{"id":21301,"date":"2017-04-25T21:05:40","date_gmt":"2017-04-25T11:05:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/?p=21301"},"modified":"2017-04-25T21:11:41","modified_gmt":"2017-04-25T11:11:41","slug":"guardians-of-the-galaxy-vol-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/?p=21301","title":{"rendered":"Guardians of the Galaxy: Vol 2"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"tagfilm\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"guardians2poster\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Director: \u00a0<\/strong>James Gunn
\nWriter: \u00a0<\/strong>James Gunn
\nCast: \u00a0<\/strong>Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana, Dave Bautista, Vin Diesel, Bradley Cooper<\/p>\n

A<\/span>lthough I personally haven’t seen the\u00a0Twilight<\/em>\u00a0series, I’ll always remember the observation made by BBC critic Mark Kermode that during the fourth film, in a scene where one of the characters gives birth to a werewolf monster-baby in gruesome fashion, he had a revelation that this series had somehow taken\u00a0a scene that looked like it was ripped straight out of a David Lynch film and turned it into something that was wildly mainstream and particularly popular with a teen audience. \u00a0And for that, he admired\u00a0Twilight<\/em>‘s endeavours.<\/p>\n

I feel kind of the same way about\u00a0Guardians of the Galaxy: Vol 2<\/em>.<\/p>\n

The original film was an unexpected hit because no one really thought they could make a box office success out of\u00a0a super hero cast that included Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana, a raccoon, a tree and a shouty pro wrestler. \u00a0But somehow, they did it. \u00a0The same group of misfits return once more but this time, director and writer James Gunn is even bolder and even more comfortable\u00a0with embracing the wild and bizarre universe that these characters exist in.<\/p>\n

This is a film that features a sentient planet, an ’empathic’ alien that can read people’s inner emotions and involves multi-dimensional space travel that distorts people’s faces and makes them bug-eyed like a Looney Tunes cartoon. \u00a0Even when there are scenes that follow familiar action movie tropes, like a set piece involving the good guys busting out of a prison spaceship, what you’re actually watching is a tiny tree sapling, an armed raccoon and a blue humanoid\u00a0who is newly empowered because he has a detachable red mohawk rigged on his cranium. \u00a0It’s like someone was given $200 million dollars to adapt a science fiction story written for\u00a0Fangoria\u00a0<\/em>and somehow they made it into a show that has a mainstream audience. \u00a0Personally, I don’t\u00a0love<\/em> Guardians of the Galaxy but I admire what James Gunn has created. \u00a0People hated on\u00a0last year’s\u00a0Suicide Squad<\/em> because it felt blatantly\u00a0like a super hero ensemble designed by committee. \u00a0By comparison,\u00a0Guardians of the Galaxy<\/em> is admirably free spirited and imaginative fare.<\/p>\n

\"guardians2\"<\/a><\/p>\n

In\u00a0Vol 2<\/em>, the Guardians are on the run from the Sovereigns, a race of golden skinned aliens who become irate after Rocket (the raccoon) robs them of their fuel cells. \u00a0During an intergalactic shootout, the Guardians are saved by a man who reveals himself to be Peter Quill’s long lost father Ego. \u00a0Not only that, Ego is a celestial which means, in his own words, that he’s a god with a little ‘g’ and he is blessed with\u00a0almighty powers. \u00a0Powers that he wishes to share and teach to Quill.<\/p>\n

Other complexities in the galaxy include Gamora’s estranged sister Nebula being transported on the Guardian’s ship The Milano<\/em>,\u00a0who seems likely to break free any minute. \u00a0Elsewhere, Starlord’s mentor Yondu is struggling to contain a mutiny within the ranks of his gang as well as cope with his recent excommunication from the ranks of the Ravagers for the crime of child trafficking.<\/p>\n

It might all sound a bit strange and convoluted but its all a good excuse to spin a wild yarn that involves plenty of adventure, space warfare and thankfully, lots more of the biting humour that made the original film such a hit.<\/p>\n

As with Vol 1<\/em>, my favourite character in\u00a0Guardians of the Galaxy<\/em> is the cheerfully brash\u00a0and literal minded Drax the Destroyer, played by pro wrestler Dave Bautista. \u00a0Bautista plays the part with such gusto that he steals every scene he’s in and if the film feels like it has a sluggish second act, its probably because he disappears off-screen for a good twenty minutes.<\/p>\n

The new supporting cast members in\u00a0Vol 2<\/em> are a welcome addition. \u00a0Kurt Russell looks like he’s having a lot of fun as the supreme being Ego\u00a0and Pom Klementieff is a wonderful foil for Drax as the sweet-natured\u00a0Mantis.<\/p>\n

What else is there to say? \u00a0The soundtrack is every bit as good as the original. \u00a0The movie is about half an hour longer than it probably should be but that’s generally the case with most Marvel films. \u00a0It’s a big, loud colourful sci-fi b-movie with a big budget. \u00a0That’s a pretty good night at the movies if you ask me.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Starlord, the leader of the Guardians, is reunited with his long lost father Ego.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":21303,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[1848,1516,1845,2055,2643,874,2644,2170],"class_list":["post-21301","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-films","tag-batista","tag-bradley-cooper","tag-chris-pratt","tag-guardians-of-the-galaxy","tag-james-gunn","tag-marvel","tag-vin-diesel","tag-zoe-saldana"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21301","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=21301"}],"version-history":[{"count":16,"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21301\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21319,"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21301\/revisions\/21319"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/21303"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=21301"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=21301"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=21301"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}