouciance in messing with the uber-tone of most movies based on comics, trying desperately to be taken seriously that they take on the mantle of big-m "Myth." It's indicative of less risk-taking (which made its predecessor so enjoyable). A Guardians of the Galaxy entry that took itself seriously would be as dull as Thor...or Iron Man III. Enough on that, there's a whole rest of the movie that improves things.

Ayesha...or "Her"...or "Kismet"...anyway, she's different from the Marvel comics version...i
f she weren't she'd be the Sylvester Stallone character's mother. A-Yeesh.

But, the sequence does get the movie started and introduces us to the Sovereigns, whose Queen Ayesha (Elizabeth Debicki...in an Oscar-worthy performance because, frankly, she LOOKS like an Oscar) pays the Guardians their reward, the sister of Gamora (Zoe Saldana), Nebula (Karen Gillan), the bitter daughter of Thanos (it would be Josh Brolin if he appeared) who disappeared after commandeering a ravager ship in the last movie. Fortunately, it starts to lighten up once the G.o.t.G's move away from Main Title Land. With Nebula in tow, they have to leave in a hurry when it's discovered that Rocket has stolen some of the batteries they've been paid to protect. The Sovereigns send out an impressive number of drone-ships to stop them, but a couple of light-jumps and the battered ship, which is dragging a tethered Drax held by a straining Gamora with her hair on fire (now that's a bit more like it!), crash-lands on a far-away rock.

"Some day, son, this can be all yours..."

They've been followed. The folks in the craft are Ego (Kurt Russell) and his protege Mantis (Pom Klementieff), who make the astounding revelation that Ego is the actual biological father of Peter Quill (Chris Pratt)—his real one, not his human step-father. Quill, Drax and Gamora go to Ego's planet (well...yeah, no, I'm not going to say it...spoiler) while Rocket and Groot keep an eye on Nebula while repairing their ship. The Sovereigns aren't done yet. After Yondu (Michael Rooker) has a falling out with another Ravager, Stakar Ogord (Sylvester Stallone...mm-hmm...we're starting to recycle past super-hero stars***) over child-trafficking (he's the one who plucked Peter Quill from Earth, after all, but...keeps him...because he had tiny, stealing hands), he's approached by the Sovereigns to track down the Guardians wherever in the Universe they might be.

Ego's planet...or maybe...his ego's bigger than you think.

So, there's a lot of conflict and cross-conflict: the Guardians against the Sovereigns AND the Ravagers; factions of the Ravagers against other factions of the Ravagers; Nebula against Gamora; Quill against his team-mates who are suspicious about Ego; Quill with his own suspicions about Ego (despite his finding out the answer to one of his Big Questions). With conflicts come alliances and sometimes in the most unexpected places. Old grudges dissipate with new understandings and different perspectives and the Guardians evolve into a new team, a combination of old and new members.

"We are a pair, aren't we?"

But, the biggest conflict isn't Ravager or Sovereign vs Guardian, it's Nature vs Nurture. It seems odd but wholly appropriate that by the end of Guardians, Vol. 2, there is a perverse contradiction of "there's no place like home." DNA is less important than the strings that tie us together; sure, you may find your biological father or mother, but sometimes, in their absence, you may outgrow them or even replace them with what you need. It is not as complex as Oedipus, especially in the comic-book world filled with orphans who find themselves empowered without biology having anything to do with it. Our courts (in the real, non-fictional world) favor DNA over everything when they have to solemnize the future of a child. Guardians 2 comes down hard on the side of step-parents, mentors, and...well, guardians, who will take in a waif when there's a case of need, even if the arguments against are as a big as a planet.

....ow

It's different and that's good. For all the call-backs and deja-vu moments, it doesn't run in place until it comes up with a good idea for a third movie (which a lot of sequels do). It takes a major hanging plot-point, resolves it, and moves on. That actually builds more good will in a franchise than all the repetitions of key moments can buy.

The Ego begins inflating across the Galaxy (when its Guardians are distracted)

* Thor: The Dark World, as it turns out. I actually did some research.

** And, as if to belie that opening asterisked statement,  I am wrong in this point—there IS a prelude of sorts, set in "EARTH. MISSOURI. 1980" with a CGI'd Kurt Russell (this "de-aging" stuff DOES NOT work on conventionally handsome or beautiful actors, but seemed to work well on the recreation of the skull-like countenance of Peter Cushing in Rogue One.)

*** Next example: Michael Keaton plays The Vulture in Spider-man: Homecoming.

Guardians of the Galaxy

The Un--usual Suspects
or
The A-Hole Team,  ("But Not 100% a Dick")

Marvel Studios takes a side-step away from super-hero movies with Guardians of the Galaxy to try another genre of film, the space adventure (something that is somewhat tangential in the "Thor" series) with a super-toe dipped into the comedy dunk-tank. A good thing, too. The latest bunch of Marvel films (post-Avengers) seem ready to atrophy, and are beginning to feel like the same movie over and over again, concluding with a "Really Big Flying Thing smashing into a city-scape."* A little of that goes a long way. Especially after 9/11.

