Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2 (2017)

[Azrael]

1992. Tim Burton took a movie about grown men (and women) dressing up in tights and did some gloomy, sombre and brooding stuff about outcasts instead of delivering the standard and fun blockbuster. What were they thinking?

That's interesting because I'd argue that both Tim Burton's Batman movies are fun (as well as occasionally dark and disturbing), and like Guardians of the Galaxy, deals with society's outcasts.

But we both like the films and have different interpretations of it.  That's okay.   What I will say however, is that unlike certain other comic-book movie franchises and filmmakers, Burton rarely takes himself that seriously...

You say it yourself, what is "fun", like many things, is subjective (e.g. for me The Dark Knight is by far the most fun and entertaining* Batfilm).

My point was that the criticism you level to BvS can very well apply to BR (in fact, thousands of words have been written on the "backlash", McDonalds etc). Batman Returns is certainly not the traditional blockbuster, the way you define it. Burton made a personal film, an "auteur" film, even if it had characters in tights and was expected to sell many toys. And he's certainly far from the first, or the last, artist who did something personal and with meaning featuring grown men in tights.

*most entertaining does not equal "favourite", "best" etc.

[riddler]

I did enjoy the father figure triangle but I do question redeeming Michael Rooker's character, I've only seen the first film twice so I'd have to see it again to determine whether the overall character arc makes sense.

I do feel this film wrecked some special parts of the first film. The dance scene was somewhat romantic in the first film, in this film it was forced. Drax was definitely a parody of himself in the first film, it reminded me of Arnold Schwarzenegger's performance in Terminator 3. I was hoping for more Stallone or some scenes with Kurt Russel but we didn't get much. Good to see Sly do another comic movie after Judge Dredd.

Groot was definitely the worst part of the film. It's obvious the film makers went way out of the way to make him look cute and him dancing around during the fight scenes and waving was outright embarrassing and a perfect example of reasons why some people don't take comic films seriously. In the comics Groot is extremely intelligent which is intriguing since he only utters one line which we understand. These movies make him out to be stupid which wrecks the character. I'm hoping we've seen the last of Baby Groot.

I feel bad for people heavily invested in either side of the Marvel vs DC debate. It's fine if people like one over the other but claiming either is golden and the other is trash is about as silly as saying Coke is excellent but Pepsi tastes like urine. The reality is that there's a lot of successful people who have worked for both companies including Stan Lee (whom by the way doesn't bash DC and was good friends with Bob Kane). They're not as different as people want to make them out to be and even if you do hate either company, it would be immature not to admit that both sides push the other to be better and a monopoly in this industry would be a terrible thing.

As JG pointed out, nobody is forced to watch or read anything against their will.

[The Laughing Fish]

Drax was definitely a parody of himself in the first film

Agreed. In my opinion, he was far worse than Groot. But Mantis was the one character I couldn't stand the most. I suppose she was supposed to be a telepath with an alien, childlike innocence about her. But as with the puerile handling of the jokes in this film, her character came across as unbearable woman child. She has to be one of the worst characters on film that I've seen in a while.

I can't believe this pile rubbish is getting good reviews. I suspect people's appreciation for the first film, and the Marvel branding, is clouding their judgment.

[riddler]

Drax was definitely a parody of himself in the first film

Agreed. In my opinion, he was far worse than Groot. But Mantis was the one character I couldn't stand the most. I suppose she was supposed to be a telepath with an alien, childlike innocence about her. But as with the puerile handling of the jokes in this film, her character came across as unbearable woman child. She has to be one of the worst characters on film that I've seen in a while.

Honestly I found the mantis character to be nothing more than a stereotypical shy, nerdy, oblivious Asian (and please note that I am saying she fits an Asian stereotype, this is not a shot at Asians). I'm not saying this is a bad film but this film isn't being called out for being guilty of two big complaints about Superman III and Batman and Robin
-stopping the plot to tell jokes such as have characters stop what they're doing during action scenes to tell a joke or not taking the fight scenes seriously.
-lampooning the previous installments such as having characters say and do things which should be completely out of character for them.


Also what is with the four post-credit scenes? I'm not talking about the content just the sheer fact that there were FOUR of them. Phase ones credit scenes were juicy foreshadowing of things to come. Then the Avengers added a second post credit scene with no plot just humour (the shwarma scene) and they clearly stopped putting thought into them and just did them for the sake of doing them. Four of them in one movie is definitely overkill of what was once a great thing.

