![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
edenfallingAaaaaaaaaaaaaaa, I went to see Guardians of the Galaxy 2 this afternoon, and I'd been forewarned that there were Feels as well as laughs and quality explosions, but oh man, I was not prepared.
*wallows happily in All The Emotions*
Also, this film does surprisingly well on the female characters with their own plot arcs who talk to other female characters front? Which I was frankly not expecting from this particular corner of the MCU, but there it is. And it is very nice!
So anyway, I was about ten thousand times less twitchy about the Peter/Gamora thing this time around, because it was only one component of the greater 'found family' theme and they each had a bunch of other bonds highlighted with other people, so their 'unspoken thing' was just another cute and awkward relationship among many cute and awkward relationships of various types, rather than the weird story-warping tumor a lot of romance subplots turn into.)
And did I mention the quality explosions? There were a lot of quality explosions! I particularly liked the one where Gamora picked up an actual spaceship gun (as in, it was about three times her size and had just been torn off an actual spaceship) and used it like an oversized handgun, because she could and because it was there. :D
This is not a movie that's particularly interested in being obviously subtle. It is big and bright and in-your-face, it's cheerfully crude in its humor (but not usually** in a cruel way? which I think is mostly because of Drax and his bulldozer approach to social conventions), and its themes about family and friends and loyalty and stuff are painted in broad strokes. And I like that! There is a lot to be said for saying, "Here is what we believe in and will fight for," and not trying to qualify that. But underneath that, there is some subtlety, in the sense that the entire story is about kind of terrible people learning where they draw moral lines in the sand and how to work toward mostly unselfish goals. And there's also some unspoken subtlety in the tropes it avoids -- particularly that 'born sexy yesterday' thing that was going around a couple weeks ago -- and the way everything about Ego and his plans is painted in an increasingly tacky/petty light, from the weird plastic figures in his dioramas to his tantrums at the end.
**Rocket's sense of humor is the cruelest, but this A) becomes part of his character growth arc, and B) comes out strongest against the Ravager mutineers, particularly when they have him captured and tied up, so it plays out as more of an equalizing tactic than as someone with the upper hand rubbing it in.
Anyway, I enjoyed GotG2 a LOT. I mean, I went in expecting to have a good time, but (as I remarked to a friend years ago, in reference to Captain America: The First Avenger), that movie was way better than it strictly needed to be, and you could tell everyone involved in making it was having a ball -- and that carries through on screen in both obvious and subtle ways. :D
*wallows happily in All The Emotions*
Also, this film does surprisingly well on the female characters with their own plot arcs who talk to other female characters front? Which I was frankly not expecting from this particular corner of the MCU, but there it is. And it is very nice!
So anyway, I was about ten thousand times less twitchy about the Peter/Gamora thing this time around, because it was only one component of the greater 'found family' theme and they each had a bunch of other bonds highlighted with other people, so their 'unspoken thing' was just another cute and awkward relationship among many cute and awkward relationships of various types, rather than the weird story-warping tumor a lot of romance subplots turn into.)
And did I mention the quality explosions? There were a lot of quality explosions! I particularly liked the one where Gamora picked up an actual spaceship gun (as in, it was about three times her size and had just been torn off an actual spaceship) and used it like an oversized handgun, because she could and because it was there. :D
This is not a movie that's particularly interested in being obviously subtle. It is big and bright and in-your-face, it's cheerfully crude in its humor (but not usually** in a cruel way? which I think is mostly because of Drax and his bulldozer approach to social conventions), and its themes about family and friends and loyalty and stuff are painted in broad strokes. And I like that! There is a lot to be said for saying, "Here is what we believe in and will fight for," and not trying to qualify that. But underneath that, there is some subtlety, in the sense that the entire story is about kind of terrible people learning where they draw moral lines in the sand and how to work toward mostly unselfish goals. And there's also some unspoken subtlety in the tropes it avoids -- particularly that 'born sexy yesterday' thing that was going around a couple weeks ago -- and the way everything about Ego and his plans is painted in an increasingly tacky/petty light, from the weird plastic figures in his dioramas to his tantrums at the end.
**Rocket's sense of humor is the cruelest, but this A) becomes part of his character growth arc, and B) comes out strongest against the Ravager mutineers, particularly when they have him captured and tied up, so it plays out as more of an equalizing tactic than as someone with the upper hand rubbing it in.
Anyway, I enjoyed GotG2 a LOT. I mean, I went in expecting to have a good time, but (as I remarked to a friend years ago, in reference to Captain America: The First Avenger), that movie was way better than it strictly needed to be, and you could tell everyone involved in making it was having a ball -- and that carries through on screen in both obvious and subtle ways. :D
(no subject)
Date: 2017-05-16 11:38 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2017-05-16 12:03 pm (UTC)I will say that it may not be for everyone -- see above in re: crude sense of humor. Additionally, while I personally think the repeated tone whiplash from comedy to action to Feels (often multiple times within a single scene) worked pretty well, reflects a lot of what life is like (life is not great at tone consistency), and actually heightened the Feels because they had contrasts to set them off, I have seen reports from people who found that aspect jarring to the point where it kept them from proper immersion in the story.