Rocket's Journey

What's up, it's Brian. And before we get rolling, I just wanted to let you know, this episode sounds a little different. Now for some backstory, I've had my trusty digital recorder for years, probably a decade or so. I've recorded pretty much every episode on this recorder in our home base, out in the But several weeks back, it did a weird glitch that at the time I thought was a one-off. And then recording the last Horror Club episode, it did a whole new weird thing.

That actually, I have. Been able to work around and save that episode, but it's taking about twice as long to get it back on track. But don't worry, the next Horror Club episode is already in the works and will be posted soon. But when it came time to record our Guardians episode, I just didn't trust the recorder we had been using to not mess things up again. so I tried pulling out the recorder we were using before that and hooking it up again. Well, that one also decided to not work right.

Luckily, me being the paranoid bastard that I am, I actually had several different tracks running when George and I sat down, just so we'd come out with some version. So, some of the tracks didn't record at all, and I spent a couple of days going over the other tracks I had to work with, and this was the best version. It's got a lot more echo to it than I'm normally comfortable with, but you can hear us, and if you didn't know what it normally sounds like, maybe you wouldn't notice. I know some shows out there record like this all the time, but I work really hard to make sure everything sounds as best as it possibly can. So for me, this was a departure, and that's why I wanted to just give you a little heads up why it sounds like this this time around.

But don't worry, I've already gone in the hole on a new updated recorder. So things are looking good and should be sounding good in the future. But I wasn't joking. We are in debt on this one. Thankfully, there was a little work with from our Patreon supporters, and I thank them very much.

They are the reason the show is able to operate all these years. But what little we had just sort of put a dent in the cost of that new recorder. So if you aren't already a member and would like to help support the show, go to MovieMeltdown.com and join the Horror Club. And then you too will help keep this rocket firing. Speaking of Rocket, let's go ahead and get rolling on this very fun Guardians discussion.

I'm Sean Gunn, and you're listening to Movie Meltdown. Movie Meltdown. The following feature has been rated R by the Motion Picture Association of America. It is intended for mature audiences and parental discretion is advised. It's showtime, folks.

Enjoy the show. our nuclear reactor, pumping out one million kilowatts of power. What's up and welcome to Movie Meltdown, I'm Brian. And I'm George. And we're coming to you live via digital recording from the Odyssey Studios. Back for another installment of the Super Series.

Which. It's gone back and forth for me. Okay. In the last phase. Mm-hmm.

I was thinking about that recently, because a lot of people online are grumbling about the last phase. Mm-hmm. And I was like, well, yeah, I wasn't thrilled with some of them along the way. And I looked, and it's like there's that peak in the middle. I really enjoyed the Doctor Strange, and I really liked the final Spider-Man.

Mm-hmm. And the other ones are all kind of like, yeah, they're fine. But I don't feel like I want to revisit them a whole lot. I could... I mean, I...

I have a general love for Marvel anyway just because I grew up as a Marvel kid reading comics. So I'm happy just to get anything. I'm that kind of fan where I remember the dark days where you would get occasionally a superhero movie and maybe it was good. But you had a 40% chance that it was going to be good and a 60% chance that it was going to suck. They just didn't make them theatrically for a long time there or at least giant stretches of time when they were like, we can't do that.

So until the magic of CG. Came along and we can do whatever the hell we want now, like, so. Yeah, there are certain, you know, little high points, like Blade was a high point early on and, you know. But that's one people even kind of forget is one. They're just like, oh, that's more of like a horror movie.

You're like, I mean, he's a vampire. Yeah. But, you know. Yeah, yes, it is a horror movie. It's a horror movie, but it's also a horror comic and that's how it got to be a movie.

Yeah. Yeah. So yeah, there's the little peaks along the way of, But yeah. I can at least see the argument that basically, okay, it's, you know, Phase 1 was so epic because it was all new. It was covering territory that fans had wanted to see.

We wanted to see Captain America and Thor and Iron Man, basically the whole Avengers on screen. We wanted to see all that stuff. And we finally were getting it. We're getting quality films. And we're also, it was so exciting.

It was so new. and there was so much buzz to it, and then building up to your first Avengers, and then basically taking us all the way the path to Infinity War and Endgame to kind of cap off that run. Oh my God, yeah, that was absolutely epic. It was so epic that I think they also killed themselves. They shot themselves in the foot. We're just like, shit, what do we do now?

I don't know, make a Spider-Man real quick while they're not thinking about it. This is literally the sports equivalent of we've won the state title and then everybody graduates and now we've got a whole new team. We're starting all over. Yeah, we've got the bad news bears now. The rebuilding year.

And that's exactly what this is. Yeah. This is the rebuilding here. So I've had the patience to know that and, you know, wait to see what we're going to build towards. And we are building towards another pair of Avengers films.

Yeah. Yeah, they're coming out in 25 and 26 respectively. But we are waiting for some Avengers films. And we've got a lot of building here. Now, of course, you know, we have kind of our, you know, first real good look at our big bad, Ming Kang.

Don't know if Jonathan Majors is... I was going to say, we haven't had a chance to discuss that. When we watched the movie, he hadn't totally gotten himself in trouble. There was already inklings, I feel like. Yeah.

Whispers of him pulling weird shit. But now he's full on in a lot of trouble. And rightfully so, if it's all true. So, I mean, I don't know. I wonder if he's going to be playing that role.

Well, you know, the whole thing with... DC and their Ezra Miller problem with the Flash movie. Yeah, same thing. I'm literally thinking, yeah, different crime, same kind of jerk. Well, from the beginning, I just didn't like him.

Like, even that first time we saw Justice League, I'm just like, what is this casting? I was just like, he's, I mean, I guess for certain movies, a weird, uncomfortable movie like everybody knew him from to begin with, sure, whatever. But I'm like, that's the Flash. I was like, this is weird. Yeah, the Flash isn't the awkward...

They're trying to make, basically, the Flash like Spider-Man, where he's nerdy, he's awkward, he's weird, you know, sort of thing like that. He doesn't fit. Yes, not that version of Spider-Man. That's not Barry Allen. Barry Allen's a completely different kind of character.

Yes, he is a scientific character because he's a chronologist and he's a CSI investigator. Did I say investigator twice? I did, yeah. So he's a CS investigator. But anyway, yeah, so he's, you know, He is a scientific and technical character, but he's not nerdy and awkward and weird.

He's a nice guy. He's very hopeful and he's bright side of things, even though he's lived in a lot of darkness. It made it so. Much harder because we came off of having a good, really good version of him on TV. Yep.

So it's like. they got perfect casting there. Like he is nerdy, but super likable. Like he can be quirky, but it doesn't. Come off as awkward. It's just kind of, Hey, he's just kind of dorky, but that's why we love him.

Yeah. Yeah. Great. Don't get that from him. Like, you're just like, Oh, who's this guy?

And that was before he got in trouble. It was like, just from the get go, I was like, No, really? Who is this guy? Why is he in our movie? And that was the best thing, too, is that all the fans were just like, okay, well, forget Ezra, recast Grant.

Just put Grant Gustin in there. We already love that. Do the crossover in the movies. There you go. Or don't even address it as a crossover.

This is just a... A different timeline. Go for it. Yeah, we got different timelines and different crossovers and multiversal kind of stuff. It's a different area.

It happens in The Flash all the time. Yeah, literally. This is a good way to do that. Yeah, so... Yeah, but anyway, so I'm with you.

I'm curious to see if Jonathan Majors is going to stay in the role. Yeah, I mean, he. Was good in that last movie, I suppose. But again, I don't know that we were attached enough to him that, like, if they got somebody equal, he is impressive, that we couldn't switch out and be okay. Yeah, I mean, we were fine with Rhodey.

I mean, we had Terrence Howard I think we got way better. I do too. I mean, I like Don Cheadle way more than I like Terrence Howard. Yeah, Terrence Howard serves purposes in specific projects, but like, Rhodey is lovable. You know, it's just like, he's just, once you get in there, like, he's a super lovable character and like, you didn't get that from Terrence Howard.

Like, he's just much like Robert Downey Jr. We all just kind of bristle with him like he's like I mean we like him as he. Helped him out but you know yeah it's not the same once you get to Don Cheadle he's just a super charismatic guy well and. The chemistry is there between Robert and Don where it's like they actually do seem like friends I never got that with Terrence. Howard no which again I mean they're still finding their feet on that first movie anyway but still like there was definitely a disconnect there that you don't get once you get Don Cheadle yeah.

No, sorry. But, yes, I mean, we will see how things go. I mean, they did have a lot riding on this guy because he's basically going to be a major part of the remaining phase until we get to the two Avengers films where we face off with Kang. So, yeah, we're going to probably still stick with Kang. Whether or not Jonathan Majors will stay in the role remains to be seen.

I think they're so far in on, I mean, that's the. key factor to the big two-part series, so, like, it'd be hard to change up villains already, but. Could you easily swap out that actor? Yes, you could. Yeah, absolutely. We'll see how that goes.

Do we want to get into any other projects, or are we just already knee-deep in Marvel and keep rolling? Let's see, I will say, I'm watching the series Mrs. Davis over on Peacock. That is a I love weird stuff, especially when it gets ambitious and weird. I think that's the one I've seen some ads for in the last day or so and went, wait, what is this?

It's great. Essentially, you have kind of like if Facebook literally controlled the world. It was trying for a while. I think now it's just for grandparents. So it's worked itself out.

It's a program that, you know, eventually they develop it in AI and the AI becomes self-aware. And then now basically, you know, basically the program has dubbed itself, it calls itself Mrs. Davis. So it's given itself identity and whatever else. And so now basically, you know, because it's kind of controlling the world, there's basically some conflicts going on here that basically...

They need to get Mrs. Davis shut down, but Mrs. Davis is also aware of this fact that she needs to be shut down. We need a Skynet territory. So, but here's the caveat.

She picks, you know, this character who's basically a nun, and she has to go and find... The Holy Grail. So she goes on basically a search for a MacGuffin to help. Like literally the Holy Grail? Literally the Holy Grail.

Something we're treating as the Holy Grail. So this AI essentially puts its own adversary on a MacGuffin search to find a device that will shut down itself. Hmm. This is complicated. Yeah.

But it's weird. I just I love it. So we're a few episodes in because basically they're released in like one a week. Yeah. But yes we're a few episodes in and yeah that.

If we're doing series, because I hadn't decided if I was going into this because I just got started. I'm only a few episodes in on this one. But yeah, I just started in the last week or so watching Beef. Okay. Have you heard about it at least?

