Review: Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (2017)

* * *
Director: James Gunn
Starring: Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana, Bradley Cooper, Dave Bautista, Vin Diesel

Take what you know works and lean on it hard. It won't get you any points for audacity, but it will give you a decent chance at making sure the audience walks away happy. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 does basically nothing new - unless you count upping the adorability factor to about 110 via the baby version of Groot - presenting more of the same without apology. This isn't really a bad thing. Vol. 2 is a very enjoyable movie. It's not the shot in the arm that the first Guardians of the Galaxy was (I won't say that the first was a breath of fresh air since it was the Star Wars throwback before The Force Awakens became the official Star Wars throwback), but then it doesn't have the same element of surprise either. Vol. 2 is all about maintaining and it does that fairly well, returning to what worked for its predecessor and not breaking a sweat trying to surpass the expectations set up by the success of the first film.

Review: Passengers (2016)

* * *
Director: Morton Tyldum
Starring: Chris Pratt, Jennifer Lawrence

Passengers has a 31% rating on Rotten Tomatoes and a 41 rating on Metacritic. Is it secretly a great movie? No, but is it the terrible movie that those ratings would imply? Not nearly. Those ratings would suggest something borderline incompetent, something shoddily made with little to recommend it. But Passengers is an entertaining movie with more than enough to make it worth taking the time to watch, even if it is thematically problematic. Thinking about it afterwards, I was reminded of something I once read about Jerry Maguire (I can't remember the exact wording and couldn't find the review, so I'm stuck paraphrasing), that it's a movie that knows a great deal about sports but very little about relationships. Similarly, Passengers is a film that knows a great deal about how to spin an adventure yarn, but very little about women and relationships. It suffered for the latter, but it deserves praise for the former.

Review: Guardians of the Galaxy (2014)

* * * 1/2
Director: James Gunn
Starring: Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana, Dave Bautista, Bradley Cooper, Vin Diesel

Late to the party, I have no excuse. The biggest movie of the year (so far; last year's champ, Katniss Everdeen, returns to theaters in November), Guardians of the Galaxy continues Marvel Studios' solid run of films that have not only raked in a fortune but also garnered critical acclaim. I already thought that Warner Bros.' rumored "no jokes" rule for its forthcoming attempt to create a shared DC comics movie universe was kind of dumb, but it seems more so after seeing this film, which relies heavily on humor and succeeds in large part because of it, too. The effects are, of course, as spectacular as expected but it takes more than good special effects to make a good movie, and the fact that the film is too long, too over-stuffed, and ends in pretty much the same way as every Marvel movie since The Avengers (there has to be other ways to end these movies than with a protracted sky battle) is alleviated by how much fun it is. I realize that Warner Bros./DC is probably a little concerned that if they start working humor into their product they might tip back into the high camp of the Joel Schumacher Batman movies, but a few jokes can go a long way.