But, it's mixed in with the "Motley Crew" adventure film, where a disparate group of specialists from various walks of life come together as a unit for a common goal (after a requisite period of squabbling and marking each other's territory). Think Seven Samurai and its progeny, and, in comics, The Justice Society and the medium's various "team" books. For this film, Marvel decided to go with the 2008 version of GOTG (cobbled together by Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning), rather than the 1969 Arnold Drake version, set in the 31st Century—the various super-beings of that group being largely unrelatable and obscure.

Not that the 2008 crew were any more well-known—their series lasted a mere 25 issues where the first lasted 62—but they are less cosmic in nature and more human in attributes and sensibilities. Its most famous member is probably Rocket Raccoon (who has appeared in various Marvel comics, and is voiced here by Bradley Cooper in a performance that is so distinctive, it doesn't once remind you of Bradley Cooper), because who doesn't love a a laser-blasting procyonid?**  It also has a fully-functioning human character in Peter Quill (Chris Pratt)—who calls himself "Star-Lord"—hijacked by space-pirates from Earth, as a boy.  The group feels like a more species-diverse version of Joss Whedon's "Firefly" crew—and that group's leader was played by Nathan Fillion, who appeared in Gunn's previous movie Super (which we looked at earlier this week) and who provides a vocal performance in GOTG. 

"Who doesn't love a laser-blasting procyonid?"

Guardians begins with the de rigeur origin story of Quill's abduction and his obsession with a mix-tape from the 70's (an "Awesome Mix Tape" which, indeed, imbues the movie with a lot of its good feelings—like the sight of Star-Lord dancing over the Main Titles to Redbone's "Come and Get Your Love" which is oddly perfect), while, Indiana Jones-ing, he grabs an orb of some significance.  It is the movie's "McGuffin" and will contain a secret "thing" that the villains of the movie want, but the heroes are unaware of its significance or worth.  

Now, stay with me here. Quill ("I'm a junker, dude!") has the orb. His pirate boss, Yondu Udonta (Michael Rooker) of the Kree wants it, too. So does Ronan (Lee Pace) "The Accuser" (not much of a nick-name, frankly) in his capacity for Thanos (Josh Brolin—the character hasn't been seen since the first "Thor" movie's post-credit sequence). Thanos' adopted daughter Gamora (Zoe Saldana—she's green this time) is after the orb for Daddy. Rocket and his pal, the tree-thing Groot (voiced by Vin Diesel, minimally) want Quill for the bounty on his head.  But they cause such a ruckus in town on the planet Xandar, they get the attention of the local constabulary, The Nova Corps (led by Glenn Close, with John C. Reilly as the corpsman with the most lines—in fact, I think that's his name in the movie).

The four are sent to prison in "The Kylin" where conflicts bring in another party to the group Drax (WWE star Dave Bautista, who's not bad, really...) a literal-minded brute ("Nothing goes over my head. My reflexes are too good") with several axes to grind with Ronan—while he was "accusing" one day, he managed to kill Drax's entire family, and Drax wants to "make his stand...though I may die" against him. The party escapes to "Knowhere" where Gamora attempts to find out the secret to the orb by contacting The Collector*** (Benicio del Toro, in a typically bizarre del Toro performance—I mean, why not, this isn't Shakespeare) who reveals that the orb is in reality...

Wait a minute. Wait. At this point, anybody who isn't in the Grootish weeds by this point must have a basement stacked with Marvel comics, all poly-bagged, in acid-free storage boxes, all neatly lined up, either by title alphabetically or by year, and has actually read them and retained all the arcana. The rest of us who don't know the difference between a Kree and a Necro-cat should probably buy a score-card or a libretto before we go in, or console ourselves with the fact that so much of this stuff has such a goofy spin, that the best thing to do is take a "just go with it" attitude and take none of it too seriously. That's easy to do, especially as the movie sails by on a series of distinctive feel-good oldies that are comically out of place in a space epic, even if they are effective in lightening the overall tone of the film.

And it's nice that the film has, as part of its structure, a desire to break the mold of Marvel movie expectations, both in tone, resolution, and in exceeding the grasp of subject matter without getting too heavy about it (as the "Thor" films perpetually do). It walks a rather ungainly tight-rope of having a good time, while raising the bar a bit to expand the playing ground of story material to include more than usual disgruntled tech-masters and villainously-empowered accident victims as antagonists for the heroes. That was wearing a bit thin, especially in the last couple years. It makes this part of the series feel less Earth-bound and thus a little lighter on its feet, paws, or roots and less bound by a force of gravitas—we're talking super-heroes, after all, no matter how dark and leathery we may dress them.

Josh Brolin voices Thanos, who might be the real "McGuffin" of the film.

* Two lines of comic dialogue always defined the rather-unspecifically cosmic Marvel Universe for me: "Look at THAT!" and "I don't know what it is but it sure is big."

** I talked to a customer in my day-job who mentioned she took her four year-old to see Guardians, and I asked "How'd she handle it?" And she laughed and said "She loved it, but all she can talk about are the raccoon and Groot." It gave me a lot of insight as to how kids might relate to the film by concentrating on the fun aspects and letting all the Marvel insidery going over their heads. "She likes to dance like Groot," she added. That scene, which is a charmer is the first of the two post-credits sequences. The other, which is a shock and a surprise, is almost not worth waiting for.

Kids love Groot.

*** The Collector was last seen in a post-credit teaser in Thor: The Dark World.