I've heard it. I know. Steven Young won me over at first. I didn't even know the other half of the main characters, we'll say. Conflict, definitely.

As Ali Wong I didn't know that until I started watching it I was like okay this is I did not know what to expect I just saw him on the morning shows doing some sort of press for it and I was like well it's cool that he's got a new series and something I mean he's already kind of crossed over into big. Films you know last year so now he's trying another. Series so I'm like alright this is cool I always like him anyway but had no idea what exactly it was. Yeah I don't even know the series about it either I'll. Keep it Light, but basically it is like the beef itself is a fight type of beef.

And it's basically a very. Minimal little situation arises between these two characters, and they kind of get into a weird thing, and then it continues to escalate. I'm only a few episodes in, and I'm already like, wow, this went from... I mean, there's no reason for any of this to be happening, but they're both such weird characters. And that's what I'm so impressed with so far.

And that's at least why I wanted to go ahead and bring it up was if you didn't know what it was, or we're, we're considering, you know, do I want to, because it's, it's not a weird like subsection or sub genre of anything specific. It is, I guess just a full on drama more or less, but the level of the, like it is so well written and not just like dialogue wise, but character wise. And, and they're, Again, you don't know what to expect from both of these if you've only seen them in, like, you know. We mostly saw him fighting zombies for the longest time. And she does a lot of comedy, so, like, you didn't know what to expect.

And, like, both of them are just A-game here. And these characters are so messed up. And, like, not in a traditional overacting sort of a way. It's, like, they're both, like, opposite ends of he's, like, super broke and working as, like, a handyman and, like, it's barely surviving and some of the stuff he's doing is not necessarily legal so like he's living on that end and she is like married to somebody who came from money she's working on like this multi-million dollar deal she's trying to land so like she's the opposite end of the financial spectrum but then at the same time is super unhappy in so many aspects of her life that she doesn't even like fully discuss even with like her husband or like anybody else and And he's in just like a normal state of like poverty problems.

But then on top of that, there's these underlying issues that he has from. His past, from his parents, from, you know, just people in general. And I'm so amazed with that. I mean, there's a scene that he does that is one of the best, like just performance acting period. And it's all just like facially almost.

It's like you're watching him go through this scenario where he's like, dealing with these people and he's kind of blowing it off. As like he doesn't care. And then he starts to realize he needs to care about this. And then he starts to get like emotional about it. And it's like all in the span of like a minute and a half, two minutes.

Wow. He goes through this entire like spectrum of emotion that is just phenomenal. Like I really was not prepared to enjoy it as much. For something that's a weird drama, it's also... a lot of fun along the way so yeah it surprisingly works for the weird balance of things that it is so yeah it's definitely worth checking out i'm enjoying it so far i'm just a few episodes in interesting tie into where we're going later there's a lot of specifically end of each episode has a very important needle drop that kicks in and you're just like Oh, well, that's a really cool way to end this episode. So they kind of go out on a very specific song and it's, I'm trying to decide what the reasoning, it's sort.

Of a time period thing, but not exactly. Like there's a big span, but they're all like, I don't know if it's like a generational, what these characters would have been. At that point in their life when they keep pulling. These songs from, cause they're like early two thousands, late nineties in some sense. So I'm like, I'm trying to decide what they're going with on this, theme of songs that they're ending each episode with.

That's one thing I've noticed about a lot of modern television is that they're getting much better than the films are when it comes to basically picking the right song to end an episode or to pinpoint a certain scene or whatever else. Yeah, TV's doing great jobs with that. Or just featuring a song. TV didn't used to do that. Right, yeah.

It wasn't even like you would see, you know, it became a thing in films over the years with specific directors especially, but... TV just didn't do that. Yeah, it used to be just like the opening theme song to the show was the song. And that was it. That was the only music you got other than maybe some like orchestra stuff that they worked in.

If it was a dramatic, you know, cop drama or something. Interstitial kind of stuff. Yeah. But then the first one I remember, and it's funny that now like they all kind of ripped that off. And I guess it makes sense that it's a theatrical director.

Homicide started doing that. And again, kind of maybe late 90s. early 2000s when that got on its run there and it's Barry Levinson so it's like it was very cinematic in the way it shot it and then it found a way to work in music by the the more it went on the more I think they got into that as. A series Miami Vice did it earlier yeah that's true because basically they made the Phil Collins song in the air not a hit yeah Because, you know, like you got that scene, that one episode where, you know, basically, you know, Crockett and Tubbs got a big showdown. They're in the Lamborghini. Like, they're loading the guns on the way to the big shootout, whatever else.

And that song's playing. It's like the whole atmosphere's going down. It's like. Well, again, Michael Mann, who would become a very theatrical director. He had already done Manhunter before that.

Yeah, exactly. He started in that area. So, yeah, again, you get talented people. but see there we go so theatrics plus television equals. Good but yeah i mean now that's not unusual at all like that's you know. Yeah it is a new golden age of television if.

You want to call it television anymore i mean it's all streaming services none of it's even broadcast tv for the most part anymore it's not networks anymore it's all whatever streaming picked this up but um But yeah, it's interesting when it was that early on, when it was like 80s and 90s when nobody was doing that. So you see that planting that seed, and now every show in the world does it. Briefly back to Steven Yeun real quick. I'm not sure if you've heard this, but he has joined the MCU. He will be appearing as an undisclosed character at this point in the Thunderbolts film.

Interesting. So there's a lot of speculation as to who he's going to play, but they said he's basically... His character apparently is very important, but also Steven himself said, like, I don't know how long we'll be playing this character, so he may be a one-and-done performance. Interesting. So I'm very curious to see what that's going to be.

Yeah. It is good to see, again, especially now seeing how talented he is, because I really didn't know him before Walking Dead. So it's like, I think it's one of those he was just sort of thrown in there and then got into accidentally. The biggest show in the world. Yeah, the world fell apart.

Because who would have seen that that would have become the show that it did? I mean, people didn't care about that kind of stuff. And then for some reason, they did all of a sudden. And it's great, too, that he was cast as the role of Glenn because Glenn, if you've read the book, is almost everybody's favorite character because he's such a likable guy. He doesn't do anything to piss off the audience.

The way he dies in the show versus how he dies in the book is a little different, but it's still tragic nonetheless. It was something I don't think people were prepared for. No. That is the turning point in the show. I mean, I've said for a while, there's a point where, you know, you bring in the bad for them, and I'm like, okay, it's great, but that's also, it became Jump the Shark at that point.

I'm like, that's the best impressive buildup and reveal of a character, and that final episode there with him is amazing. And then after that, I'm like, I don't know that I need to watch this. It drops off because it's not fun after he shows up. It quit being entertaining and it's just depressing. A lot of that's probably because, spoilers, one of our favorite characters is gone at that point.

I'm just like, well, now we don't have him to make us feel a little better. He lightened the mood sometimes. And then we've got all this other grim nonsense going on. I'm just like, oh, this is not fun. Well, and the thing is, too, is that so much of reality kind of kicked in as they're doing the show.

So actors are leaving the show before their characters are killed off. Or even in the case of Carl, Chandler Riggs, his character makes it to the literal end of the book. He, you know, basically everything kind of goes on his focus. You know, Rick doesn't die until, you know, spoiler alert, doesn't die until the final, basically the second to last issue. of the series. And then basically the final issue is like a huge jump ahead to see like how far things have gone since Rick's passing.

And it does end in the Commonwealth as the show did. So, but that's saying, you know, Chandler Riggs left the show. And so it's like, oh, great. So like the character who's the last one, the one we're following in this story is no longer around. Yeah.

So they have to kind of really transfer everything to Judith, who is also weird because Judith's character doesn't make it out of the prison. Right. So, you know, and then, you know, other people start leaving the show where I was like, oh, my God. Well, and I don't know why, other than when they, I mean, they killed off a bunch of them. But as far as career-wise, which is usually the more behind-the-scenes reasons, nobody's really done anything.

They've attempted a few things along the way. But, I mean, Steven's probably the biggest success story. Oh, Michonne, yeah. Yeah, but even then, she's like a side character on a super successful series, but she's still not the first one anybody thinks of when they think of even that property, let alone the whole Marvel world. It all depends on who you talk to.

I like her. I mean, she's amazing in that role, but still, it's not like they gave her her own film series or something. Well, they haven't done that yet, but nonetheless, it all depends on who you talk to, because Michonne's a very loved character, especially when you're talking to different ladies and whatnot. Oh, yeah. I mean, yeah, she's been in both Black Panther films, and she was in two of the biggest films in the world, you know, Infinity War and Endgame.

And she didn't get dusted, so she got to do stuff in both those films, you know, and be a very important character. So, yeah, I'd say, you know, she and Steven are definitely the two breakouts. Andrew Lincoln was kind of known before Walking Dead because of Love Actually. For the most uncomfortable scene in any rom-com ever. Yeah, the world's most lovable stalker, basically.

And homewrecker. Yeah, he's such a. Well, again, just that one decision makes him the most unlikable character all of a sudden. And you're just like, well, if we don't care about this character, why do we care about any of these characters? Like, it ruined that movie for me.

Yeah, he is the world's worst best friend. Most definitely. He's like, I'm going to hook you up with your wife-to-be and then I'm going to steal her out from under you. Or not. I mean, that's the thing.

It's like he doesn't even accomplish anything. But I'm like, if you're not. Going to do anything with it, then just shut up about it and go on about your life and go find somebody else. I don't know. I think the damage has been done because in the movie, you know, he tells her the truth.

He gets a kiss and the seed has been planted. So if anything ever goes astray with her husband, she knows she's got it. She knows where she's going, yeah. You know, in case of emergency, break the last four dick. What a ridiculous relationship to be in for either of them, really.

Well, I can't get with anybody because, you know, I'm on hold for another relationship to fall apart. So, sorry, can't go on any dates. I'm busy waiting for this relationship with my best friend to completely dissolve so I can steal his girlfriend. Yes what a mess so yeah I wonder how much damage. That did to his career outside of Walking Dead like everybody loved him as Rick and I did too but like as time went on I'm like can I see him doing anything else because the.

Only other thing I've seen him do he's. Not likable in so we haven't really seen anything else since then. Yeah and the screwed up thing too is that okay so he leaves Walking Dead because he's going to do Walking Dead movies and going to have opportunities to do other things get off a series Great. Where are those, A, Walking Dead movies, and B, where are the other opportunities you left Walking Dead for? Because, frankly, you were gone from the show for, what, two years before you showed up for the finale, and we haven't seen shit from you since.

