I have many memories of watching this film at my local cinema where I sometimes volunteer. I would have it timed right to sneak in to watch the Baby Groot-Opening Credits dance sequence several times each week. I mean, it's Baby Groot. Dancing.
All kidding aside, I enjoyed this film immensely, and I looked forward to watching it again for our blog. It just turned out that, with Gian's library board meetings, my grading piles, and our conflicting schedules, we had a few weeks where we couldn't meet--placing this movie on the day-after-elections. We watched the film after a long day of result-watching, and not knowing the outcome, we decided to still go ahead and do our scheduled movie watching.
This film really was a balm on the day. It's the perfect film to watch at this point. There are rainbow-colored bubbles, comedic exchanges, amazing music montages, an adorable almost-love story between the heroes, and, of course, Baby Groot.
The main theme of the story is family. "There has to be more out there, than just me, I thought," Ego explains as he woos Peter. The first act of the film showcased how the GOTG often got on each others' nerves, their quirks on full display, a stark contrast to the fairy tale that Ego presents as he offers Peter the fantasy family that the thought he was always searching for.
As we thought of the election, as we watched the film, the United States was deeply divided. In a way, any election is like the theme of this film. We have to sort through the fantasies to see what we have and what we want. Each member of the team, just like us, has to decide whether to leave their found family or to embrace them, help them, despite their quirks and flaws.
I find hope in this film, and I think the comedic elements are super funny--and the heartfelt, dramatic moments work to give us a deeper glimpse into beloved characters. I can only hope that we as a nation can learn the lesson of family as one that you make yourself. When Peter eulogizes Yondu, he allows himself to see the good in his life with Yondu. He makes the choice to appreciate the family that he built. We have a choice with where we want to go after this election, and I hope we can band together to get there, just like the Guardians of the Galaxy.
Sandy, I love how you find the best in movies, even if that's not the popular opinion. Your enthusiasm makes me search for things I missed or think about why something didn't work for me. I will admit that this is not my favorite MCU movie, but it's also not my least favorite. With GOTG movies, you can always count on comedy and good music. I think what I really enjoyed about this movie was the continued examination of the father-child relationship that runs throughout the MCU. We talked about this before with Ant Man and the father-daughter relationship. It's interesting to me that in the MCU, the father-son relationship seems traumatic while the father-daughter relationship seems healthy (or it at least gets the chance to become healthy).
ReplyDeleteWell, of course the father-daughter relationship exception there is Thanos and his daughters.
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