In August of 2014, I was about to start my senior year of high school. I had honestly not had the best time there. I was a smart high schooler. But I was extremely awkward because I felt like I didn’t know what I was supposed to do, and everyone else seemed like they did. I had a general idea of what I was passionate about, but I genuinely didn’t care about much. I have always prided myself on the fact that I am good at being present in the moment. But in your senior year of high school, there is so little emphasis on being present (which is a huge problem that I as a youth pastor try to curb in the students I interact with). But that first weekend of August, there was another Marvel movie coming out. I was a huge nerd, but even I had no clue who the ‘Guardians of The Galaxy‘ were. But it was a Marvel movie, so I was going to see it. I remember reading some of the raving reviews and just thinking, “Cool! This is a good one.” Then I remember watching the opening scene of Peter Quill being abducted as a child and thinking, “Okay this is not what the reviews seemed like.” Everything changed for me and my relationship with Marvel after that moment. When Star-Lord explores “The Temple of The Power Stone” to the song “Come and Get Your Love” by Redbone, I gradually lost my sense of objectivity, perfectly capped by the scripts sense of humor and lack of seriousness. It was the first time that I felt like there was a superhero that I really identified with (in the MCU). Iron Man is a “billionaire, playboy, philanthropist.” Thor is the god of thunder. Captain America is a super soldier and also a good person. Star-Lord was… a loser.
Then over the course of what remained of the first act of the film, I was introduced to characters who all represented a very relatable struggle. Rocket was bad at communicating. Gamora and Nebula had daddy issues. Drax and Groot were unable to communicate. And within just a little bit, we have a lovable band of misfits. By the end of that movie, I had a new favorite group of characters in the Marvel canon, and it all comes back to the fact that they were all, on their own, losers. By the end of the story, when they triumph, it is an admittedly stereotypical ending in that the lesson they all learn is the same one that The Avengers had just learned two years earlier. But this one was different.
The Avengers was a team of people who were already great, and got better by being together. I don’t want to take away from that movie. It’s awesome. But that is literally in the script of that movie. “There was an idea… to bring together a group of remarkable people, to see of they could become something more.” It totally works for that movie. But what make the Guardians of The Galaxy so wonderful is that they are not a “group of remarkable people.” They are a group of LOSERS. And when they come together, they stop being losers and become, as Nick Fury said, “something more.” They aren’t the space-Avengers. They are so much better than that.
Fast forward to May of 2017. I am on the brink of finishing my sophomore year of college. My life has generally gotten better in every measurable way. I have close friendships. I have a mostly good job. I love my life, and Guardians of The Galaxy Vol. 2 comes and goes in theaters. I saw it and remember thinking, “Hmph. Not bad, but not as good as the first one.” Over the next four years, I would learn what it was like to be an adult, which to all my fellow adults out there is the nice version of, “I basically messed a bunch of stuff up or was subjected to general struggles that torment us all.” But at the end of the summer of 2021, I had decided to move away from all of my friends and family, which I have come to realize, was a very formative experience. My personality has changed so much since then. I have found new ways to improve myself since then and I have grown immensely. So, one day I am sitting around and decide to re-watch Guardians of The Galaxy Vol. 2. Big mistake.
Let me be clear: the movie is not perfect. There are some poorly placed jokes that undercut what could be some good dramatic moments. Let’s start with the key differences between the first time I saw this film, and this time. The first noticeable and obvious difference is time. I have grown immensely since seeing it the first time. Also the world that we all live in changed drastically in the previous 4 years. The next one is space. I moved 800 miles away. Previously, I had an overabundance of community and was honestly a bit of a hermit, constantly seeking opportunities for solitude. Now, I was in a place where I had no meaningful relationships because they were all back home, and there had not yet been enough time to develop my new relationships. The first time I saw Guardians 2, I was sitting in a theater chair in Springfield, Missouri in my favorite theater on earth, The Alamo Drafthouse. This time is was in the upstairs spare bedroom of a single mid 50’s guy in the church I had just joined earlier that year. Life was easy, and now it was difficult in a very surreal way. And finally, the first time I watched it, at the end I was thinking about the fact that the jokes didn’t land as well as in the first one. This time I was sobbing uncontrollably as I thought about the fact that I felt more represented in a movie, by a CGI raccoon than any other character ever had before.
I don’t know if any of you reading this have very lived by yourself, but it is a very surreal experience at first. Eventually you get used to it, but you don’t think about the little micro-interactions you have until you miss them. I was in a place where I would kill to experience the annoyance of having a roommate beat me to the one bathroom that was used by 4 of us. I missed bickering with my siblings about everything. I missed being nagged by my mom to the point that if I was on vacation, her pestering would actually comfort me. I missed my dad speaking with expertise on issues he had no actual education beyond reading a conservative journal article/hearing podcast episode on.
This leads to something very specific about the character of Rocket. The trilogy of films about the Guardians of The Galaxy are all about the character of Rocket, learning to accept a new family. In the first one, we learn that he is resistant to the very concept of family. The second one is all about how he needs to accept this new family. The thing is, he does something very distinct that other characters known as superheroes generally do. Plenty of them keep their loved ones at an arms-length. But Rocket actively pushes people away because he is so afraid of loving people at the risk of losing them. Then [SPOILER ALERT] at the end of Guardians 2, he loses Yondu, someone who over the course of the story, he saw himself in, and saw as a true friend who taught him to love people like Quill and Drax and Gamora. Now, I did not lose anyone. But over the previous four years, several people in my life who I had mistakenly placed on pedestals in my life had been thrown down and I had to reevaluate much of what I believed about God, His Church, my family, and myself. This created a very socially skittish person, which is something I am still working on. But for the first time in several years, I had the space to slowly work through a lot of those struggles with people who I didn’t care about judging me (don’t worry new people-you’ll get your moment soon). And the final shot of the film is of Rocket finally allowing himself to feel pain for the first time in a long time, which I also had not done. It is one of my favorite shots in any movie ever.
Then comes this years Guardians of The Galaxy Vol. 3. Recently, my life has undergone quite a bit of change. I have decided to extend my time in this place that is not my home, in an attempt to make it my home. Regardless of whether or not they had anything to do with it, in many ways, like Rocket, I have a new family. One comprised of nobody I am biologically related to. So, last Thursday, one member of that family, and myself went to see the film in a new theater I love. It’s not the same as my old one, but if it was, that would be wrong. SPOILERS
It will take me some time to probably fully take in and come to a complete opinion on what works for me in this movie, but you should know, I love it. The Guardians trilogy, more than any other series of movies in the superhero genre, speaks to me.
In it, we learn all about how Rocket is someone who fights for his family. When he was young, he failed to protect his first family, and he ran in fear. But this time, he chose to fight for and along side them. And in his greatest triumph, chose mercy rather than self-service because he’s “a freakin’ Guardian of the Galaxy.”
James Gunn is a director who knows me. James Gunn is an auteur working in a space mainly occupied by marketing nerds. And he made a trilogy of films with genuinely human characters, which basically no other series of films in the genre can say.
Sawyer Huelat 