Well, that's true for most of the other ones. I'm like, where? I don't know. I got so over it anyway, and I feel like everybody did, because while it was. The biggest thing in the world, it was amazing...

But it's. Also interesting what a drop-off it was. And now when you talk to people, you're like, oh, that. I'm over that. Like, everybody turned that corner.

And there was only a handful of weird people that were still hanging on on that last couple of seasons. And I'm just like, it's strange how quickly everybody just... Not even turned on it as much as just didn't care anymore. They just moved on immediately and found some new streaming show to watch. Yeah, I think it was a lot of fatigue, I think.

The Negan and the Saviors season took a lot out of people. And then adding more shows. Like, because, do we need fear? I don't know. No.

Some people that watched it, nobody really raved about it. Some of them. Were like, oh, there's some good characters, or there's this storyline, but do we need a whole other series in the same universe? And then they started another one, and they're doing how many more? And I'm like, does anybody care anymore?

No. Just calm down. Well, see, let's think, even some of the new spinoff series that are coming are already changing. Like, we still have the Rick and Michonne series that's supposed to come. We're supposed to have the Daryl offshoot.

The Daryl offshoot, which was going to be Daryl and Carol, and now it's just Daryl. And then we were going to have the Negan and Maggie series, but I think That's on hold or changing already, too. So, I. I don't. Know.

I'm going to leave it alone. We can move on. I would say, like, let's do some mini-movies. Like, you know, each little group gets one mini-movie each. And then it's like, let's just...

Yeah. Let's just table this thing and go for something else. At this point, there's no rule anymore. So, it was different when you had to go by either theatrical or you had a TV series. But, like, now.

If you want to make a deal with Netflix, want to do a one-off 30-minute. Thing, you can do that. Nobody makes the rules now. Everything is do whatever the hell you want. As long as you make us money, we don't care anymore.

Or a show gets popular like Yellowstone and suddenly like, hey, we're going to do a prequel about the beginnings of Yellowstone and we're going to get Harrison Ford to be in the show. It's the biggest thing in the world. All of a sudden, everybody's watching it. That's all it takes is just finding that weird. alchemy that makes no sense but suddenly it's. The biggest streaming show in the world.

Speaking of streaming stuff, there's one movie in particular that's been getting a lot of buzz and I checked it out very recently. It's on Netflix. Technically it's a horror film but it's called Soft and Quiet. Have you heard about this? Not really.

It's a movie that got a lot of buzz in the film festival circuits I think last year. and hadn't had a wide distribution just yet. It is a very small kind of film, but it's also very clever because it's one of those one-take films. So basically, apparently the production of the entire cast performed the script in its entirety four or five times and A few of those. Sometimes that works really well. Yeah, and basically it was like take four was essentially the take that was used for the movie primarily.

I don't want to give too much away, but essentially it is about a group of women, kind of housewives, normal looking ladies, whatever else, are all gathering for some sort of like weekend retreat with their normal group, planning things, whatever else. what the group actually is is a bit of a surprise, the way things are handled, and it's not what you think. This is not a supernatural sort of thing. This is a very real-world sort of problem here. This is this old lady book club movie I keep seeing in commercials. No, this ain't the old lady book club movie.

I don't know. Which is getting a sequel. Oh, I know. That's the one they're running ads constantly now. I didn't really pay attention to the first one.

I forgot that it was a thing, and now there's a sequel to it. So again, you find your audience. Obviously old ladies go to the movie you said well i got a little confused about because gene fonda is in that one too and i'm like football and it's like the same that's what i thought for a second it's like it was a sequel to 80 for brady and i just got books and stuff i don't know back to soft and quiet so um this is a very disturbing movie uh it hangs with you after like it's one of those like very similar kind of like hereditary where like it's a movie that leaves a. Mark you don't see it coming and then afterwards you're like oh like you still think about it later and you're like. Oh yeah but that really that's about the most i want to say because going to the going into this movie cold uh is imperative for a really good viewing experience yeah i.

Kind of like those that i didn't know anything about beforehand and It changes your outlook after you've seen it. Yeah, I like that. But, yeah, like I said, this is not like a slasher movie. This is not a supernatural thing. This is a real-world kind of horror movie.

But, damn, it's good. Yeah, it will mess with you, for sure. All right. Another one for the list. Soft and Quiet, currently streaming on Netflix.

All right. Are we ready to get into it? Well, I've got to get my suit on because we're going to space. We'll get to those suits. Get more out of life.

Go out to. A movie. I'm going. To tell you something. I'm Star-Lord.

I formed the Guardians. Met a girl. Fell in love. That girl died, but then she came back. Came back a total dick.

Oh, please. He left out some important information, but that is the gist of it. My sacred mission is to create a perfect society. He didn't want to make things perfect. He just hated things the way they are.

I want you all to know that I'm grateful to fight this side, my friends. Incinerate them. We were always searching for a family until we found each other. Are you ready for one last ride? We'll all fly away together into the forever and beautiful sky.

When you were here before Couldn't look you in the eye You're just like an angel Your skin makes me cry. You float like a feather. In a beautiful. World And wish I was special You're so very special And. I'm a creep I'm a widow What.

The hell am I. I don't belong here. This episode's out-of-the-town feature is Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3. The year is 2023.

The director, thankfully, James Gunn. And the plot, according to IMDb. Still reeling from the loss of Gamora, Peter Quill rallies his team to defend. The universe and one of their own. A mission that could mean the end of the Guardians if not successful.

Eh, I guess. That's not a great description. Yeah, it's specific in a couple of things and misses a lot of others. But either way, spoiler alert, we're going to run the hell out of this. So, I'm assuming you went and saw it in the theater.

If not, go watch it. That's kind of important. Or you're going to pirate it or something. I don't recommend doing that. I mean, I did.

Just when getting stuff together for this, I saw somebody had clips from it pieced together on a YouTube and like It was straight up in a theater. Like, it was their cell phone on the theater. But it was like, I guess they were going to get busted if they had their hand up doing the whole movie. So it's just little moments here and there. I was like, no, that's legitimately from the movie I just watched.

But, yeah, this is just open air video at the screen. I was like, this is weird. I didn't know people still did this. So, yeah, there's some weird pirated version out there somewhere. I don't endorse that at all.

No. Yeah. Though I do on occasion miss seeing dudes in the theaters with a video camera. Watching a movie at home and see somebody's head bob by as they go to get popcorn. Alright, so as usual, every new Marvel movie gets a new opening.

So now we get the exclusive Guardians Marvel letters spinning by and very key moments. Of, look at this, look at this, this might come into play later. So, That's how we start off. We get our little special Guardians Marvel logo. Yeah, and of course this is definitely the last ride for this particular team.

Bradley Cooper is wanting to move on and basically just direct films and stuff like that. He wants to do his own thing. Dave Bautista said he's kind of done. Zoe Saldana said she's done. Chris Pratt says he's done, but also would be open to returning.

We'll get to that later. We'll get to that at the end of this scenario. Yeah, so there's a lot of, you know, potential doorways still open, but some are closed or whatever else. I think they did a good job of wrapping up everybody's storylines as well. We didn't leave too many holes or anything like that.

Not to jump too far ahead, but we really didn't close any door. Like, we. We rearrange things a good amount, but then at the end, it's like, well. Anything they want to bring back, they can bring back. Pretty much, yeah.

They can do whatever. They want from this point, but they gave it a nice cap off, and everybody can do their own thing, or if we want. To make use of you, we can make use of you. They found a good way to do it. In the comic book world, this is kind of closing the door, because basically you've got certain members who left, certain members who kind of retired. you know sort of thing like that and then one in particular went home yeah uh so yeah the group is broken up and now we've got a new team uh you know because we get a couple little cut scenes we see it we'll talk about that again uh but yeah so we we get this is definitely a door closing but a new one's kind of opening so that's kind of literally how comics work it's like yeah it's like Okay, you know, it's like, spoiler alert, we did not kill anybody off.

Surprisingly. I assumed we were. Going to take out at least one, if not a couple of people, just because they were so, this is. The final episode. I kind of did too, but at the same time, I'm like, there's also room for at least more than half the teams. still be kept.

Yeah, and I didn't want it. In fact, I was kind of worried at moments that we can get to later. But as far as the retiring thing, I just want to point out, not even comic book wise, in the MCU... Hawkeye's retired 15 times. So, you know, if they want to, they can bring anybody back.

Sure. It's good to have that door just cracked a little bit. But this movie is interesting because we basically get a Rocket Raccoon origin story in its entirety. And that's kind of what kicks things off. Yeah.

And I've seen these PSAs already online. But yeah, if you are an animal lover or parent... this movie hits hard on multiple... Or animal rights person. Yeah. It is a lot of...

Like, rougher than I expected, really. And I, again, I guess just because I like animals so much more than people. Then I was just like, yeah, this stuff is hitting more than I expected, really. Well, it's hitting because we have sympathy towards the animals, and then, of course, the actors who are playing the voices for these, you know, basically humanoid animal characters... do a really good job, so we didn't attach them really quickly. Well, that's the thing.

It's like you already have sympathy for animals because they're animals, but then on top of that, we've given them all personalities. Like, we're making them characters, not just animals now. So it's like double layered of like, oh, God, stop. Just stop. Yeah.

So it has some scary moments. Usually it's okay if you're not a mutant animal. If you're a regular animal, you're okay, but... If you're a mutant animal, it doesn't go so well for you. Well, I don't know.

See, if you're a regular animal, you're going to become a mutant animal later on. I mean, that's the thing. Probably. If you're locked up in the High Evolutionary's ship, your life is going to suck. Those people, but not to jump ahead.

But again, the ones scampering at the end, they're okay. Everybody else that got tested on, not so good. And before we go too much into opening things up, Chuck Woody, a Ouiju, I think that's how you pronounce his name, a Hulk, but anyway, absolutely loved this guy as a high evolutionary. Yeah. Probably, I mean, even going so far as saying how good of a performance Jonathan Majors gave, I would say this guy probably is going to go down as probably a Thanos-level villain of like, I fucking hate this guy.

See, that was my thing. I was on the fence because I'm like, on the one hand, you hate this character. Yeah. But he's also like, doing a performance that isn't crazy over the top movie villain like just an asshole like you just hate him and then by the end you're like oh well. He's done not just horrible.

