Guardians of the Galaxy’s Fundamental Problem
James Gunn has a major problem to overcome with Guardians of the Galaxy. His characters have fundamental issues inflicted on them by other movies and his actors desires to cut ties with Disney/Marvel.
The original Guardians of the Galaxy were a classic five-man band.
Leader – Quill, the guy whose story this is.
Rival- Gamora, equal of the hero and could be the leader in her own right but will follow Quill out of respect.
Tank- Drax, The muscle. Usually an older brother type and he sort of fulfills that function. Although, the semi-perpetual innocent thing was an interesting variation on that theme and it worked.
Rocket- The brains, the tech guy, the resident mechanical genius who can MacGiver anything out of a rubber band and a prosthetic leg.
Groot- The heart. The guy you can always talk to when you are down and you will feel better with three magic words, “I. Am. Groot.” He is the glue that holds the Guardians together.
In the first movie, Groot dies and is reincarnated as Baby Groot. That still works as emotional glue because everyone was protecting Baby Groot. But Mantis as an empath can fill the function better. Especially as Groot entered his rebellious teenage years at the end of the second movie. All well and good. Two Hearts are workable.
Then came the Avengers movies which trainwrecked everything. You could deal with the changes wrought by the first movie. Mass tragedy of half the universe dying and the story becomes how people adjust to those changes.
Except Disney/Marvel reversed those changes for garbage tier storytelling and toy-selling reasons. It threw the GoG narrative train off its tracks.
The two biggest problems are presented by Gamora and Nebula.
Gamora and Nebula were both defined by their relationships to their “father” Thanos the Titan.
Thanos was killed twice in one movie. Nebula for her part appears to have resolved her issues with her father to the extent that she possibly could in the last few moments of his life. Gamora never will. But now what is their stories? What is her, “Tell me about a gal who…?”
There are things you can do in a natural progression. Nebula and Peter have a shared attraction but it is hampered by a dead Gamora hanging over both of them. They have to come to grips with her death before they can begin to share a life together.
Except there is New Gamora in the picture. Nobody can make a character progression until they deal with this living recording of what Gamora was like five years before her story started.* There is no real-world reference for this.** This is why time travel and alternate universes wreck everything they touch.
Gamora is effectively being thrown back to the beginning of her story. In the Holiday Special it was established that Gamora II has opted to create no ties with the Guardians. She has no way to approach the team that isn’t akward and clumsy. She has to ramrod her own brand new story through this third movie as fast as possible.
I suspect that is also why the projected numbers are so weak. A trilogy acts as a three-act play, we saw the first two acts in the first movie and effectively saw the third act in Infinity War. Quill and Gamora’s relationship ended in tragedy, they admitted their deep love for each other and then she was murdered by her own father. Finally, Quill, Drax, Groot, and Mantis are killed. Nebula and Rocket are left to make their way as best they can. There are plenty of comedies that end in tears.
The. Story. Is. Told.
It is over. It is ended.
At least so far as audience engagement is concerned.
This third movie is basically a reboot without the reboot. There is no way this can function as the third act of a trilogy. This is going to be a single self-contained story. Fine if the audience trusts the storyteller to be entertaining but the storyteller is Woke Marvel. The audience doesn’t trust this company anymore, and the fundamentals are shaky.
The Leader- Quill… Maybe it’s still his story but it might be Nebula or Neuavu Gamora’s now. Regardless, Pratt is making a lot of I loved this but I’m done noises.
The Rival- Nebula AND Gamora. Although, Zoe Saldana has basically said, I’m out too, so Gamora is dying again.
Tank- Still Drax, but everyone knows he dies in this one becuase Batista doesn’t want to appear shirtless anymore.
Rocket- Still the tech guy and he dies too.
The Heart- Could be Groot? Yeah, sure.
Sean Gunn’s Comedy Relief Character- Why is he on the poster? Oh yeah, his brother is the director. Still, he was good in Gilmore Girls. Gotta give me that! That’s nice. But now James is working for DC and I might be a good Yellow Flash.
The Dog- When all else fails put a dog in it. The Dark Herald Recommends with Enthusiasm. Hey, I do it every time, I won’t deny it.
This film will make bank on its first weekend beyond that no predictions other than the days of easy billion-dollar boxoffice are over for Marvel.
*Don’t be a That Guy about the timeline. I’m sure I’m getting it wrong in specifics but it’s not like Disney cares one way or the other, so you shouldn’t either. “Just repeat to yourself, ‘It’s just a show’. I should really just relax.”
**unless it’s something extreme like a guy who was a castaway for years and everyone thought he was dead.
