The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special – Review

The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special – Review
44 Minutes, Rated TV-14
Written and Directed by James Gunn

Synopsis:

Star-Lord, Drax, Rocket, Mantis, and Groot engage in some spirited shenanigans in an all-new original special created for Disney+.

After the near runaway success of the first Disney+ “Special Presentation,” Werewolf by Night, it was accepted that Disney would be utilizing the idea again in order to introduce more material that might otherwise not fit into conventional cinematic or series-based formats.

Might we get a “Man-Thing” Special Presentation? Perhaps a peek into more of Bucky Barnes’ struggles as a reformed(?) Winter Soldier?

Heck, they could even have done 45 minutes including/ending with the introduction of pre-Cosmic Ray Reed Richards.

Why, then, did they waste the “Special Presentation” moniker on what is effectively 40 minutes of the cast of GotG goofing off?

And not even the entire crew, mind you, but just Drax and Mantis, arguably the two characters who least need to be seen for extended periods of time without the others, in what is–at best–a road comedy or–or worse–an excuse for James Gunn to put a dollop on top of his time with Marvel and the Guardians prior to leaving for Warner Brothers to run the “new” DC Universe (where, BTW, I hope he manages to succeed where so many others have failed).

Look, the idea of [SPOILER ALERT] kidnapping Earth’s mightiest hero (Kevin Bacon) as a way to cheer up Peter Quill around the Earth holiday Christmas (which no one seems to understand) may seem like a good idea, but I promise you, it’s not.

Don’t even get me started on the character-redefining revelation that feels oh-so-cliche and stupid. Yes, STUPID.

I may be in the minority on this one, but frankly, I’m starting to tire of Disney/Marvel simply churning out “content” instead of good, well thought out, quality material. Sure, every once in a while, those squirrels find a nut, as they did with Michael Giacchino’s Werewolf by Night, but those kinds of unabashed hits are becoming fewer and farther between, replaced by endless streams of “coming soon” style 2+ hour cinematic commercials.

Or worse: 8-episode serialized “coming attraction” events.

It won’t kill you to watch The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special, but it’s output like this that is slowly throttling fan enthusiasm for the brand.

You remember, the brand that was once the Gold Standard and was basically unassailable?

Well, that’s gone, replaced by the monolithic, omnipresent content occupying everything but doing nothing.

Honestly, I might prefer to re-watch The Star Wars Holiday Special…

The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special is streaming exclusively on Disney+ now and features Dave Bautista, Pom Klementieff, Sean Gunn, Karen Gillan, Chris Pratt, Bradley Cooper, Vin Diesel, and Kevin Bacon.

And remember, if the BEST thing you can say about a movie is that it’s “visually stunning,” then they’ve done something wrong.

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