Things to this one character like horrible things to mass amounts of characters over and over and over again and like so yeah he's killed a ton of people in the you know grand universe version of it but at the same time he doesn't ring to me as like a grand thanos type you know villain i won't think of him as like a big villain if i go back and pick. Oh cool marvel villains like i feel like he'll be forgotten for me but i i think it's almost like he's doing such a good performance it doesn't come off as for someone who. Has their face strapped on it doesn't come off as cartoony and silly as you would expect like he really is just kind of a bastard and like you hate him But again, it doesn't. Come off as a crazy, over-the-top comic book kind of villain.

He's just a hassle. Yeah, I mean, that's the thing. The high evolutionary of the comic, that's the thing. They didn't have to change too much about this guy. That's really all he's about.

He basically, you know, he can make things better. Whatever, you know, the deal is, I can improve it. I can change it, whatever else. So that's, you know, creating a counter-earth. Whatever else, that's always what he's been about.

Yeah. I like the element of basically seeing his face because in the comics, he's always wearing this helmet that kind of has like his face imprinted in the helmet. But basically, you're always just seeing a mask. You're never seeing the person's face. A mixture of Cobra Commander and Destro.

Yeah. But it's kind of the same thing, though, you know. we see in the film, like, he is always wearing a mask, and, you know, there's a point where... There's a reason, and I like that being the reason. I was like, well, good, because I wanted that. Mm-hmm.

But, yeah, even though this is kind of a one-and-done villain, yeah, he is... It's such a good performance that I think this will stand a test of time amongst some of the other villains. We're going to remember this performance. Well, and then also, whether or not they find a way to bring him back, physically like i think the effects of all the things that he's done can now be traced down the line because we're already seeing like oh well that's why this was here last movie because he was pulling the strings and already doing these things and like i feel like they can also use that moving forward and be like oh well what you don't know is this is one of those people he created and this is a thing and here's another person and so you can tie that into so many things and even though he might not be around anymore his after-lasting effects will still be something they.

Can pull from if they want to. Absolutely, yeah, because we do find out that he's responsible for multiple races. Of course, we know the Sovereign from the last Guardians film, the Gold People, and then the Tees. Basically, Aisha is going to create, you know, the perfect specimen, and she will name him Adam. And we say, okay, we know Adam Warlock's Tees, and then we have to wait... really long time.

Like six years. To finally get Will Poulter in the role. And then you realize, Adam's a dumbass. But see, that's the thing. That's really the thing I like because Adam Warlock is a character that had a huge evolution over his tenure in the Marvel Universe.

So I did not want him to come out the... God that he is. Basically, the cosmically aware, you know, very much almost like a deity sort of thing. The superpowers have always kind of been there, but basically the maturity and the cosmic awareness and basically the, you know, I'm here to make a real difference in things sort of stuff, that all comes later. So now he's just a babe in the woods learning how to operate in the world and But he also is extremely super powerful.

It's funny, watching it, I was going, I wonder what you're going to think about this. Because normally I don't factor that in, but knowing what little I know about him, how big a deal he's supposed to be comic-wise, normally I. Don't factor the comic stuff in. I try to just watch the MCU as the MCU. But that one, I'm like, I know what a big character he could have been in a different version of this story.

And then seeing what a silly idiot he is in this movie. I'm just like, I wasn't sure how comic fans were. Going to take this. But, I mean, it does, looking at it in the big picture, it does make sense that, especially if they took him out. Early, if he didn't finish cooking, then.

He would be a little off and wouldn't know what the hell was going on. But he's still. Almost dangerously powerful for somebody who doesn't know what the hell they're doing. So, it does make sense. But it is, within the context of just this movie, he also, until we get to the very end, doesn't accomplish anything at best he just screws stuff.

Up for him over and over again and it's frustrating so before. You get to the big finale you're just like why is he even in this yeah he's pretty he's very childlike yeah. He's frustrating through most of the movie. Yeah by the end you're like okay well i guess i'm glad we went along for that ride if we're going somewhere with this so by the end i'm like all right well at least he's sort of. Proven he wants to be something useful So now it gives him a chance to.

But yeah, throughout this movie, he's just annoying more than anything. And the thing is, we kind of see the journey that Adam goes through in this. Basically, he's a complete babe in the woods. He's a golden god. He's worshipped by his mother.

And he knows, okay, this high evolutionary guy is the big boss. So don't screw with him. Don't make him mad. That's the only one I listen to, basically. Mom and this guy.

Yeah. But then, essentially, he has to go through... experience and to personally experience moments of pain and sadness to begin his growth. And that's kind of the message this whole movie is giving us. Rocket goes through extreme amounts of pain and sadness in his origin and throughout his entire life to get to the point where he is now. Peter goes through a lot of sadness, because basically his girlfriend dies, then she gets resurrected, but it's not his girlfriend anymore.

He's forced to look. At someone who looks like her, but it's not her, and she doesn't know him, so it's almost more tormenting him. It really is. This girl who's kind of. Almost like my girlfriend, but she doesn't even like me, and we don't have any history now.

It is almost torture more than... Anything, really. Yeah, so there's a lot of pain that goes through this movie that causes growth. Can I bring up my maybe favorite one? I mean, obviously my go-to is Rocket, but Nebula's so much...

Mm-hmm. Like, brings so much to this in general. Like, she's taking a weird turn. But at the same time is almost like one of the most impressive characters we have in this, in. Which she's barely human anymore.

She's had so many replacements. But, like, she's still got such a journey of. That she's gone on, not just through these Guardians movies, but even just in these last several years of watching and talk about pain. And, like, someone who was just tortured for the sake of it because he could, you know. So that is who she is, essentially.

And then on top of that, her trying to, like, build a life. And, like, surprisingly. finding friends and what becomes a family you know it's. Like i don't know i was really kind of taken with her as a as a character. Almost almost as much as rocket and kind of seeing how much. They bonded over these last years is like kind of cool because they're they.

Had a weird relationship that nobody else had on the team like that's really the only ones that were around for five years together so it's like they had a friendship that's kind of stronger than the rest of them because they're all dead essentially. So yeah it's like i really like the little dynamic we don't get much of it but i really liked having her there she didn't just get angry or anything Like, she kind of got over that, like, for the Avengers movies. Like, it seemed like she calmed down a little bit, and she was just sort of making peace with, yeah, I'm stuck with all these idiots, but this is, you know, these are my friends. So she got a little better. Like, I don't know if it's just having Gamora back that pisses her off, but, like, she's just angry again in this movie.

Oh, I think there was, you had to deal with the fact that, okay, you know, my torturous, evil, demented father, you know, did get killed, and then he comes back and almost destroys the world a second time. Using me. Using me. Using me, essentially. One version.

And then, you know, yeah, my sister gets killed, and then she comes back, but it's not the same sister, so she doesn't have the same journey that we know. Again, what bond we had is gone. She's the old version that we hated each other, so what little they made up and become. Sisters was kind of gone for the most part. Yeah.

So, yeah. So, yeah, you're right. So, yeah, she's gone through so much. And I think, like, the biggest, because you kind of get. Early on.

You kind of feel her turning, and, like, she's accepting the family. But then, of course, you know, the majority of this movie, Rocket is basically laid out. So we're getting... And I liked how we're getting his origin story with him kind of almost, like, replaying it in his head, where he's in his coma. I liked it structurally.

Like, I was impressed with it. But at the same time, I kind of missed not having him with the team the whole... Like, it was... A double-edged sword there. I was like, I love getting his origin story, but at the same time, I missed the last movie and the one before where we got him being cool with the team the whole movie.

So it's like we're kind of missing that three-fourths of this movie. But I think we make up for it with the origin story because I love seeing the origin story. But I think that works because when he's out of the coma and he's back and he has this big triumphant moment... it works great because you're missing him throughout the whole movie. And then you see all the shit he had to go through, you know, to get to this point. It's like, so that's a great, I think they did a really good job of making it a triumphant moment.

Well, and you see how essential he is, which is interesting. Moving forward because it is the point that James Gunn has always made. And I kind of thought that really, it was like, because there was that little dynamic of, well, who's in charge of this dumb team? Peter thought he was, but we all know Peter's kind of an idiot too. So it's like, really, this whole thing is Rocket's story.

Like, Rocket is essentially the main character. And to me, that is the point made is he wasn't there. Like, Peter's gone. Like, Peter gets snapped and killed. So it's not his journey anymore.

It's like the only other one that's there through this whole story arc. Is Rocket, and they're following Rocket through those two moves, well, one and a half that Peter's not really in, and, like, continuing on through this one, it's like, he's essentially our go-to character, and the one that always kind of fixes everything, again, Peter just sort of fumbles and occasionally. Comes out ahead, but, like, Rocket is smart and fixes things for them every step of the way, so he is kind of our go-to leader of the Guardians, whether they want to argue. About who it is or not, like, Rockets are. Again, I've been super attached to him since that first movie.

More so than I expected. It's amazing what they get from him. Considering he's a guy in a suit on the set. He's a whole bunch of people doing CG after the fact. It's an entirely different voice actor in a booth somewhere months later probably.

So it's like it's such a conglomeration of people and talent to bring this to us. But as the character goes like I'm so taken with him. Like, again, it's like, as much as I like the other characters and they're fun, he was always the heart of the story. And so I was way more, even from that first movie, like, invested in how much pain he was carrying around. And so you definitely see where it comes from in this movie, because it's like, it is a hell of a story.

Yeah, it is. And, you know, going back to the point I was making earlier about Nebula, is that, yeah, when basically Rocket is out of his coma, And, you know, she realizes for the first time. She has a moment where she breaks down. You've never seen that. Oh, my God.

She's crying. I mean, even when her sister died, she wasn't that upset. Like, it's a different connection with him. Yeah. It's, yeah.

But, again, that was my point. It was like, you see how much we're missing him, even the audience, when he's out of commission. And as the team comes back together, everything clicks. And you watch them. Come back together as teamwork every step of the way.

And the two big. Fight scenes are nothing but a conglomeration of everybody fighting together because the gang's back together. It works because they're all there. And, like, Rocket is the key to all of that. Yeah.

And see, like, Rocket has, you know, this is basically Rocket's movie second only to basically Nebula. Yeah. When it comes to... growth of the character. Drax does get some growth as well. He has some good moments there.

Mantis also gets a bit of growth. She's got a lot of screen time. And I like that because, again, she's always been there to be sort of a punchline for stuff along the way. And she's only been there since the second. Movie, but there's been so many other than the Guardians movies, she's been there for all the other places that they've turned up.

