So I Just Watched Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2...

Well, now I'm doing my first 2017 Movie Thoughts post! This film is in theaters and it's Marvel's third Phase 3 movie and their 15th Cinematic Universe film overall. And, y'know, the second film the Guardians of the Galaxy have appeared in. This review is gonna have a ton of spoilers, so I'll just say something here if you haven't seen it yet... If you're a follower of the MCU, if you enjoyed the humor, action and characters from the first film and want more of it, you'll definitely enjoy this film and you should definitely see it! It is a sequel that does not disappoint! Well, now that we've gotten that out of the way...
{SPOILER WARNING}
Alright, I'm not gonna focus on this scene by scene like I did with Bill and Ted's Excellent
Adventure... Except I'm starting with a scene. At first, I wasn't really sure how flashing back to 1980 would give us new info we need to know. And that prologue was kind of a mystery. What's with the otherworldly flower? Why is Mr. Quill nonchalantly talking about the flower? Okay, now I actually kind of want to talk about this scene by scene to an extent.

I definitely didn't expect the scene with the Guardians fighting the monster to be at the beginning, because the way the trailers made it out to be was, like, a big finale and a big plot point. So that was interesting.

And then the gold people, the Sovereign dudes. I remember hearing how painful the gold Yogurt makeup was for Mel Brooks in Spaceballs and I hope these guys didn't have that much trouble with this makeup. Also, no pun intended, but that joke with Drax all wanting to kill people, but all the ships were just remotely piloted was gold. Sorry.

Alright, nonlinear time. Second time around, the main characters were all great the second time around. Drax is strangely kind of different from when he was in the first film, jolly and laughing throughout the movie. Baby Groot? Well, I'm not obsessed with him. I wasn't obsessed with Groot. But I definitely enjoyed watching him. What did I think of Mantis? I enjoyed her shtick of being a cute, innocent girl. She was funny. Other than that, I don't know what else to say about her.

The big character that most stood out to me was Ego. Oh, Ego. They did a very great job of concealing the fact that he was the antagonist. This is the advantage of not being a comic book follower... A superhero movie's plot can be more engaging! Though I do remember there was some other movie where someone found his father after many years and after happy times together he realizes he's a bad guy. I wish I could remember what movie it was... But I definitely remember seeing it before. I did think this twist was still engaging, though. Ego was charming and likeable, but then he also became scary! But you know what? I realized he's Malekith done right! Who's Malekith? He's the villain nobody remembers from Thor: The Dark World who wanted to make everything darkness... for some reason. This guy, Ego, wants to make everything a part of himself... because immortality gets boring! Well, that's at least a reason. Yeah.

Peter Quill gaining superpowers... That was cool! It was also funny seeing him transform into Pac-Man. Best product placement ever. And for a while, I was like "Wait, so in Infinity War, he's gonna be all overpowered? But nope.

This movie surprisingly got darker than the first one. I didn't expect that. But this is the year of dark sequels, so I should've! The Fate of the Furious, Transformers: The Last Knight, and Star Wars: The Last Jedi!

Moving on, the running jokes. My least favorite running joke was people calling Rocket different animals. The humor of heroes offending each other just doesn't really get me. I mean, they're just fictional characters, but I'm like "Don't say that!" But my favorite running joke is Taserface. With villains, I don't care about them, so they can be as irreverent as they want with them. That running joke was quite enjoyable.

The cameos and Easter eggs were great, too. Howard the Duck makes another appearance in a bar, making a terrible duck pun like he did a lot in the George Lucas movie. which I thought, ironically, was cute. And then the villain in Thor: Ragnarok makes an appearance, which got a gasp from me. But my favorite of these cameos for me was the obligatory Stan Lee cameo, with him in a space suit talking to the beings known as the Watchers (dudes who observe other peoples lives without interference) and he says something like "In that universe I was a FedEx delivery agent" proving a fan theory that's been going around for a while... Every Stan Lee is the same person! And now that has become one of my favorite Stan Lee cameos.

Now let's all take a moment to remember Peter Quill's Walkman. RIP 198?-2017

Conclusion? Well, after walking out of the theater, I thought the plot was definitely better than the first one. It was more interesting, more emotional, and more engaging. But could I say the same about the humor? Well, I'd say that would be almost on the same level. Not quite, but it was still very funny. Where would I rank this among other Marvel Cinematic Universe films? Well... that's tough. It's definitely one of the better Marvel films, but not quite as good as Civil War or Iron Man. I enjoyed it, and I was not disappointed. Definitely a great, well done movie!

