5 Ways to Prep: Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2
By George Rose
May 3, 2017
I recommend this movie because… 1) You should always check out the competition. There are so many good Marvel movies that watching them might actually dampen your GOTG2 experience because of high expectations. However, watching any modern day DC movie will surely make you appreciate what Marvel has actually accomplished with their cinematic universe… and, 2) it’s always fun to point and laugh at the loser. Everyone drop what you’re doing and go see the best DC has to offer these days… Did you see it yet?... Ok, now point and laugh. Ha ha, DC. You’re just like most of those dudes I slept with in my 20’s; you’re not as good as I hoped you’d be, I’ve definitely still watched worse than you, I’ll watch you again a few times just to make sure you’re not as good as I remember when I’m bored and lonely, but eventually I’ll realize you kind of suck and that makes me really happy I found true love with Marvel and am now engaged.
3) Star Trek: Into Darkness (2013)
We did the Marvel movie and we did the competition. Into Darkness, the sequel to the Star Trek reboot, checks the box for most comparable movie from the same space-action genre. I never saw any of the early Trek movies or TV shows (I assumed you could only like that OR Star Wars, and my dad raised me as a Star Wars baby) but being a teenager in the early 2000’s primed me for my JJ Abrams obsession. I was going to recommend a Star Wars movie (the most recent of which was also directed by Abrams) but those are about a specific family, not a merry band of misfit strangers. When I was doing research for this article, I remembered Into Darkness is the great sequel to a great reboot, is directed by one of my nerd gods, and also stars GOTG alum Zoe Saldana. Three birds with one stone!
Where Into Darkness and GOTG2 are similar, aside from the misfit strangers in space thing, is they are both sequels to surprise success stories that were well reviewed (Trek is 95% and GOTG is 91% on Rotten Tomatoes); both are a tad less positively reviewed than the first (Trek2 was 86% and GOTG2 is 85% at the time of writing) but still strong enough to get excited over; and both promoted a new character as a big selling point (we all knew Khan was part of Trek2 and everyone is freaking out about Kurt Russell playing Chris Pratt’s “living planet” father in GOTG2). Where they differ is that Trek2 made less domestically than the first and there is literally 0% chance that happens here with GOTG2. Trek2 is not just a recommendation for a comparable film or just a generally great movie to watch, but also serves as a cautionary tale to Marvel about how even great starter films with great follow ups can still somehow underwhelm.
4) Stargate (1994)
So why does anyone care that Kurt Russell is in GOTG2? Well, somehow the studio had to figure out how to make Peter Quill’s “living planet” father into a character fit for film which is a very intriguing concept. Also, Kurt Russell is a great actor with film credits going as far back as the 1960’s. He is well known for comedy (I loooooved Overboard) and action (Escape from New York and Big Trouble in Little China), which makes him a perfect fit for the father of the newly minted king of action/comedy, Chris Pratt. This is a master stroke of casting and is being heavily publicized for a reason.
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