By the time Guardians of the Galaxy premiered in August of 2014, the Marvel Cinematic Universe was still a fresh concept that could easily fail. The crossover The Avengers had opened two years earlier, the first time through Disney. And while the movie is notable, Joss Whedon’s direction and the lack of a real villain in Loki has some looking back at as a glorified TV movie.
Iron Man 3 and Thor: The Darl World, while blockbusters and well received by general critics felt like the MCU might be heading downhill while it was just getting started. Then Captain America: The Winter Soldier proved to be a well made conspiracy spy thriller that wowed people who weren’t into the comic books. But GotG was a big risk. It wasn’t too well known outside diehard Marvel fans. And the director’s previous “superhero” movie had Rainn Wilson as a deranged short-order cook bashing people on the head with metal wrenches.
With his white hair, silver-grey beard and bespectabled glasses, James Gunn now may look like everyone’s favorite humanities/English professor who isn’t to shy on lighting up a j with the college kids as he feels James Joyce and The Catcher in the Rye are overrated too. But the man who is now hated by many DC Comic fans for no other reason but making “grown-up decisions,” was the product of Troma Entertainment in his younger days. If you don’t know what Troma is, imagine the most disgusting, violent, sexually explicit material you can and then triple it.
And I mean this as a compliment. There’s no way to critique Troma. It’s like trying to describe a Jackson Pollack painting to someone who lived on a deserted island their whole lives and they’re blind, deaf and mute and have no concept of art or colors. You either understand what the filmmakers are trying to do, or you’re ultimately repulsed by it. Despite this, Gunn went on to pen the first Scooby-Doo live-action movie even though he wanted it a more risque with Daphne and Velma being lesbians.
He went on to write the remake of Dawn of the Dead and the second Scooby-Doo movie before making his own directorial debut with Slither, a gruesome body-horror/alien invasion movie in which he would begin a long-term collaboration with Nathan Fillion and Michael Rooker. Then, he made the above mentioned Wilson feature Super in which Elliott Page (when she was Ellen) appearring as jailbait in a uniform rapes Wilson’s character who thinks he’s a superhero after his wife, played by Liv Tyler, gets hooked on drugs. It’s possibly the most unofficial Troma movie I’ve seen.
So, the fact that the House of Mouse was getting someone like Gunn to make a family-friendly comic-book adaptation must’ve had some people wondering what the sam hill was the executive smoking who approved it? But the movie worked and was a major hit among Marvel and non-Marvel fans. Focusing on a rag-tag bunch of characters including a talking tree named Groot and a wise-cracking raccon creature named Rocket, it seemed the type of material suited for someone like Gunn.
And then the sequel was just about as successful but not nearly as good as the original. Despite Disney realizing that they had hired someone like Gunn, they were upset over some of his past social media posts and didn’t want him returning. He went over to DC and saved their butts with The Suicide Squad and Peacemaker before being encouraged to come back because the pandemic screwed up the MCU. And they had had foolishly allowed the fourth Avengers movie to be called Endgame. So, some people felt that the MCU had run its course.
Since then, Disney pooched the screw by overloading too many series on Disney-Plus and screwing over Scarlett Johansson with Black Widow. Eternals was a disaster. Spider-Man: No Way Home was a huge success but it seems the damage had already been done. “Superhero Fatigue” was setting in. It didn’t help matters that they looked at the first GotG and decided most MCU movies from then on out would have an absurd comedic tone. With GotG, it worked because the concept was so out there. The same with Thor: Ragnarok mainly because the first two took themselves so seriously, then Thor: Love and Thunder, which featured some of the Guardians briefly, decided to dial the same concept up ad nauseum. As for the Ant-Man movies and the first two Spider-Man MCU movies, this tone was also unneccessary.
So, now, Disney is hoping for the third GotG to be the one that will save them. But ironically, this is the most serious entry into the trilogy as well as the recent entries of the MCU. And I will admit that it’s a better story than the first GotG.
What people seem to forget is that the Guardians are like the rejects of the galaxy. Peter Quill/Star Lord (Chris Pratt), the self-appointed leader, saw his mother die from a brain tumor as a child and was kidnapped by Ravagers led by Yondu (Rooker) who helped raise him. He’s a pseudo-orphan who’s never really understood or appreciated family. Quill can’t even realize why his grandfather, Jason Quill (Gregg Henry) rushed him out of the room while his mother started crashing. He felt it was a gesture of rejection, but his half-sister, Mantis (Pom Klementieff) suggeests it was done to help because he didn’t need to see his mother dying.
Quill and Mantis are the biological children of Ego, a living planet that manifested itself as species all over the universe to procreate. Quill is also mourning the death of Gamora (Zoe Saldana) who was killed by her adoptive father, Thanos, on Vormir to obtain the Soul Stone. When Thanos killed Gamora, her and Quill had been in a relationship for four years. And while Quill was known for his playboy ways, he truly loved and cared for Gamora. Sadly, even though Gamora is gone, another version of her still assists, but she predates the events of the first GotG and doesn’t have the same attraction toward Quill. She works with the Ravagers led by Staker Ogord (Sylvester Stallone).