So it's like, she's finally kind of getting enough time to give her, like, a fully realized character. I think we get a lot more from her in this movie than we really have anywhere else. Other than maybe the holiday special, which, again, is a little sillier version of her. So, yeah, I was kind of surprised how much screen time she got in this and does sort of become more of a real character. And you see her powers and her abilities become much more effective.

Yeah. Because, you know, we already know that she's a hand-to-hand combat, you know, martial art kind of fighter or that way. but her, I guess, emotion abilities comes much more into play in some very useful ways. Well, and her learning how to use it. You know, it's like, I guess she always had it, but on the planet, what the hell would she ever use it for? Like, she lived with a god who changed whatever he wanted, so it's like, you didn't need to use those powers.

But now, all of a sudden, you can use them in the middle of a fist fight, and it changes the whole scenario. It's great to get the one early on scene where she's fighting with some guards, and she basically... Laps on the back of some lady. And it's making this poor woman... I mean, granted, she's a guard on the opposite side.

But she's making this poor woman go through, like, four different emotions just to take out guards. And it's like, you know, like, Blinding Rage! And she's like, you know, just goes off with the guns and just killing everybody. It's not as good as you're a kitty cat. Yeah, you're a kitty cat.

The most useful in any fight. You're a kitty cat. But then, of course, we get, like, the big... slug giant monsters with the, you know, the base of the walking sarlacc pits. Yeah. You know, we get those, that trio of monsters and then she basically tames them because like, oh, they're, they're just scared but they don't eat people, they eat batteries.

Yeah, they're also victims of our villain here. Like, they're also creatures that much like Rocket and every other animal there has just been created to, because he's a bastard and he can. So it's like, They weren't trying to be evil. They were just stuck there like the rest of the animals. So, yeah.

And I was kind of glad they got a good... you know, send off too. Yeah. And of course, so we get, you know, we jumped to the end for Mantis's character and she leaves the team to kind of go on a journey of self-discovery. Yeah. Yeah.

So she's going off by herself. Even Drax offers to go. She's like, no, no, no. I want to go by myself and do my thing, but I got these three giant things to roll with me here. That's definitely been a weird thing they were playing with these last, since the end of the second movie.

Maybe they were toying with it, but definitely in the other movie that they're in before they get taken out. And then the. Holiday special, definitely there's, like, a dynamic of, like, well, are they trying to be, like, a couple? Or neither of them really know how to do that as a normal person, like Drax has, but it's so weird. I don't see them anything as romantic.

I'd see it totally as a father-daughter. Maybe, because as we find out, that's what Drax needs to be, whether even he realizes it. That's... who he was supposed to be. And for Nebula to point out the fact that he basically, that Drax was basically born to be a dad. Well, I mean, she knows what a bad dad is, so she now can recognize, you know what?

You're actually a really good dad, so. And apparently Drax knows multiple languages, too, so he didn't know this, and it's like, yeah, okay. We all have that. Moment, because everybody on the team, outside of, you know, like, Rocket, Rocket was always the smart one of the bunch, everybody else are kind of, like, or isn't, but... She's also, like, pretty self-centered in the early incarnations of her.

But, like, the rest of them are all just kind of morons. Peter in particular. But Drax is so, like, weird, closed-minded, literal, everything he does, so he comes. Off like an idiot. Mantis is always, like, not dumb, but she's so uneducated about everything.

She's very childlike. Yeah, she's very childlike. So she's ignorant in ways because she hadn't been off that planet her whole life. Mm-hmm. Groot is just Goofy Groot, so it's like everybody else on the team is kind of morons.

It makes it more fun when you've got somebody like Rocket who points it. Out all the time. But also because you get that, like, we start to see growth in them. We do see Drax becoming a dad and more of a person in general you see mantis like figuring out that like you know i just do what you guys say and like she also is pretty angry throughout. This movie because she's coming to terms with that she's like why am i listening to you people like you're all idiots.

Yeah So, yeah, it's kind of fun to get these characters that seem just sort of basically dumb and be like, well, they're not. They're just experiencing more now and you're finding what. Their strengths are and finding out even they're figuring out what they need to be doing. Yeah. She makes a reference, you know, like, you know, when she was on Ego's planet, you know, she didn't, you know, like you said, she didn't get a chance to use her powers and develop and learn all this sort of thing, experience all this stuff.

Even Peter, early on in the movie, admits the mistake he made with punching Thanos in the video. Surprisingly, because that's the reason I've been pissed at him for years now. I'm just like, everybody else had their plan together. You suck, Peter. It's like, you ruined everything.

I'm not saying it wasn't for a reason, but you still suck. Like, it pissed me off. And I like all he makes you say. He's like, well, I kind of lost my temper a bunch. I was like, you kind of lost your temper.

But I also like that's more than I expected out of him. He's always sort of like, no, I got this. But I was just like, hmm, even that's growth for him that he's willing to admit that he did something wrong. He was an idiot, so. Yeah, but the movie starts off, like I say, in kind of a dark.

Tone, too. Yeah. Because you start off with a little bit of Rocket's story that's not nice. Baby raccoon versions, which are adorable and then makes it twice as frightening when the giant hand's coming from. Like, oh, God, don't hurt baby raccoons.

Yeah. And the whole movie, you can have that mode. No, God, don't. No, stop. And then, you know, Peter is in this pathetic drunken stupor for the first, you know, chunk of the movie.

Yeah. You know, before things kind of start getting rolling. You know, and then, of course, basically we get, you know, we introduce Adam Warlock. He injures Rocket to the point where Rocket is in a coma. And then you're like, oh, shit.

You know, it's like, what are we doing here? So, but our whole thing is basically to kind of get us to there as if Rocket's injured. He has a device on his heart that basically is kind of a kill switch. It's basically a kill switch because it's proprietary technology. You know, to the high evolutionary.

Him being an asshole. This is my property. I don't want anybody messing with it. I'd rather destroy it than have my technology get out to someone else. Yeah.

And then we go to, and I love to because James Gunn is very much a family kind of guy with his crew of people, with the actors he likes working with. So he likes bringing in his friends. So we get a little flash of Michael Rooker at the end of the movie. A Yondu Obi-Wan sort of moment. Stretch out with your feelings.

Use the arrow. We get Nathan Fillion finally in a Marvel movie. He'd been teased a couple of times. There was a little voice work that first one. And he was like, In the background in the second one.

So, yeah, it's like they figured out ways to tease with him. But full on, not even in makeup. Just the rookie in a weird bodysuit in the whole movie. I was like, that's just straight up Nathan Fillion hanging out here. And I love it, too, because I've got to do my research.

I don't remember this corporation in the MCU. Essentially, they're a subsidiary of the High Evolutionary, his group. But basically, everything is bio-organic. So it looks like everybody's wearing, like, meaty muscle suits. And that's what I was like, as we got into that part of it, I was just.

Like, you know, they maybe could have given Multiverse of Madness to James Gunn, because this is equally as twisted as the shit that was going on there. And this is technically a normal, normal universe kind. Of going on. But I was like, this is a weird section of this movie right now, so. I was like, I am enjoying it, but it is very visceral and gross in the best possible way.

Yeah, yeah. So that is goofy shit. But yeah, I love that. And then, of course, we get a little bit of a mini Peacemaker reunion, too, because, of course, you know, Chuck Woody played a major role in that. And then Jennifer Holland has a little bit of, you know, basically we got Mrs.

James Gunn for a little cameo role there. So it's like, oh, we've got a little peacemaker reunion here. Well, then you get Suicide Squad, because we've got Ratcatcher 2. Yeah, that's true. As an alien.

Because I kept going, man, she's familiar. Why do I know her? Why does she look so damn familiar? Well, and Sean Gunn, of course, who plays Kraglin, also was the weasel. Yeah.

And actually, he's also the stand-in for Rocket. He should be. I know they credited somebody else in IMDb now. So I guess when he's doing his part, they've got another stand-in version, maybe. But yeah, I was like, from the beginning, he was always that.

And even Kranglin gets a growth moment, too. He finally learns to use that damn arrow. Yeah, because he was trying to focus on the whistle. It's all about the harp. Use your harp, boy!

Use your harp, boy! The touching moments with Michael Berg. It really is, yeah. It's hard to get those, because he's crazy. But he's got them.

Yeah, and I love, you know, of course, you get this ragtag group of people that all live on nowhere now. I like that little scenario. Maybe because we're coming off the holiday special, it's the last thing we saw, but we've got that little town built in there now, and it's so quaint in its own weird, messed up way. It's such a nice little homey place that I'm like, I just want to hang out here. Can we get a Nowhere series where we just see regular day-to-day shit going on there?

Because it's kind of fun. I would agree with that. We've seen a little bit of that in the comics anyway. Even with the jeweler guy from the first Guardians movie that Peter gets the Infinity Stone from. Yeah.

You know, the little glass, you know, trinkets that y'all do like. That guy lives in nowhere now. The fact that I thought he was dead. Look at all he's revived. Yeah.

Good for him. He can play cards now. We flesh out Cosmo a little bit more. We get to see her, you know, telekinetic abilities. That I was so happy with.

Like, because again, I like just the cute add-on at the post-credits, you know. But after that, especially in this movie, as it went on, I was like, oh, this isn't by accident. Like, this is because... We're basically telling the Laika story. I mean, that's why she's a female voice.

That's why she's, you know, a girl dog is because they're tying it. It's James Gunn doing a little tribute to the Russian dogs that they fired into space with not a chance of them coming back. And like, so once again, I'm like, how is this any different than what our villain's doing here? They're just experimenting on animals and knowing when they're done with them, they're going to kill them. That's exactly what this guy's doing.

I was like, this isn't, I mean, this is obviously a parallel character that he's worked in. And, and I really like that. They're like, she's not only just like really important. And as we find out kind of strong as a, as a. Powerful character, but still kind of fun and goofy.

And, and the fact that before I thought maybe she was like suspended animation and like stolen from that. Time and kept there. But the fact that she's just been wearing that suit all these years. Yes. I was like, that is crazy.

But also the suit allows her to speak. Yeah. But I love too that like, okay, so she speaks in broken English because she is a Russian dog. So which means she's bilingual because she obviously speaks Russian as her native tongue. But she also still has dog-like qualities.

Like, basically, when Kraglin says she's a bad dog, in the whole movie, she's taken this personally. But it's not so much like... It's like, I'm mad at you. It's like, I don't want to be a bad dog. I want you to like me.

I know I'm a good dog. You don't say that. And that's how a dog is. Dogs don't get pissed. They want you.

