I remember seeing the first Guardians of the Galaxy film in the cinema. I don't remember what the exact reason for watching it was, I think it may have been a sudden decision with my younger brother. We never really did go to the cinema that often together, mostly from the fact that going to the cinema was a bit more on the pricey side and my family wasn't particularly well-off. None of us really were the type to enjoy superhero films. We watched the original Batman films, the Superman films of the 70s and 80s, and the Spider-Man films of the earlier 2000s. Though that was about the full extent of that. I think at this time I was still not really aware of comics and the superhero genre itself, I wasn't paying attention to the broader releases. And to this day they don't really speak to me. Though on an early morning with very little sleep, I grabbed some coffee and decided to check out the sequel in hopes of staying awake.
Yep, one of those days where the energy just isn't there, and the sleep still doesn't come. Many little things that keep you up and you just accept that you're not going to be getting any sleep. I knew I was likely to fall asleep watching this, though I didn't mind that. To say I had high expectations would be a stretch, though I do remember the first film actually being okay. Nothing too obnoxious (for the most part) and with its epic moments. And that's what I was expecting from this. Albeit with some of that inevitable sequel silliness. The quirky humour that Marvel insisted on injecting into every creation. I can't say I like it that much, I do like when there are some actual things to care for in the story, some real weight to the decisions the characters make.
Immediately this was not that. Evident from a fight sequence that starts to some joyful music and a tiny Groot dancing around the battlefield. Though that sequence was well choreographed and shot. And much of the film is like this: quite impressive in how it was directed, with some really good cinematography that shows the colourful chaos of space travel. I quite liked the constant changes between shallow depth-of-field and the usual more cinematic depth shots that give context into the location and surroundings. This was the start of the era in which Hollywood and television did start to find shooting totally wide open very fun, using the most open aperture they possibly could. Some of that is seen here, but the usage isn't as heavy. And it still holds that epic blockbuster look to it, mostly from using wider focal lengths.
Something I didn't particularly like about the film though was that it felt like it needed to maintain the pacing throughout the film. A lot of it felt like it was constantly in motion and had very little downtime, though the story wasn't really progressing because of it. It had all that blockbuster action, but it felt a bit shallow. So much constantly going on, but no substance to it. As if we were meant to care because we knew the characters already, and not that we should care because of the next round of unfortunate scenarios they find themselves in. To some degree this changes, there are moments of downtime, but again this is where the Marvel pains appear: the joking, the lack of seriousness in the dialogue which again is meant to give us something to care for. If you love action and comedy, then this is definitely your thing, but if you want a bit more of what that first film had, it's not really the same. Some of this feeling also came from the film's odd reliance on really pushing out a star-filled cast which just doesn't really work all that well. Sylvester Stallone? Really?
In most other ways I do think the film was made quite well, the costume and set design, even makeup. Some areas of the world building are really well done. It's just a shame that it's often wasted.