To Infinity & Beyond: Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2

Last week things got pretty strange with the introduction of sorcery and other dimensions, and this week we are continuing this wacky ride by revisiting our favorite group of misfits. It’s time to check back in with the Frickin Guardians of the Galaxy (Read: Not as Frickin).

Plot

Ever since stopping Ronan the Accuser, the Guardians of the Galaxy have been doing what they do best: a little bit of good and bad. Most recently though, the Guardians helped an alien race known as the Sovereign defeat the Abilisk; a monster that has been eating the power source of the Sovereign known as Anulax batteries. The Guardians save the Anulax batteries in exchange for the Sovereign’s prisoner: Gamora’s sister Nebula! However, Rocket Raccoon steals some of the batteries for himself and the Sovereign retaliate. The Guardians are nearly killed when they are saved by a mysterious ship. The pilot? None other than Peter Quill’s father Ego! Ego invites his son and the rest of the Guardians to his home planet, but it becomes clear to Gamora early upon arrival that something is off. Meanwhile on another planet Yondu is exiled from the Ravagers, but he and his crew are hired by the Sovereign to bring back the Guardians. Upon learning that Peter Quill is with his father, Yondu abandons his crew and attempts to rescue the Guardians from what could be their biggest threat yet.

Villains

Ego the Living Planet is a Celestial. Celestials are ancient beings that existed long before most life in the galaxy did and are known to be capable of manipulating matter and energy. When Ego was born he created an entire planet in his image. However, Ego quickly became lonely and began to wonder what his purpose was in the universe. That’s when he came up with The Expansion. Ego traveled the universe planting parts of himself on various worlds so that one day he would be able to merge and become those worlds as well. To do that though, he would need another Celestial so Ego impregnated organism’s from each planet he visited in the hope that one of them would bare a child with Celestial genes. The children that were born without Celestial powers were murdered by ego along with their mothers. That’s right, Ego murdered thousands of children and mothers in his attempt to merge with every planet in the universe. Among the casualties of Ego’s expansion was Peter’s mother. Ego is a genocidal maniac with a god complex that’s so powerful hardly anyone in the Universe could stand toe to toe with him so yeah, he’s a pretty great Marvel villain. One of my favorites in the MCU if we’re being honest.

Best Scene

I never thought this would happen, but Marvel manages to make you sad about the death of Yondu. A major plot point in Vol. 2 is that Yondu seems to go out of his way to make sure that Peter is safe. It becomes obvious that Yondu truly grew to love Peter like a son. It doesn’t become anymore clear than his final sacrifice at the end of the film. Peter is battling Ego with his new Celestial powers with the full intent of dying in the explosion that Rocket and Groot set. The bomb goes off, but Yondu swoops in last minute and saves him. However he only has the gear for one of them to survive in space. Yondu tells Peter, “He may have been your father boy, but he wasn’t your daddy. I’m sorry that I didn’t do none of it right, but I’m damn lucky you’re my boy.” Yondu flies into orbit, gives Peter the gear needed to survive then slowly dies in front of his son. It’s arguably the most emotional scene in the MCU since Cap said goodbye to Peggy in The First Avenger. Also in case you were wondering, that’s three parents that Peter has seen die now…

Stan Lee Cameo

Yondu, Kraglin, Rocket, and Groot are using warp speed to travel across the galaxy to get to Ego’s planet (which is a hilarious trippy moment). While travelling they zip past Stan Lee sitting on an asteroid telling the Watchers about his time as a FedEx employee aka his past cameos in the MCU. It’s a great fourth wall breaking cameo that also confirmed that the Watchers (some of the most powerful beings in the comics) were in the MCU. It also raised the theory that Stan Lee showing up in each film is more than just an Easter egg. Could Stan Lee actually be an informant for the Watchers? Guardians Vol. 2 certainly seems to believe so!

Post Credits Scenes

The gauntlet of post credits scenes! There are FIVE of them!

Kraglin is practicing using the trademark arrow weapon that Yondu used. He has little success at first but eventually the arrow fires off impaling Drax who lets out a hilarious yell of pain. Kraglin then runs off in fear.