The Guardians have taken up life on Knowhere and Quill is known to get so drunk on a regular basis he passes out, leading his fellow Guardians, like Nebula (Karen Gillan), Gamora’s sister, and Drax the Destroyer (Dave Bautista), who lost his family himself, to care for him. Rocket (voiced by Bradley Cooper) is also strugging with his own grief as he has dark memories of his time as one of the experiments of The High Evolutionary (Chukwudi Iwuji).
The following containers spoilers and references to animal abuse!
When he was a young raccoon, Rocket was taken by the High Evolutionary and experimented on. He was thrown in a cage with other animal experiments. Despite their gruesome appearances, they were friendly and caring toward Rocket. Lylla (voiced by Linda Cardinelli), is an anthropomorphic otter with mechanical arms who helped nurse the frightened raccoon. The others include Teef (voiced by Asim Chaudhry), an anthropomorphic walrus who is attached to a wheelchair. And then there’s Floor, an anthropomorphic white rabbit (voiced by Mikaela Hoover), who walks around with mechanical arms like a spider and has a metal grill covering her face but talks soft-spoken and simple-minded.
These creatures became Rocket’s friends and there’s hints that he felt closer to Lylla. We see a lot of Rocket’s back story as he is injured following an assault by Adam Warlock (Will Poulter) as he injures and hurts others on Knowhere. Warlock is a cosmic being that has been genetically engineered by the High Evolutionary to be a violent entity. But because Rocket can’t be helped with a med pack because he has a kill switch embedded in him, he is in a coma while the Guardians travel to the headquarters of Orgocorp a company funded by the High Evolutionary. They are also assisted by the Ravagers’ Gamora who still has some of the aggressive behavior she had while being raised by Thanos. But Quill comes to the realization the Gamora he loved and loved him back is gone.
And because of the medication testing in the flashback sequences, Rocket became more advanced. But the High Evolutionary was trying to create advanced animal hybrids (Humanimals) just like The Island of Dr. Moreau, but killed the ones that were violent or weren’t useful. Yet Rocket was able to make it that the animals would change into advanced bipedal humanoid creatures, angering the High Evolutionary because Rocket’s intelligence exceeded his own. Sensing they’d all be killed, Rocket tried to get his friends out of captivity but once he got Lylla lose, she was shot and killed by the High Evolutionary who had anticipated this.
Enraged, Rocket attacks the Evolutionary scarrying his face but guards come in blasting killing Teef and Floor who get caught in the cross-fire. Rocket was able to escape himself but this explains why he has been a wise-cracker and almost had a cynical tone in previous movies. Rocket has been a witness to the cruelty of higher species and thus is distrustful. This explains why his best friend in the first movie is Groot and how sad it is when Groot sacrificies himself to save everyone. Yet, Rocket is unaware Groot and regenerate himself fully.
At one point, the Guardians go to Counter-Earth which is made up like 1980s Earth with the Humanimals that the Evolutionary has created. Nebula and others note how imperfect things are and how crime appears rapid noting that she can’t understand why species would live this way. Gunn, who defended the images of animal testing as unpleasant to drive the point home, is saying that humans are the worst species and our bad traits will wear off on creatures we try to make like us.
During a crucial battle, Groot saves the life of Adam Warlock, who was violent and antagonistic, for which he initially can’t understand why Groot would save him. Later, he realizes that it’s better to save lives than destroy them and saves Quill’s life. And when faced with ultimate revenge against the High Evolutionary, Rocket who has been a very violent character in previous movies realizes he can’t sink down to that level and spares the man’s life.
If Groot and Rocket can be humane with the people who harmed them, then so can regular humans. This leads to Quill coming to grips with his past, accepting Gamora is dead, and returning to Earth to be with his grandfather before it’s too late. While the first two GotG seemed like your typical Space Cowboy fare, this time Gunn has made a sci-fi movie with meaningful elements similar to Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan and the focus on life and longevity. The best sci-fi movies often examine the deeper and darker issues.
Even though it would’ve been nice to see Rocket and Lylla together as the movie ended, but I think it’s perfectly juxtaposed with Quill and the alternative Gamora realizing they can’t have what was lost. It’s like the Dr. Seuss’ saying, “Don’t cry because it’s over. Smile because it happened.” It’s a perfect end to the trilogy and it gives Quill some justification for being angry at Thanos in Avengers: Infinity War when he heard Gamora was dead allowing Thanos to get away and causing the Snap. In its Quill’s human nature to lash out for revenge. Could Rocket have saved Teef and Floor if he hadn’t attacked the High Evolutionary? Possibly. But he was so stunned and shaken by seeing Lylla dry, his worst emotions got the best of him.
While it’s unlikely we’ll see the Guardians again, it hints that Quill will return. Bautista and Saldanna have said this is their last time as Drax and Gamora. It’s quite possible we’ll see the characters again in other MCU franchises just as they were used in the last two Avengers movie and the last Thor movie.
This is also Gunn’s last hoorah with Disney and the MCU has he’s now overseeing the DC Comic adaptations with Peter Safran and working on a new Superman movie. Gunn himself has also evolved as a filmmaker and managed to make a trilogy of movies that have been very entertaining and thought-provoking.
What do you think? Please comment.
Zane Says 