To like them. That's why I really, yeah, I was so glad to have that added character this time. Because it could have just been a one-off and like, that's the joke and whatever. But there's so much more going on there once you get it. I mean, everybody in this whole series, but specifically this movie, is nothing but... twisted horrible backstory.

Like every one of them like that's that's the key to guardians of the galaxy is. They're all just horrible backstories and a broken bunch of people that come together to form this family and you know cosmos and she's just such a good addition to that like i. Think she factors in and i'm kind of glad not to jump to the end but we're going to be getting more. At least in the context of where that story is going she gets. To stay on and be part of it and i really like that so well i Gunn's idea for the Guardians of the Galaxy and a lot of what he's taken from has been from kind of the late 90s, early 2000s run.

That Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning did, where they basically kind of, the Guardians have kind of been a little bit obscure. There was a different team that was in the 70s and then kind of they were resurrected a little bit in the early 90s, went away, and then now this new team of other cosmic heroes, some of the older members of the Guardians, some kind of different Like, Star-Lord, at the time they resurrected him for the Guardians, had been an obscure character for the last almost 20 years. Like, he was made in the 70s, weird character, didn't really do anything with him, and they kind of just forgot about him. But, like, the uniforms that we see, like the dark blue, like, kind of big leather stuff, that comes from that run.

Cosmo comes from that run. Nowhere comes from that run. So, all of a sudden, it would be like, you know, That's the great thing. Cosmo is pretty much Cosmo. That's a perfect translation there.

I love when the Guardians basically take over Nowhere. They make Nowhere mobile, which was a new adjustment. That was cool. I didn't see that coming until it came flying up. I was like, well, this is useful.

And the giant four-stage cannon. Yeah. It's like, okay. So we've now turned basically a hand of a dead celestial that was just a base of operations is now a mobile base of operations with weaponry. It's a massive ship that you can go kick somebody's ass if need be.

Yeah. So, excellent stuff. I like that, you know, Kraglin's kind of staying on there. Nebula's going to stay on. Drax is going to stay on to basically be everybody's favorite dad.

Yeah. You know, and then, you know, Gamora basically goes back. Like, we see Gamora has basically... been hanging out with the Ravagers. So we get Stallone and all the Ravager guys come back. Yeah, they're all back.

Even though we got Stallone, but we couldn't get Miley Cyrus to come back to play a voice. Was it they couldn't, or they just wanted, they're like, eh, people like Tara Strong and other stuff, we'll just get her. Yeah, I mean, I was fine with Tara. I mean, I was like, yeah. Not that that character has a lot to do anyway, so it's fine.

Much more was the, what's the snake person? They're just badass looking. Well, see, here's the snake person. Krugar. Krugar, yeah.

So in the comics, Krugar is the Sorcerer Supreme of the 31st century. Yeah, a different version. So that's kind of where he shows a little bit magical stuff like that, and basically he keeps mute and whatever else. I think it's just the look, though. Because even in the last one, I was just like, oh, I don't know who that is, but they're badass.

Yeah. Most of them, the fact that they. Get to roll in and do some sling ring in, and I was like, all right, let's hang out some. More with Kruger. Yeah, Kruger's pretty cool.

Just looks cool. Yeah, but it's hilarious because the Starhawk or Stakar is, you know, Sylvester Stallone's character plays. The Stallone version versus the comic version, very, very, very, very, very different. Yeah. So I kind of wish they would have somehow worked a way in of like, Because basically, in the comics, Starhawk was initially two beings, because Starhawk had a.

Wife named Alita. And then at one point, their powers were, they were injured, there was some kind of walking thing with their powers, and literally these people were merged into the same person, were basically like, sometimes Starhawk was the person you saw up front, and then they'd switch out, and Alita was the person you'd see up front, and they were two different people. That's a weird relationship at that point. It's a very weird relationship. It's kind of like when the other person wasn't being used, they were kind of like almost like in this place of cosmic emptiness.

Like you're just kind of sitting in this waiting room completely by themselves, and it's a vast emptiness. This is not fun for anybody. Exactly. So it kind of had an effect on the character. So it would have been kind of a fun thing to see, like, I don't know, some sort of female counterpart that Stallone is...

To have Talia Shire show up or something like that would have been hilarious. Some of those lines basically switch places with their bodies. I feel like they don't want to do too much with him because you're not going to get him to do a whole movie. You need to keep him to just come in and be kind of a jerk the whole time. Both times we've seen him now, he just comes in and complains about what they're doing.

You're not a Ravager. Get out of here. That's his role. He did that fine. Gamora ends up being back with the Ravagers.

But, yeah, we kind of alluded to this, that we get two post-credit scenes here. One of them is basically showing the future New Guardians. The new crew. Yeah, because as we leave it here, we're like, you know, Peter decides, you know what, I haven't been home as an Earth really since I was taken. I mean, granted, we had to stop over to help save the world and everything like that, the universe launch, but it's like we really haven't been back home.

I haven't seen if I still have any living family members or else. So that's where Peter's journey is going to go. So Rocket's got the team now. It's him. It's Groot.

Cosmo's there. Now we got, you know, this new guy, Adam Warlock, besides he's going to stick around because, you know, basically he watched his mother die and he's got his little fuzzy, you know, pet, you know, whatever that thing is. I mean, they excel at making cute side characters. So it's just become the new thing. I'm like, what are we going to do with this movie? that's got a cute sidekick kind of character.

So that's what, you know, Disney in general, obviously, because they. Do it in Star Wars, too. So it's like, what can we do to make some new cute side characters? And he does a good job, because I like that weird little thing. But then an interesting thing is, of course, when we're on the high evolutionary ship and, you know, things blow up and everybody's trying to get out there, we find, oh, there's a whole bunch of children there.

All from the same race. They kind of look like they all came from Village of the Damned. Because everybody's like white-haired little kids and whatever else. But all these children were in cages, basically. So it's like, okay, we've got to get these kids out of here.

And then Rocket finds a whole bunch of animals. We've got to get these guys out of here, too. So we get all those kids out. But one of those kids ends up becoming part of the new team. And so I'm like, okay, well, who's, you know, as I wonder with this, so I go and watch the credits and they credit that girl as basically named Phyla.

I was like, oh. They're already setting up so many things. Yeah, so basically she's Phyla, and later on she becomes Phyla Velas. Basically, she becomes part of the Marvel line, where she gets the cosmic... Oh, Mrs.

Marvel of some sort. Yeah, she basically gets the power of cosmic and becomes a guardian of the universe, while she's also still. A member of the Guardians of the Galaxy. So, you know, that's the other thing, too. We didn't talk much about Groot yet.

Groot's kind of back to being the muscle, because he's fully grown once again, and he bulks up a little more, too, so he's like a. He's just a new variation, because he's not technically old Groot. He's son of Groot, so he's like a different version, and they were saying also that maybe it's because he, being the weird plant-type creature he is, Osmosis, like, feeds off of energy, and he was around Star-Lord and Mantis, both. Of which are from gods, so like. whatever, like, ego energy they're putting out, he was potentially. Feeding off of.

Possibly, yeah. So, yeah, I was like, I heard that. I was like, okay, that makes sense, but maybe that's why he looks a little different now, too. Well, and the thing about Groot is that he's so versatile that we've seen throughout the different films and different things he can do. So we see, like, okay, well, he's able to kind of change his mass a little bit, you know, when he's growing to basically be much more stockier and bulkier, very much, very thing-like.

Right. Also, hey, he can hold weapons and stash them. Stash them and you can't even read them because he's biological on the outside. He's a tree. So you don't notice those hidden away guns and metal inside of him.

Also, the wings thing. I saw the toy first, like, Groot has wings? It's like, oh, okay. If we're going back even further, I don't know if you get more badass than Nebula with the wings. And her new badass arm.

Yeah. Like, she was full on, like, Iron Man mode at that point. It was just like, oh, can we keep those on her? Because that's awesome. Yeah, I noticed very early on in the movie she had a new arm.

I'm like, oh, that new arm can do things. Yeah. So I think he took some of the Tony nanotech and Rocket put it on her and went, hey, I I've got an idea. You'll have a really awesome arm now. Oh, I'm sure basically there were other nanotechs around the universe that were even greater than stars.

Well, I mean, you didn't hang out with them for five years. That's right, yeah. Tony had some pretty good tech, so if you're going to steal from somebody, you know, go with that. Absolutely, yeah. But yeah, so to have this little girl who basically may very well become a new guardian of the universe, like, okay, that's big shit.

Because that's where. I was sort of, if they want to tie in, because if we're... if he created this entire race of people, if we're sticking with some of the old story was, isn't she made from DNA from Mar-Vell? So is that at some point he goes back and gets a sample of her DNA, creates this race from them. And she is still technically, you know, created from the DNA of Mar-Vell as were these other kids. She was just, Like Rocket, she was the special one that came out and has powers, and maybe she's a mutant.

Who knows? They can tie in whatever they want to make up the science now. But I thought that was a good way because all of these characters moving forward, you can now go, well, he created. This race, he also created this. So everybody comes from something that if they want to, they can use that and play that card later.

Absolutely, yeah. So there's a lot of potential they can go through. Another thing I thought was interesting is there was one cosmic character that technically started out in the Avengers in the 80s because she got absorbed into the Guardians group in the same run, and then they kind of fleshed out her character a little bit more to make things fairly interesting. The fact that this character is called Moondragon, and she's human, but she... I saw where they go with her in Arcade here.

Yeah. Well, basically, Moondragon is... She's human, but she has some very cosmic-level... mental abilities. Yeah. So, because she was basically taken at an early age and whatever else.

But the interesting thing is that in the comics continuity, she's the daughter of Drax. Because Drax is technically human and was changed by Thanos and basically put into this alien body and whatever else. At one point, Thanos was a jazz musician. He plays the saxophone. I can see that.

You know, much like his I'm going to go be a farmer life. I can see him being like, you know, I'm going to go try jazz for a while. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Drax is Duke Silver, basically. So, but yeah, but anyway, but yeah, so, because I forget what Drax's real name is, but his last name is Douglas, and Moondragon's name is Heather Douglas.

So they find this out years, years, years later that basically they're father and daughter. But yeah, but also Moondragon does get into a romantic relationship with Phyla. Yeah, it's all that down the line when they're grownups, yeah. Yeah, and also an interesting thing, too, that Moondragon can do is basically kind of a true form with her abilities that she basically is an actual... So that she occasionally can turn into this very ethereal dragon sort of form.

