Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 2. – a review of the silent film

This is a review of a silent version of Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 2. No closed captioning was used.

The immutable truth of Guardians 2 is that the entirety of creation is a blur of color and physics saturated with explosions and malevolence one must avoid to survive. One must live every moment in a nervous state of agitation so as to allow their fight-or-flight reflexes unimpeded governance of their physical capabilities. The characters’ moments of refection or transcendental experience are punctuated with extraordinary violence or mortal terror. The genius of each character is their ability to survive their physical reality. Lesser creatures are destroyed.

I could not tell if the film is a performance of or commentary on evolutionary theory.

Chris Pratt goes through most of the film looking completely exhausted. He holds very still in scene after scene. In fact, most of his scenes are holding still, arguing and fighting. There are few piloting scenes but hey are very similar to the holding still and arguing scenes save for the throwing of levers. I could not help but feel bad for him standing on set acting to green-or-blue screen. (More about the green-or-blue screen, later.) He is for the better part of the film a person divorced from their surroundings trying to catch onto whatever is happening before he is found out. But he seems like a nice enough guy. Maybe a year or two off would do him some good.

As for the green-or-blue screen, the seams between real people and computer generated background are distractingly obvious in too many scenes. There was a critical mass of disconnect between the actors and their surroundings that made me see every computer-generated background as a random juxtaposition to whatever the actors were doing. The context for each CGI scene became a series of garish elements that swamped what the actors were trying to do.

The one exception, however miraculous, to this was Michael Rooker. His acting penetrated the film of falseness that accumulated on the film itself and reached all the way to the audience. In a world of manipulative contrivance, he was the one authentic piece. He was subject to the same maelstrom of effects that engulfed every other actor yet somehow, he managed to stand apart from it. I’m repeating myself. Suffice to say, the successful ending of this film is altogether reliant upon the character he manages to create despite the universe being against him.

What if the gift of this film is the idea that a human being authentic is more compelling than everything every technology can muster?

Thanks for reading.
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