Well, I hope you enjoyed this review. I've got some more 2017 Movie Thoughts on the way. But we're gonna take a little break from Movie Thoughts and we're gonna do a kind of post we haven't seen in a while. You'll have to wait to find out, though! See you next week! Have a good day!

Thor: Ragnarok Teaser!

Wow, Marvel Studios hasn't even released a film in the MCU this year, and there are already trailers for each of these films! Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, Spider-Man: Homecoming, and now Thor: Ragnarok! The last film starring the God of Thunder, Thor: The Dark World, was honestly kinda boring for me after revisiting it. But this looks exciting! In case you haven't seen it, here it is!

Well then! That was certainly something. Let's start the analysis from the beginning.
So the trailer starts with our beloved hero being violently lowered to a dungeon, covered in chains. Ouch. This dungeon looks like it's in some kind of volcano, or maybe a certain lava-filled part of the 9 realms. That'll be interesting.

"I know what you're thinking... How did this happen? Well, it's a long story."
Heh, now Marvel's going with the time-jump meme. Interesting. Not much to write about, but thought that was noteworthy.

Wait a minute... Did the villain of which the name is not apparent just grab Mjolnir??? She's not even worthy! Come on!! I know she's supposed to be threatening, but seriously, you can't break your own rules, Marvel!

Welp, Mjolnir's dead. Will Thor get another one by the end of this film? Maybe.

Oh... Well, that's weird. Why is Marvel trying to make this futuristic fantasy apocalypse feel like the 80's with those wacky transitions and rock n' roll music? I don't get it.

Wow... Now that's a hat.


And then the villain stands somewhere in Asgard in front of an army, saying "Asgard... is dead" and she pulls out her sword. I'm pretty sure she's gonna take out everybody.

And... she's right. Asgard faces the fiery destruction while Thor defends himself in it... If he can do that, will that kill anyone else? Heh, I'm not sure.


Then he finds himself in a junkyard, and there are some ships flying around, and then some aliens, one of them having a mask that looks like Teedo's. Is this junkyard the remains of Asgard after its destruction? Doesn't look that much like it. Thor says "Hi there" and just gets caught by a net... Well, not having the Mjolnir does that to him.

Then a bunch of things flash. New woman with blue makeup. That's some strange makeup. Villain on a giant bird. Oh wow. Bunch of people and birds falling. Some kind of blast made that happen? Thor getting dragged and locked in a chair. Oh boy...

"What have you brought me here, tell me."
"A contender."
Is that dude in the chair the makeup girl's father? Or just the gladiator game's master?

Is that the dude from the beginning of Guardians of the Galaxy? Ooh, Thor and GOTG crossover!

That's a cool ship. Looks vaguely like the Bat... plane or whatever from the Tim Burton film.

Will this dude shooting the machine gun be any important? Will find out sometime.

And now the soldiers in the worlds Thor goes to went from medieval to futuristic.

Oh here's the villain woman showing off her skills against that Asgardian army!

Ayyyy! Loki's back! Awesome! You can't make a Thor movie without the strongest Marvel villain of them all! And he's got some gadgets! ...Oh wait, after a closer look those are just knives... OK. Anywat, that'll be interesting to see how he'll be after he took over Asgard in Dark World!

Wow green fireworks. That's different.

And now Thor comes into the gladiator Colosseum and he's got a haircut, I'm guessing because of his being captured, and a big scar on his face. Where'd that come from? And then he puts on the hat on, a cool rendition of the hat he wears in the comics!

And then... The Incredible Hulk. Someone explain to me how he got to this other realm. And how did they even get that armor on him? I knew he was gonna be in this film from things that were hinted at earlier, but that's weird. Well, in Civil War, General "Thunderbolt" Ross talked about how Thor and Banner were absent. Maybe this takes place during the Civil War? That'll be interesting. Doctor Strange I'm pretty sure took place before Winter Soldier, and now this during Civil War. The timeline is not in real time again. Okay then.

"YEEEEES!!!!" The crowd loses their excitement, which is gold. LOL.
"We know each other! He's a friend from work!" Heheh. I like it. And then the battle ensues.

Well, like I said at the beginning, this is exciting. It could be meh, like Dark World, but this villain is already looking more interesting than Malekith, and the premise is looking more interesting. I'm pretty hyped! But not as much as Spider-Man Homecoming! Still hyped, though!