But it's also kind of like a, you know, it's hard for her to turn back sort of thing. it's kind of a moment of last resort for her to go into this form mode of like i don't want to have to turn but if i do i can tear up some shit so yeah well it's kind of you need me to because i will it's kind of like basically she would choose to go into what her actual cosmic potential is, but then it's hard for her to go back into human form and basically step back on the evolutionary scale just to be back with her girlfriend and her buddies. But that's another one they could kind of do a version of because now Drax is going to be dad to everyone, so she can be adopted daughter, he can be one of his favorites in this new little group, and Again, she's created from who knows what, so she could have weird powers too.

And so they can pick and choose from those white haired kids and be like, okay, who do you want to be upcoming cool superheroes? Well, it's either that or this is a way to bring Dave Bautista back into the Drax role because maybe the Guardians meet Moondragon and then you find out, oh, she is the daughter. Yeah. And so this could, they could even tie into this is the daughter Drax thought was dead. So he's resurrected.

Or some drunken one-off. He spent a lot of time drunk after that, so who knows what next. Possibly, yeah. I think it would have a much more emotional resonance if this is the daughter he thought was dead. I don't know.

I felt like that was always such a specific character point for him. How much... sadness he carried from losing both. Of them yeah i don't know in a way it undercuts it by like oh no she's back like in a way they always do that and you're. Like no no no look we all those characters you thought were dead are back like I don't know. I kind of liked the finality of it and that giving him basically his character from that point.

And that's why he was the messed up guy that he was, much like all of them. Well, he still would have that emotion, but, you know, you get somewhat of a redemption because the character's back in a bit of a different form. It changes things at least. Yeah, I mean, yeah, your daughter's back, but she's now, you know, 20, 30 years older and she's an entire... You kind of missed your dad version.

Yeah. So, you know, there's sort of... There's some things they could play with around there if they so chose. This thing is like, this isn't the end of the Guardians. Just like basically the Infinity War endgame, it's not the end of the Avengers.

It's just the end of that team. Things change quite a bit. Yeah, the Guardians team is. We set it up. But even by the end of it, it was like, okay, I want to go follow these guys now.

I'm already invested in this new crew. Yeah. We also left out Kraglin. Don't forget. Oh, yes.

Kraglin was also part of the group. And has figured out how to use the arrow finally. Yeah. He used his arm. But, yeah, getting to our final showdown with the High Evolutionary here.

Of course, we get a lot of different... We get some fake-out moments because we almost think we lose Rocket. Then we almost think we lose Peter. Totally. Like, full in, you thought you were like, well, this is the end of Peter.

They kind of played all of it because there was, like, at least three different characters. I was like, because I also thought we were going to lose Nebula. Like, I thought she was going to sacrifice herself to pilot the ship. Right, yeah. And then it was going to blow up and we'd lose her.

But she saved everybody. I'm like. all right, if that's what we're going to do, but I really am invested in her lately, so, like, don't do this. It also kind of proves, like, it's kind of hard to kill Nebula. Well, that's true. I mean, yeah, we've watched her what would have killed anyone so many times in this movie alone, let alone every other one.

Yeah, she's had numerous falls and impalements. It would take a lot. But, yeah, I guess if you blew up the whole ship, you could pretend like she was dead. But other than that, it takes a lot to kill her. She even hilariously gets stabbed by Kraglin's arrow.

Yeah. Yeah, that's just play for a joke at that point. Like, she just yanks it out. Oh, it's like straight in the chest. Like, if she were a human, that's a 100% heart shot.

Nebula had a heart. I mean, she does, but it's not right there. It wasn't even strong enough of a shot to pierce the armor. It literally just sticks right in and she just yanks it out. What the hell?

Come on, guys. Get it together. Yeah, love that. But, yeah, they really fake you out on the Star-Lord because, like, okay, he's frosting over. We've had that.

I was like, how many times is he going to get stuck out in space? But then when his face starts blowing up, like, oh, shit. You don't want to come back from that, right? I guess you do. But, yeah, at that point, I was like, well, I guess we're right.

No, I'm sorry. Yeah. That's the one I could get over easy. Exactly. Yeah.

I've been pissed at him for years. So I'm like, if he kills Darlord, I'll be okay. Yeah, I kind of thought the same thing too. I was like, both the actor and the character I've been so annoyed with for years now, I'm just like, eh, I'll be okay. Just make sure Rocket's alright.

Which I thought, that's the third one. I thought, like, he's either gonna, like, which, it seemed like a cheat though. I was like, if we go through this whole movie to save him, and then kill him off anyway. I was just like, what the hell? So, yeah, but I can almost see, like, if he's, once again, if he's sacrificing.

Himself like i'm gonna stay here and fight the big bad you guys get off the ship and then he ends up getting killed because of that and like all right yeah yes that would suck but i can almost see that and then when he went back to the animals i was like is he gonna sacrifice himself just to go save. The other animals. I'm like, Jesus, this is too much to deal with. I think at this point, James and the screenwriters knew we'd seen too much animal cruelty already that we needed this moment of redemption where all the animals get off safe. Rocky gets off safe.

We kind of need that. We watch them murder a lot of mutant animals. Both in the tubes and the characters we got to know. It's like, this is a lot to process. But then.

Interestingly enough, in this scene, we finally get the last key to Rocket's origin. The one that he didn't even know. That A, Rocket is in fact a raccoon, and B... He's from Earth. From Earth, like Peter.

Little did they know they were both neighbors. Yep. Planet-wise, anyway. He's a North American raccoon. Both from Earth, yep.

So, yeah. And then also, he finally does, when he has that moment where he basically blows away the high evolutionary, he calls himself, for the first time, Rocket Raccoon. Because that's been... Title-wise, that's been his character the whole time, but he's never acknowledged that. Yeah, he's like, I'm not a raccoon.

I'm not a raccoon. You know, he wanted to correct people every time they called him the wrong woodland creature, which happens a lot in this movie, maybe more than ever, outside of Thor constantly calling him rabbit. But this one, they picked a lot of different ones over the none of it. So, that was fun, and now we actually have An answer that even he accepts. Yeah.

Rocket Raccoon. And I like, too, that, you know, we get, you know, of course, we get his big, you know, almost death fake out where he's in the white room. A very dramatic moment of even Peter. I was like, I feel bad for him all of a sudden. Yeah.

It takes a lot for me to feel for him. And we get to see, you know, of course, like, because one of the, probably the toughest scene ever. in the whole movie, is Rocket figures out a way to escape these cages when they're still being held by the High Evolutionary. And he's already said, incinerate them all. So we know they're all going to die if he doesn't do something. So he finds a way, once again, he's smarter than everybody else and figures a way to escape.

And then... It's in great such Rocket form. He's constantly stealing parts. Because basically, the thing is, what makes him so special is that the High Evolutionary has been working on making animals human-esque sort of thing. Like, where they're humanoid sort of creatures.

It's very Island of Dr. Moreau. We haven't even got to the planet. Like, alternate Earth is just 100% Island of Dr. Moreau.

Yeah, it's like, which is what James Gunn is, like, supposedly really into, I think, Island of Lost Souls, and, like, so he did, like, kind of do that as his own little tribute to it. But, I mean, that's also, this is right out of the comics. Yeah. Counter-Earth does exist. The animen... are a race of creatures that basically were at one point animals and are turned into humanoid creatures and whatever else.

But, you know, in the High Revolutionary's kind of experimenting, he's experimenting with cybernetics and machine parts. So basically that's why, like, Lila and Floor and Teef's like, okay, you know, it's a walrus in a wheelchair. They're all cyborgs, you know. The most human-like is Rocket. He only has attachments, more or less, but he doesn't have mechanical parts like that.

Yeah, like Lila has arms. Yeah, it's a sea otter with robotic arms. Floor is a rabbit that has, like, spider legs, which is kind of, you know, disturbing. Disturbing and can't talk without the mouthpiece thing that is also disturbing. Like, Floor is pretty messed up.

It's a good thing she's so innocent and cute and childlike because the character is scary. To look at. Yeah, it's like if you would see Floor for the first time, you may scream because she kind of looks like an island of misfit toys. You know, the creepy scene in Toy Story with all the weird... The little doll head.

The weird mangled toys. Yeah. It's that moment. As soon as she speaks, like, oh, that's a cute little bunny. She's the goofiest of the four.

Yeah. But yeah, so Rocket has basically been stealing parts because the High Evolutionary is basically using him to help him with his experiments. He's asking him questions and Rocket apparently is smart enough to figure things out that he doesn't. That's what I like. He's smarter than our villain.

He's like, well, here's your problem, idiot. He doesn't say that, but I'm like... he just immediately looks at it and is like, well, here's the problem, because Rocket's that damn smart. And even our super genius villain is like. Oh, shit, I didn't even think of that. And then, of course, that enrages him even further.

Basically, this creation figured it out. Surpassed him, essentially, yeah. But still, that's great, though. Rocket still had the foresight to like, okay, I'm not acting like I'm planning on bust out of here, but apparently I've been the whole time. But just in case, I might need to.

Because they still kind of, he was half buying into that, we're all going to leave. and go on a ship and we're going to go to. The new world. But obviously there's always a little bit of, but I'm going to have a plan B. Because he always... seems to sort of plan for an alternate. Things are going to go to hell.

I might need something else. And then Rocket hears that, the order that, oh, basically we're all going to get killed. Let's get the hell out of here. And so he basically has all these parts around his cage, builds a device that basically he's able to kind of, you know, fake the key card reader, get them out there. So all his friends are out there, ready to get the hell out of there.

And then Lila gets shot by some guards. And then that puts Rocket into a rage. So he goes into a fight and, fight the guards, takes him out, and then apparently in the firefight, his other two friends are killed. Holy fucking shit. This is just...

There are some tear-inducing moments in this movie. That's one of them, folks. That's the rough one. And that's why, like, because it's our stupid villain, and I'm like, he's. At least, like, the only thing you see at that point is how enraged he is, and we at least get to see him take it out on his face.

And I was like, that's the only thing that almost... helps a little. It's like, it's the reason he's wearing a stupid Robocop face. Because his face is torn to shreds by a rocket, which, once again, I kind of like that. He carried that for the rest of his life because he did rocket rock. He deserved to suffer.

