When I was a kid growing up in Fremont, California it was not the huge town it is today. South Fremont, Warm Springs was separated by miles from the rest of Fremont and there was very little to do other than ride bikes play in the park, play on the freeway (not joking) and ride your bike to local 7-11 and buy comics and Mad magazines.
I read every Archie there was and I had every issue of Mad up till the 80’s. Caspar, Wendy, Superman, Batman etc…
I would buy the ones with the cool covers. I wasn’t a collector. I was a reader. I didn’t buy them for anything more than entertaining my brain. And buying Sea Monkeys off the back page.
Guardians of the Galaxy much like Suicide Squad were ever changing. Always new people and sometimes hard to keep up with but fun none the same.
On my birthday in 2014 I took my kids then 7,10 and 20 to see the first Guardians the week it came out.. We did not go opening day as my birthday was the next day and I wanted to wait.. It was well worth it. I never do much for my birthdays and I usually do something for the kids.. but I got to share it with them and that made it awesome. My middle son has autism and he patience wains a bit in long films but he stayed and he loved the whole dang thing.
The then 7 year old got up and danced a few times in a very crowded theater. He sang along to “Cherry Bomb” and Moonage DayDream”. It was quite the event. We have since seen it a few dozen more times.
We got opening showing tickets to sequel.,. May 4th at 7:05pm. May the Fourth be in a different galaxy probably not so far away.
There was a car accident on the way causing a small detour but we did make it in time but got the crappiest seats imaginable. Cinemark isn’t the best handling greed and the front rows are maybe only 6 feet from the screen which really really sucked and I will have to go again when the hype calms down. My now 12 year old sat a few feet from his dad in the dead center and we all went down front to crapville. His autism would not allow for being that close without getting sick from the motion and he actually did start to cry that even with twenty minutes to spare there was still no good seats for all of us.
But thank the god that James Gunn is cause the movie definitely was worth it whatever bad seat you were in.
I think we all went in for a different hero. But we all wanted a bit of the baby Groot thing and that opening alone made the year and the film.. I can honestly say that last year I swore that the opening of Deadpool was the best opener ever till GOTG vol2. I could watch a loop of that opener over and over again!
There really isn’t a lot to review on the film without giving the plots away and I have been very careful with social media to not give anything away..
So let’s start with the basics..
This is an important fact for mother’s of special needs kids everywhere.
Drax is a Hero. Yes Chris Pratt is hot but to a child with no filters who is high functioning Drax makes a child feel comfortable. And yes you will hear more about Drax than any other character in the film. He has more screen time this time and my son was completely blown away by an adult who just says stuff and it’s OK. No filters and socially ackward. A true hero although kinda odd.. it’s perfect and I have no idea if it was planned that way or not but I adore Dave Bautista for bringing that to the character after so many people pointed out that autistic kids resonated with him the last him.
Little kids and grown ups alike know that Groot could have been the star but James Gunn made sure everyone was taken care of in this film and even the small parts played out like bigger roles.
And for midlifers as myself the really awesome backsides of Zoe and Chris (Gamora and Peter) are just like extra sauce. Damn the costumes are awesome.. did I mention their bums? HA! Dirty old lady that I am..
For true geeks the proof is in the pudding in this one.. the cameos make the film.. and yes more speculation of Stan Lee’s cameo pointing out he works with the Watchers.
I sat with my 10 year old who missed the dirty Howard the Duck line completely because he was very excited to see Howard and was hooting and hollering.
There is a few adult jokes that went completely over his head. Would I say it’s appropriate. Depends on your kids and what they know of the world maybe… It’s definitely cleaner than most films out today.
As for reviewing the plotline.. I can’t.. The plot to this film is soo perfect I can’t even give a smidgen of it away.
But will try to give it away without spoilers.
The film starts with an.. no wait.. best opening ever..Hmmm.. no can’t give that away.. Ok so after the cool ass opener they visit the Sovereign who are conceited snobs of course and they of course manage to piss them off.. Seriously with Rocket in tow can they leave not pissing off the perfection planet? This leaves us to a very cool Galaxian the game style space fight with the sovereign controlling the spaceships in a video style fashion but not actually being in the fighter pods. A god like creature destroys all the pods and then they of course have the typical crash on a deserted planet plot.
The god like creature of course is another plot I WILL NOT GIVE AWAY.. But yea you all know already.. Let me tell you about that cool ass egg ship he has.. I was expecting Mork from Ork to hop out.. BUT in a flashback scene this actor does have Mork from Ork hair so it is all super cool.
In a very confusing to me scene they split up.. which pissed me off leaving Groot and Rocket with handcuffed Nebula to fight a massive amount of ravagers thus bringing the film to a part where I must say if I say anymore it will seriously give way way too much away.
Is this movie better than the first one. Yes.. so much so..
Are the cameos better.????
In true MCU fashion YES!
So let’s go through the checklist
- Chris Pratt.. Even better this time around and even though he is really the star of the plot it was not truly his film to carry this time.. the starts have equal screen time and are equally all taken care of and you do not feel ripped off at all.
- Howard the duck.. YES
- More screen time for James’s brother Sean.. who really stands out in this film as Ravager Kraglin. In the last film he was a yes and no guy with bad teeth.. This time he is part of the team in a way and I can’t wait to see him in film 3.
- Kurt Russell.. …. Oh yes.. Kurt Russell is he Peter’s father???
- . Michael Rooker does no wrong.. even bad he is wonderful and I am glad James Gunn saw fit to expand him to the Comic book character that needed to be played out.
- Sylvester Stallone. As Stakar.. who geeks know as Starhawk..That alone was worth it.
- Awesome Ving Rhames cameo. Although not as juicy as his role in Dawn Of the Dead.. It’s just a cameo but it shows you what is to come with him taking on the ultimate role he is perfect for in 3, Charlie 27
- Miley Cyrus and Rob zombie both are voices in this one. And Michelle Yeah has a pretty awesome cameo too.
- Best cameo though. Jeff Goldblum…setting us up for Thor in a few months.
- Sean and James’s parents have a cameo in the film too. Although I missed it and have to see it again to look for them.
Musically the film was genius. The soundtrack was pretty spot on although I would have put a few songs that were in the credits elsewhere in the film because they were just that good… and maybe he should have added “that’s just my baby daddy” ( by Rock And The Bizz) to the film, well, for me.. It would have been funny.
Adding the little known “Lake Shore Drive” by Aliotta Haynes and Jeremiah was amazingly brilliant and it fit so well.
So in all told I have told you nothing about the film.. just the recommendation to trust me and see it! Stay through the credits and have a really good time.. Really..
Gidget
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