Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 2

The Marvel Cinematic Universe might just be the main driver of the world economy at this point, and Guardians 2 is certainly not going to change that, but the MCU movies have been following a pattern, there is usually a really well done first movie, and the follow ups trend towards higher stakes and grimmer settings, with the heroes having falling outs and no one really having a good time. Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 2 is not like that despite being an ensemble production with, yes, higher stakes than the first movie.

Lots of critics talk about things like heart, and character arcs, that sort of thing, and this is all true, there is a surprising amount of care put into giving everyone a bit of time, developing background, and allowing them to grow. And it is all done without really pulling the drag chute on the action while we sit through weepy revelations or anything. But what I don't see a lot of is joy.

How can I put this, remember in Guardians 1 when we are first introduced to Star Lord as he is stealing the thingy? He overcomes assorted obstacles, kicks weird rat things, and dances to "Hooked on a Feeling", it's a short scene but it gives an image of a competent person who takes joy in what he does. That joy, the sense of being happy, is not present in many other Marvel films. I'll go into that more in a bit, but from the opening scene, the sequel does the same thing, it doesn't recapture the feeling, it expands upon it.

Now Peter Quill has a family of sorts, they are weird and rough and bicker, but they care for each other and enjoy life, the opening scene of Baby Groot dancing to "Mr Blue Sky" with a background of the team fighting a tentacle monster, Groot doesn't care about the fight, he is happy to dance, the rest of the team doesn't stop him, but does take time to check up on him and keep him out of trouble as best they can, it sets up the movie perfectly, showing how they care for each other and still try to have fun, hell an aspect of the scene that I think is overlooked is that the sound system is set up by Rocket so they can listen to music while they fight, because he knows that Peter likes that. It is played for laughs and he is told that he could probably have used his time better, but that right that although his priorities may have been out of order he cares about his friends being happy and will put a fair amount of effort into making that happen.

Despite the scale of the threat they face in the form of Kurt Russell, the movie isn't about that, not really, it is about family in the way that the Fast and the Furious franchise wishes it was, it's about the team working together to help each other through things, like Peter's daddy issues, or Gamora's history with her sister, or Rocket's, well, everything. They yell at each other, disagree about details and priorities, but they don't start throwing punches, and they don't abandon each other.

Compare to The Avengers, who spend half their time literally fighting each other, hell the team completely splits up in Civil War, there is rarely a sense that the Avengers care for, or even like each other much, they are all so damaged and wrapped up in their own individual dramas it's kind of like they are just waiting for their scenes and screw the others, oh Iron Man is talking? Well better pull out the snark and hang out in the background until it is my turn to say something dramatic then. The only exception to that is Thor, whose seemingly genuine concern for his teammates is almost a comedic trait in those movies.

It is telling that the only person who seems to enjoy himself in The Avengers is the alien, and the team composed almost exclusively of aliens is also the one that seems happiest as well. I am sure it wasn't intentional, but it says something about the writers and film makers that they didn't feel a group of people working together and being happy would be believable if they were human.

Obviously I love super hero movies in general, but Guardians seems to be at a higher level of quality so far than the rest of the franchises out there at the moment, I smiled for over two hours straight, what more can you ask for?