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drwexI have a general rule that films with the same person serving as both writer and director will be better than splitting those visions. There are lots of good movies with different writers than directors but also lots of bad. There are fewer bad in my experience with one writer/director. That said, this was too long, poorly written, and disappointing. 3/5, saved from 2/5 because Gamora.
One of the things that should've been a clue for this movie's problems is the lack of a subtitle. Every other Marvel-universe sequel I can think of has had a subtitle that tells you what the movie is going to be about. Think "Age of Ultron" or "The Winter Soldier". Now pause for a moment and try to come up with the three- or four-word subtitle that would describe this movie. I can't think of one because the movie doesn't have a focus. It would be something like "we try really hard to do more of the same stuff and be funny at it." Or "Isn't Baby Groot Really Cute?"
Yes, Groot is cute. No, the movie isn't really funny. The movie lacks anything like a coherent plot but let's put all the complete spoilers under the cut tag...
This movie really needs a serious edit. Many scenes, particularly the action ones, just go on way too long. From the very opening "we all fight a monster" thing to every space chase/battle to Yondu one-shots every mutineer with the magic arrow in exactly the same red-streaked way to "No, Groot can't find the right object" to the "have you got tape" sequence the movie could have been made with 1/2 to 2/3 of those sequences removed and come out tighter, faster, and funnier. You don't make jokes better by dragging them out.
A good contrast is the prison-break sequence from GotG 1. That sequence has the characters doing different things, building up to a climax and then ending. It's just a better action movie and that sort of thing is why.
Another sign of the movie's problems is the characters. Gamora is one of the only two characters who shows any real growth or change and if your protagonist goes through the entire movie and comes out just the same as he went in... that's a fail, guys, because your block-of-stone protagonist is hogging screen time from the character whose decisions matter, whose personality we want to learn more about, and who may actually make meaningful choices. Gamora/Nebula and Gamora/Mantis are how this movie passes the Bechdel test and there should have been more of that.
Oh, and Rocket actually gets character development. Which is nice, don't get me wrong, but again your hot-bod lead guy is being upstaged by a muppet (or its CGI equivalent) which means your screenplay needs work.
Then there's Drax. If I was Jim Starlin I'd've smacked James Gunn for this one. Drax has gone from being a brash, naive oaf who may offend because he doesn't know better to being outright over-the-top obnoxious. He's rude, loud, and actively unnecessarily offensive. I wanted him off my screen and out of this movie entirely, particularly when he turns his asshole cannon on the female characters.
Drax is just the worst example of a problem with this movie's attempts at humor, which mostly involve finger-pointing and loud guffawing at people. Some of them, such as the mutinous Taserface, are bad people so it's supposed to be OK to point and laugh, or to feel good that other characters point and laugh. But if that's all you've got in your humor repertoire... well, again I blame the script.
I suppose I ought to drop a few sentences on what this film has that passes for a plot. The premise is that you have an embodied god-like intelligence that can simultaneously cause massive eruptions on multiple planets spanning who-knows-how-many light years, but can't be arsed to manifest a tentacle that can remove a bomb from its brain because it's so busy using its matter-manipulated humanoid-form body to have a stupid punch-out with its child.
Yeah, I got nothin'.
No one expects a sequel to be as good as the original. The first GotG was so off-the-wall, so out of character for all the other Marvel Universe movies, that they had to sell you on the idea that it was Marvel universe. And that movie was great. Likewise, I expect the next Deadpool movie will have a hard time living up to the original. But GotG 2 suffers from a lot more than sequel-itis. It suffers from a bad script that drags everything else down.
I don't fault Chris Pratt for being wooden, nor Kurt Russel for being ridiculous. But that's what the script makes their characters be.