[The Laughing Fish]

Also what is with the four post-credit scenes? I'm not talking about the content just the sheer fact that there were FOUR of them. Phase ones credit scenes were juicy foreshadowing of things to come. Then the Avengers added a second post credit scene with no plot just humour (the shwarma scene) and they clearly stopped putting thought into them and just did them for the sake of doing them. Four of them in one movie is definitely overkill of what was once a great thing.

Ever since Iron Man 3, the post-credit scenes became gags. The only exceptions were The Winter Soldier and Doctor Strange.

Anyway, the YouTuber Film Gob has once again compiled a video of these fools from Collider raving about GOTG2 and the Spider-Man: Homecoming trailer for superficial reasons, while hypocritically denouncing the Wonder Woman trailer for having humour, and apparently, even Sam Raimi's Spider-Man is not off limits (I know you're not a big Raimi fan riddler, I'm only saying). Raimi's Spider-Man is set in a "movie-world universe" compared to the MCU. I'm not making this utter stupidity up.

P.S. Mind the voice filtering and the children photographs, Film Gob is ridiculing the people on that Collider show.

[Catwoman]

Finally watched this and totally adored it. Reading the hatred on here for it I'm wondering if I actually watched the same movie lol. I liked the story, characters, music, all of it. And the visuals of it with all the colors and everything were beautiful. And the humor was a lot of fun, which I thought is what the movie was supposed to be. Didn't realize everything's supposed to be dark and brooding. It's fine to have a guy turn himself into a giant Pac-Man every now and then.

I didn't have a problem with the characters changing either. To me Drax seemed like he was in that euphoric "Everything is great" state of having his new family. When I was "adopted" I was happy go lucky and laughing and giggling at everything too despite the really dark sh*t in my life, so that seemed fine to me. With Yondu from his very first scene you see that he is troubled by things he's done. So him being redeemed didn't seem that far fetched to me either. With poor Mantis, keep in mind those were her first interactions with someone outside of Ego. She had a lot of learning to do since I'm sure any lessons from him left a pretty big void in the social department. And all you people hating on Baby Groot, we're fixing to fight. He was a baby for pete's sake! Of course he was silly and dance-y and so freaking adorable.

I adore oldies music so both soundtracks were right up this kitty's alley. I had to laugh at someone (I think TLF?) calling "Come A Little Bit Closer" a catchy pop song. Yeah it was a catchy pop song alright, in like 1964 lol.

So yea. I'm definitely the odd ball here, cause I rate it very high. Loved every aspect of it. But that's ok, to each their own, right?

[The Laughing Fish]

Finally watched this and totally adored it. Reading the hatred on here for it I'm wondering if I actually watched the same movie lol.

Sorry Cat, but we'll just have to disagree. I enjoyed Guardians 1 and thought it was a pleasant surprise. But I thought this sequel pales in comparison in every possible way.

[The Laughing Fish]

Disney have SACKED James Gunn after he was exposed for making offensive tweets from nearly a decade ago, "joking" about rape and pedophilia. ***WARNING***: the screenshots of his tweets are pretty graphic and NSFW.

Source: https://www.news.com.au/entertainment/movies/guardians-director-fired-over-old-offensive-tweets/news-story/f27e148e5b9bed89e61c8b1a81278683

Judging by the despicable treatment of the Mantis character in this movie, I'm not that surprised. Good riddance, I've gotten tired of his rubbish sense of humour, and hopefully the MCU improves because of this. More movies like the first two Cap ones and even Black Panther, less movies like GOTG2.

[thecolorsblend]

Only one of those is all that sketchy (eg, the one about the "silly place")... and even that one could have a harmless, though bawdy, intent to it.

When people gripe about PC culture gone amok, this is what they mean.

Although here once again Hollyweird is devouring one of its own so I shed no tears.

[The Laughing Fish]

Political correctness may have gone mad, but I still have no sympathy for Gunn. There are just some things you don't joke about.

Come to think of it, GOTG2 did have this creepy sh*t with Yondu getting kicked out of the Ravagers for child trafficking. I'm actually shocked Marvel/Disney gave this the OK to begin with.