QUICK REVIEWS: Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2,Wonder Woman

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2

The first Guardians was a pleasant surprise, a colourful, nimble "little" big film that was fun, exciting, and more genuine than I expected.  But we've all been trained to be apprehensive about sequels, my own particular fear being the dreaded "sequelitis".  Sequelitis is the disease in which the filmmakers look at what audiences liked most about the first film - usually a certain side character - and then crank that aspect to obnoxious levels for the second film.

Guardians 2 manages to avoid this to a degree, and actually provides a pretty good balance of screen-time for its motley crew of space adventurers.  I was expecting it to be 24/7 Baby Groot (seen above) but Vin Diesel's little tree actually is there almost entirely for comedic purposes and I'm all good with that.

The main plot of the film involves Peter Quill/Starlord's long-lost dad, who turns out to be Kurt Russell.  Actually, his name is "Ego", but really Russell is so awful in the film that he's pretty much just Kurt Russell.  Anyhow, there's something about Quill's quasi-magical past and the inevitable "something's not right here" and a big honkin' explosive ending with lasers and spaceships and a giant brain and whatnot... but somehow, despite the fact that I really didn't care a whit about Quill and his daddy issues, I generally enjoyed the film.

A huge factor here is the acting of the cast as a whole, and while I find Quill himself really, really boring, and Russell was just off-puttingly almost a stereotype of himself, everyone else is pretty great.  Zoe Saldana is really quite good in an otherwise thankless role as side-plot girlfriend/ass-kicker, Bradley Cooper's voice is perfect for the wise-cracking trash panda with a gatling laser, and Michael Rooker is - as always - everyone's favourite soft-hearted semi-antagonist.

But special mention here has to go to Dave Bautista as the goofy bruiser Drax.  His earnest demeanor combines so perfectly with his blunt honesty and deadpan delivery.  By far the funniest bits of the film are Drax's little add-ons at the end of some ridiculous expository group dialogue, and easily the biggest laugh I've had in a long time came at his semi-boast about his "famously huge turds".  

Let's just end with the turd quote.  It's all you really need to know.

Wonder Woman

Just look at those two people.  Honestly, those are two of the most attractive faces I've ever seen, which makes any review of Wonder Woman a little... complicated.  I knew going in that I had a fairly fierce crush on former Miss Israel Gal Godot from her brief appearance in the Fast and Furious franchise and stint in the truly awful Keeping Up With the Jonses; she just has "it", a combination of beauty and humility that's truly endearing.

And Chris Pine?  The guy is pure charisma, making the best out of mediocre roles in a smattering of mediocre movies before really giving us a fantastic Captain Kirk in the new Star Trek films.

It's the chemistry between the two that really drives Wonder Woman.  It's a little wonder of a superhero film (if any blockbuster can be called little), relying on character and theme to pull us into the story rather than blasting us with in-jokes and appearances by random side-heroes nobody cares about (see: most of the Avengers series and most certainly the recent Batman vs. Superman).

And it wouldn't work if we didn't care about the protagonists.  Godot's Diana "Prince" / Wonder Woman is surprisingly nuanced, essentially a naive girl with the power of a God who is finding out about the cruelty of the real world for the first time.  She finds out about the horrors of World War I (the film takes place in 1918) and assumes it's all about Gods and her destiny, and it's to Godot's credit that we can't help but sympathize with her in the realization that it's not all about her.

Of course, the whole trope of heroes finding hope in the potential of humanity to overcome its own tragic flaws is a common one to the superhero genre, but Wonder Woman pulls it off because Pine's character - a spy who knows well about the horrors conceivable by man - is such a perfect foil to her blind hubris and optimism.  It's of course a given that the two will fall in love despite this, but the two are just soooo cute together and their charisma soooo clear that it works against all odds.  

Yes, it's frequently a cheesy film, fraught with discussion of love and human potential and whatnot, but Wonder Woman works because of the cheese, not despite it.  It's even good from an aesthetic and action viewpoint.  The locations, even the Amazons' magic island, feel real and "worn".  The film flows well, and is efficiently edited all the way to the fight sequences.  I especially liked the occasional moments of quiet, a rarity in superhero films.  The scene where our two pretties first hook up is really quite wonderful, a dance in the midst of a newly-liberated French town square, with snow fluttering and the music subtly fading out in the background. 

And yes, there's no question that so much of the film's success is due to its status as a superhero film about a female hero, and that it was made by a female director.  That said, it doesn't play up that political angle for "points" at all, there is very little in the way of the "I am no man" fuzzy-faux-feminist bullshit that you might expect.  It's actually far more complexly portrayed in the film; Diana does eventually learn that not all men (heh) are warmongering jerks (as she had learned from her amazon upbringing), but at the same time she maintains her own agency throughout and finishes strong while maintaining a feminine perspective.

Now, that all said, I can't say I'm optimistic for her role in the upcoming Justice League.  I have a feeling all that nuance is going to get thrown out the window or totally subsumed under Batman's silly brooding or Superman's, uh, standing there looking all buff.  

At least there's guaranteed to be a Wonder Woman 2.