One of the things that should've been a clue for this movie's problems is the lack of a subtitle. Every other Marvel-universe sequel I can think of has had a subtitle that tells you what the movie is going to be about. Think "Age of Ultron" or "The Winter Soldier". Now pause for a moment and try to come up with the three- or four-word subtitle that would describe this movie. I can't think of one because the movie doesn't have a focus. It would be something like "we try really hard to do more of the same stuff and be funny at it." Or "Isn't Baby Groot Really Cute?"
Yes, Groot is cute. No, the movie isn't really funny. The movie lacks anything like a coherent plot but let's put all the complete spoilers under the cut tag...
This movie really needs a serious edit. Many scenes, particularly the action ones, just go on way too long. From the very opening "we all fight a monster" thing to every space chase/battle to Yondu one-shots every mutineer with the magic arrow in exactly the same red-streaked way to "No, Groot can't find the right object" to the "have you got tape" sequence the movie could have been made with 1/2 to 2/3 of those sequences removed and come out tighter, faster, and funnier. You don't make jokes better by dragging them out.
A good contrast is the prison-break sequence from GotG 1. That sequence has the characters doing different things, building up to a climax and then ending. It's just a better action movie and that sort of thing is why.
Another sign of the movie's problems is the characters. Gamora is one of the only two characters who shows any real growth or change and if your protagonist goes through the entire movie and comes out just the same as he went in... that's a fail, guys, because your block-of-stone protagonist is hogging screen time from the character whose decisions matter, whose personality we want to learn more about, and who may actually make meaningful choices. Gamora/Nebula and Gamora/Mantis are how this movie passes the Bechdel test and there should have been more of that.
Oh, and Rocket actually gets character development. Which is nice, don't get me wrong, but again your hot-bod lead guy is being upstaged by a muppet (or its CGI equivalent) which means your screenplay needs work.
Then there's Drax. If I was Jim Starlin I'd've smacked James Gunn for this one. Drax has gone from being a brash, naive oaf who may offend because he doesn't know better to being outright over-the-top obnoxious. He's rude, loud, and actively unnecessarily offensive. I wanted him off my screen and out of this movie entirely, particularly when he turns his asshole cannon on the female characters.
Drax is just the worst example of a problem with this movie's attempts at humor, which mostly involve finger-pointing and loud guffawing at people. Some of them, such as the mutinous Taserface, are bad people so it's supposed to be OK to point and laugh, or to feel good that other characters point and laugh. But if that's all you've got in your humor repertoire... well, again I blame the script.
I suppose I ought to drop a few sentences on what this film has that passes for a plot. The premise is that you have an embodied god-like intelligence that can simultaneously cause massive eruptions on multiple planets spanning who-knows-how-many light years, but can't be arsed to manifest a tentacle that can remove a bomb from its brain because it's so busy using its matter-manipulated humanoid-form body to have a stupid punch-out with its child.
Yeah, I got nothin'.
No one expects a sequel to be as good as the original. The first GotG was so off-the-wall, so out of character for all the other Marvel Universe movies, that they had to sell you on the idea that it was Marvel universe. And that movie was great. Likewise, I expect the next Deadpool movie will have a hard time living up to the original. But GotG 2 suffers from a lot more than sequel-itis. It suffers from a bad script that drags everything else down.
I don't fault Chris Pratt for being wooden, nor Kurt Russel for being ridiculous. But that's what the script makes their characters be.
no subject
Date: 2017-05-09 08:28 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2017-05-11 07:50 pm (UTC)There are also things Marvel could do with this property that would be potentially cool, of which a Gamora spin-off would be my #1. That character has had comic-canon solo interactions with other characters so there's precedent.
no subject
Date: 2017-05-11 07:21 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2017-05-11 07:47 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2017-05-15 04:31 pm (UTC)Also? The soundtrack makes me happy.
no subject
Date: 2017-05-15 05:16 pm (UTC)And yes, sequels are usually not as good as the original (though I'd argue Marvel has done better with several of its sequels). I just expected this movie would either make some amount of sense or develop its main character somewhat. Getting neither disappointed me.