Guardians of A Galaxy Far, Far Away

Written By Jerikandra

The new Guardians of the Galaxy (Vol 2) movie came out very recently so I feel I must preface this whole post with a Spoiler Alert. If you haven’t seen the movie yet and don’t want to read spoilers, please stop now, go see the movie, and come back. ?

SPOILERS

Now that I’ve said that, let’s dive in.

I saw the new Guardians movie on May 4th; the preview night of the movie. I should also say that I’m not really a movie critic and tend to just enjoy movies for their entertainment value. And this movie did not disappoint. It was very entertaining with action scenes and plenty of the humor those who saw the first movie have come to expect from the franchise. Funny enough, it wasn’t until I started describing the movie to my husband a couple days later that I realized how much it paralleled with a plot line from another sci-fi franchise.

So let’s recap. Peter grows up fatherless and leaves his home planet becoming an adult. He finds his father (named Ego ironically) and his father shows him that he has a ‘force’ within him he can use and then tempts him use it to help rule the universe together. Peter learns how to use this ‘force’ but he won’t be tempted by his father and fights back, choosing the universe over his corrupt long-lost family. 

This is where you take a second and ask ‘Wait, isn’t that the plot line of Star wars?’ Yeah, it kinda is.

But it gets better. Not only do Peter and Luke have a lot in common with their unknown paternal heritage but some of the other characters kind of fall inline with others in Star Wars too. Upon hearing this, you might expect me to compare Rocket to Chewbacca since they’re both furry animals but in fact, I see Groot (even Baby Groot) as Chewbacca. Neither of them can talk in a way that others can understand them but Rocket ( or Han Solo) understands them just fine. Also Rocket is the badass pilot and bounty hunter that mirrors well with Han. Then of course there’s Gamora; defiant and not your average princess who also ends up being the main character’s love interest. (although she’s not Peter’s sister).

These realizations were also interesting because in my head I had already compared the Guardians universe to Star Wars because of how the universe is portrayed; it has a certain grittiness to it that other ‘pressed clean' franchises like Star Trek don’t. 

So if I was a movie critic, this is where I’d complain about how Hollywood and Comics need to come up with new themes/plots rather than re-using the ones that have been popular in the past. Instead, I’ll simply suggest that these facts, having come to your attention, can now be used as friendly geeky conversation starters at your next party or maybe even inspire new crossover cosplays at your next comic book convention. You’re welcome.