Stakar (the one who banished Yondu from the Ravagers) meets with other Ravagers. Stakar says, “You know it’s a shame that it took the tragedy of losing Yondu to bring us all together again, but I think he’d be proud knowing we were back as a team.” The other Ravagers nod in agreement excited to be back together! Now if you’re like me, you had no idea who these people were at first, but to the super die hard fans, this group is known as the ORIGINAL Guardians of the Galaxy from the comic books! Super cool scene for true Guardians fans!

The Sovereign high priestess is deeply upset that the Guardians managed to escape. An underling arrives to tell the high priestess that the council is waiting for her. The high priestess says the council is perturbed by the waste of resources used in her attempt to capture the Guardians but she is not worried. They have this discussion:

High Priestess: “When they see what I have created here, their rocks will dissipate.”

The underling asks, “It’s a type of birthing pod ma’am?”

High Priestess: “That, my child, is the next step in our evolution. More powerful, more beautiful, capable of destroying the Guardians of the Galaxy. I think I shall call him… Adam.”

AKA ADAM WARLOCK!!! Adam Warlock was a huge component of the Infinity Gauntlet story line in the comics, and although he supposedly isn’t showing up in the Infinity War movie, it’s still awesome to know that he’ll be on the big screen soon enough!

The next scene shows Peter checking up on Groot who is no longer a baby but rather a teenager ripe with teen angst! Peter tells Groot he needs to stop playing video games and clean his room and Groot mocks him calling him boring. Peter then says to himself that this must be how Yondu felt raising him.

Next we go back to Stan Lee who is still telling the Watchers about his cameos in the MCU, the Watchers though get bored and begin to leave. Stan calls out to them saying “Hey you were supposed to be my lift home! Hey ah gee, I’ve got so many more stories to tell!” You certainly do have a lot more stories to tell Stan!

Final Thoughts

I’m in the minority when I say this but I think this is the superior of the two Guardian movies. The first one while truly amazing is missing one thing Vol. 2 has: an excellent bad guy. Ronan the Accuser serves his purpose as a bad guy but he’s a pretty straightforward villain. Ego is far more memorable of the two both due to Kurt Russell’s portrayal of him and Ego’s actions. Also this film managed to change the fanbase’s opinions on Yondu. People hated him in the first film, but James Gunn had us all bawling over him in Vol. 2. The comedy of Vol. 2 is also better, there are more bigger laughs and that’s primarily because of Baby Groot! Vol. 2 in my humble opinion took everything that was great about the first movie, and made it even bigger and that’s why it’s one of my absolute favorite films in the MCU.

Thanos Meme of the Week

To Infinity & Beyond: Guardians of the Galaxy

“Wait… who? What? Last we left the MCU, HYDRA had taken over SHIELD, Captain America was on the hunt for Bucky, and there were elves all over Asgard. Now you’re telling me we are dropping all that for a movie about a guy in space who befriends a talking tree and a trigger happy raccoon?” You bet your ass we are! Here’s the movie about the heroes you’ve never heard of, but will soon never forget. This is Guardians of the Galaxy!

Plot

In the year 1988, young Peter Quill was abducted by alien bounty hunters known as Ravagers just minutes after learning his mother had passed away. The upcoming years though Peter Quill learned from the Ravagers and became the legendary outlaw Star Lord. Well… legendary to himself that is. One day Star Lord is on a mission to retrieve a mysterious orb for the Ravagers but little does Star Lord know that this orb is is sought after by many. After ditching the Ravagers with the orb, Star Lord is arrested by the Nova Corp (the space police basically). While in prison he meets four people each with their own reason for wanting the orb: the infamous assassin and daughter of Thanos, Gamora, Drax the Destroyer, who takes everything just a little too seriously, Rocket Raccoon, a genetically modified raccoon that can speak and has a tendency to shoot first and ask questions later, and finally Groot who is a giant talking tree that can only say the phrase, “I am Groot.” These five become the Guardians of the Galaxy when they discover the true power of the orb and Ronan the Accuser’s plans to use the orb for the destruction of an entire planet.

Villains

The main villain of The Guardians of the Galaxy is Kree terrorist Ronan the Accuser. Ronan was originally hired by the Mad Titan Thanos (more on him later) to retrieve the orb and give to him. That was the plan until Ronan witnessed the orb’s power firsthand. Ronan then planned on keeping the orb for himself and using it to destroy the planet Xandar; home of the Nova Corp and the place where Ronan’s family and people were killed. The Kree are a powerful alien race that’s feared throughout the galaxy, and to top that off Ronan in the film obtains the orb which gives him unlimited power. He may be a pretty generic villain, but he’s a powerful one that could go toe to toe with any hero yet seen in the MCU. It DOES take an entire team of people to defeat him which speaks to his strength.

Another minor villain in the film is Nebula who besides Gamora is Thanos’ other adopted daughter. However where Gamora is kinder and has a sense of justice, Nebula is merciless and willing to kill anyone in an instant. She serves as Ronan’s right hand throughout the film and is a thorn in the Guardians’ sides. She hates her sister Gamora because she was always Thanos’ favorite. Not only that, but Thanos replaced parts of Nebula (against her will) with machine parts because he wanted her to be Gamora’s equal. That has yet to happen and ever since Nebula has used that hatred to survive in the hopes of killing both her sister and father.

And finally I have to mention this guy. Remember at the end of Avengers there was that big intimidating purple guy with the creepy smile? Well he finally showed up in a movie! Thanos is proven to be the one behind most of the events in the movie. Thanos wants the orb because it contains one of the six Infinity Stones. As stated though, Ronan keeps it for himself, but it was great to finally get a legitimate introduction to the Titan Thanos!

Best Scene

I don’t know how Marvel did it, but they got me to cry over a talking tree. Guardians of the Galaxy is filled to the brim with incredible scenes but the best scene in the film has to be Groot’s big sacrifice at the end. The Guardians are on Ronan’s ship trying to kill him before he can destroy all of Xandar. Their attempt fails and it looks like they’re going to die along with everyone on the ship. That is, until Groot uses himself as a giant protective shield around the Guardians. The Guardians are relieved to still be breathing but Rocket is in tears telling Groot to stop because if not he will die. Rocket asks Groot why he’s sacrificing himself to which Groot smiles and simply says “We are Groot.” It’s tough to get fans to fall in love with a giant talking tree, but I feel like it’s even harder to get fans to cry over one. Marvel somehow managed to do both. Groot is the undisputed star of an already stellar cast of characters.

Stan Lee Cameo 

This one is really short. In the beginning of the film on Xandar, Rocket and Groot are people watching and they come upon Stan Lee chatting it up with a beautiful alien woman. Rocket refers to him as “Mr. Smiles” and says “Where’s your wife old man!?” Short but funny as they all are.

Post Credits Scene

As out of nowhere the Guardians feel in the MCU, so does its post credits scene. The post credits scene takes us to the Knowhere, home of The Collector. The Collector meets with the Guardians and is the first to tell them that the orb contains an Infinity Stone. Shortly after, Ronan shows up and wrecks all of The Collector’s collection. The post credits shows The Collector sitting in his wreckage when a dog in an astronaut suit comes over and licks his face (Cosmo the Dog for those super nerds). While the obscure Marvel dog character licks his face, an even more obscure character asks the Collector “Why do you let it lick you like that?” And lo and behold, it’s Howard the Duck! It’s a totally random post credits scene, but hey they whole movie was that way so I guess you can’t expect different.

Final Thoughts

Before this movie, The Guardians of the Galaxy weren’t a well known group in Marvel. James Gunn though turned them into an absolute sensation and one of the company’s biggest selling points now. Guardians of the Galaxy just oozes with style and fun and it also boasts one of the best soundtracks in any movie ever. The soundtrack for the movie sold like crazy when it came out. It’s even one of the few Marvel movies to have a pretty significant emotional aspect to the film with each Guardian having their own sad or tragic backstory. The entire cast of characters is instantly memorable and it’s one of the most fun movies in the MCU.

Thanos Meme of the Week