And that's the thing. In the moment we see Rocket attack the Evolutionary, we don't know. And then at that last moment, when basically the group at the end is fighting with the Evolutionary, and you see the part where his mask gets off, Gamora takes the rest of it off, and you see, oh yeah, he was wearing this rubber mask the whole time, and Rocket didn't just scratch his face, he, like, he looks like a red skull, actually. The face is gone, the jaw's partially there, he got fucked up. Which I heard them say, that's an interesting comparison, because they're both very, let's create a perfect race kind of a movie. villain so not too far off on the red skull.

Uh yeah yeah so rocket messed him up big time of course he gets the pleasure of killing him so yeah well again being the better person he doesn't really. Yeah we take him out as far as we know again you don't see the body you can always bring him back in the future whatever but for the sake of the series we take him out and he wins but he doesn't stoop to his level and kill him because he's. A guardian of the galaxy. So that was kind of a nice moment of like, even rockets kind of like elevating to. Being like, again, I think old rocket probably just would have shot him in the head.

But now that he's kind of found his family, he's like, I don't need to be that. Yeah. It's very much like the, the, the Hela kind of fate and, you know, for Ragnarok. It's like, we assume that they see, okay. Yes.

Asgard is destroyed. Surtur and Hela are fighting and, And they're both falling on the thing and whatever else. So we don't see the bodies. We don't see a pop-up of them at the end. So later, if we can convince her to do another movie, she can come back.

But for now, she's dead in quotes. Yeah, and it's kind of the same thing with High Evolutionary. He's dead in quotes. We didn't see a body. He didn't make it off the ship either.

So who knows? For this movie, he's dead. Yes. We win, he's dead. Yay.

Yeah, and then kind of going back to Peter's point there, so Peter grows up a little bit in this film, too, because, you know, we get the send-off of Gamora's going to go back with the Ravagers, and Peter has a conversation with her basically like, you know, there's certain points in the movie where Gamora's with the Guardians, and you almost kind of think, is she going to fall in love with them all over again? she at least turns a corner. Because there is that first half of the movie where I'm like, I don't think I care about Gamora anymore. To quote Peter, she's a dick. She just sucks. And so being around them that second half of the movie, she starts to realize that not just Peter, but they're all kind of good people and why she was there to begin with.

And I'd say she sort of regains her humanity, but she's not human. So whatever version of that for her race, She becomes kind of the good version of her that we had in, like, the second movie. Right. And that's, you know, we want to see that, but at the same time, it's not the same. Like, again, she doesn't have that closeness with her sister.

They do the same old head nod. I see you. I see you. They grunt at each other. Yeah, they grunt at each other and move on.

They're like, yeah, you're my sister. I get it. Yeah. But, again, not quite as close as they were before. Same thing with Peter.

She's like, I see why she loved you. I don't necessarily. And like, that was, that is an interesting moment because it is like, they're both in a better place because of it. Cause Peter was still like stuck. Like he was never going to be able to move on without just putting that nail in the coffin and be like, all right, I guess we're done.

So he needed that more than anybody, but I think it helped her too because she got to be that person, but. It's not what you got. So I might stay with the Ravagers, but. I'm at least more or less who I need to be along the way because she sort of found out. Because I do like that there's all those moments when even the final one where they're all like hugging, but she still doesn't join in.

She's like, she's smiling. She's happy that they're there. But she's like, this isn't my family. This isn't my group. But then when you see her rejoin with the Ravagers and Stalker, you know, basically hugs her and says, welcome back.

They're all like, you know, yeah. Welcome home. This is her family. Yeah. And you see her reactions like, okay, she's formed a bond with the Ravagers.

Yeah. That's her family now. So, yeah. So again, it's growth out of people I didn't even think were going to have growth. So I'm surprised, again, points to Jade Gunn.

The story arcs he takes us on. On some silly characters that like turns out to be like, oh, I mean, he always has heart, but, like, he just followed. Through on every thread on these. It's, like, it's impressively put together. And then we get, of course, our last scene of, you know, Peter has basically made the decision, I'm going to go back to Earth, see, he's like, I had a grandfather, so he's like, but I haven't seen him since I ran out of the room, and I don't even know if he's still alive.

I do, like, yeah, they die at, like, 50. You're about to die? You're about to die? Yeah. And I feel like Jax is like, hmm, probably.

Look at him. He's 50. Look at him. He's close enough, yeah. So I feel like that little moment leading to it, but then you get back to it, and super old man Grandpa's still around.

He's still around. Not only is he still around, he's got this whole wall of pictures that basically... show that he's still been pining for this grandson that he lost the same time he lost his daughter. Which had to be weird, because at least he knew what happened to the daughter. And then the grandson disappeared. Like abduction of some sort, but you never even find the body.

So who knows what the hell happened to Peter? And I assume the woman that answered the door was. I don't know, but I thought they... credited to her like she was the wife, maybe. Well, so that's the thing. They didn't make it clear because she's way younger than he is.

So at first I thought it was like a nurse or something. Yeah, a home care person or something like that. So I didn't think... Originally, but then later I was like, I don't know, maybe not. Maybe he just scored him a young wife.

Maybe. I don't know. He got him a hot young wife. I mean, she's a nice living lady, but it's like, shit. It's like, you're robbing the cradle, sir.

Yeah. Uh, but yeah, but you know, so we get Peter reunited with his grandfather. So we get that nice little bit, our secondary end credit scene here. We got to wait all the way to the end credits and Pete's at the breakfast table with his grandfather. They're talking about a neighbor who's got a good for nothing son.

You know, basically he sits on the porch all day and watches his grandfather or watches his own elderly father mow the lawn and he doesn't do it. I love it. But then we get the little tease there that the legendary star Lord will return. You skipped over the best part, which is the newspaper that talks about the abduction of Kevin Bacon. That's right.

That's the best part. I missed that. Yes. I was just like, okay, that's the best tie-in joke right there. Yeah.

Because, yeah, I mean, I'd listen to Kevin Bacon talk about being abducted by aliens. That's the kind of thing that would be in our weekly world news that I'm reading every day. But see, here's the funny thing, though, is that we've heard different celebrities talk about being abducted by aliens, and we kind of We blow it off. That could be in the paper and we'd be like, another one of those crazy. I've heard Sandy Hagar numerous times talk about how he was abducted by aliens as a young man.

It's just funny for us because we were there for that journey. We saw the whole little trip. We did. That was a fun little time. The viewing audience believes Kevin Bacon.

But then, yes, back to the. Big message, which, again, if I was like anyone else on there, I'd be like, yay, the return of Rocket and the team and. Or we can go follow Mantis around and see what she's like. Anybody else. Stay with the, like I said, stay with the town.

I want to see Drax, you know, talking to the kids all day. But, like, the only one I'm like, really? Star Wars? Like, why do I want to watch him eat cereal in his future? Well, here's the thing.

I was like, what are they doing? Of course, this kind of was almost like a two-fold sort of thing. Because, for one, this answers, because Chris Pratt was the one of the actors who was like, The most publicly on the fence about, is this the last run? And you can go. Which is why it's annoying.

Oh, well, this is where we're going to be, right? Yeah, because like Zoe Saldana has said, like, she almost kind of went into this third film bittersweet. Because she had a little bit of like, I was kind of done with it. What happened to James Gunn? I killed myself off for a reason.

It was. That, but also James Gunn initially getting fired by Marvel, then rehired. I know, yeah, Drax Batista was like, not going to come back. He's like, let me out of my contract if you don't have James Gunn running the show. Yeah, and Zoe Saldana was very much in the same kind of camp too.

But I mean, Dave Batista's gone on record as basically saying, Guardians of the Galaxy is launched my career drax started my career as an actor so i've done other movies other stuff yeah so it's like i will forever love this character so but we knew he was hanging drax up for a while i mean will he return to the role. Possibly again i feel like you can convince any of them you know they'll give it a few years they might be back maybe their career doesn't go the same way they need to come back who knows like there's tons of reasons you could turn around and Why. Don't you just throw a lot of money at them? They'll be like, all right, I'll do a 15-minute thing. Like, show up for whatever cameo.

Yeah, I mean, right now, Batista's doing good. He's in, you know, playing bad guys in Bond movies and Blade Runner and Knock at the Door and Glass Onion. He's got a bunch of stuff. He's doing good. Yeah, he's all right.

Yeah. But so there's kind of this answer to the question, like, will we ever see Chris Pratt in the role again? The answer is yes, apparently. The other thing is that the legendary Star-Lord, that particular run, is when Peter is marooned on Earth. So it's basically Star-Lord without the other Guardians, and he has adventures on Earth.

Star-Lord-y adventures or a regular guy adventure? Star-Lord-y adventures. Because I found that it would at least be more interesting to see him dealing with mowing the lawn issues. Because we've seen him be a goofball in space. It would be kind of more fun to be like, all right, now you're stuck here.

You don't have any super out-of-this-world powers, so I don't know. Just deal with eating cereal and mowing the lawn. Well, aside from being half a god. He's a half a god. Yeah, half a god sort of thing.

Yeah, he doesn't have any physical exerted powers, but basically he's known for his different suits and flying devices and then guns. That's what I'm saying. If you take all those away, he's just a guy mowing the lawn. So I'm interested, like, where are they going with this? Yeah, they got a lot of places they could pop up and do with him of basically having some adventures on Earth where he's not in space and kind of learning what the world is like now when he left the 80s.

Do you think this is like a limited series Disney Plus or more movies? I feel like it would work better more as a series. I do too. I think you'd flesh out more as a series. But also this could be a way to... signifying the fact that basically we've got a couple Avengers movies coming up here in a couple of years.

He may pop up in one of those. Like, everything goes to hell like they're going to because it's the whole reason of having these two movies. And we need everybody we can get together, so let's call Star-Lord out of retirement. And he puts the suit on and comes and busts out the guns. And then, of course, the first two of the movies is the Kang Dynasty.

The second one is Secret Wars. Secret Wars basically... deals with basically, if they're sticking with the storyline, even though we're not going to have Dr. Doom with it, is that basically there is a multiversal threat going on where we have all these incursions. Earth is the last one to go. Dr.

Doom saves Earth from being destroyed by these incursions. But what happens is what is assembled is a patchwork Earth made up of multiversal Earths. So it's kind of like, you know, It's kind of like when you would go to the soda fountain and get the suicide where you got all the flavors of soda in one cup. That's what our earth is. It's a suicide earth here.

So... And so we get all these different versions of characters we know, but it's not our version. So will we see a different Star-Lord than that? Possibly. Again, they've given themselves a way to continue it and an out to do whatever the hell they want all at.

The same time. Exactly. And it also answers your question. It answers your question, like, is Chris Pratt 100% down to roll? No, he's not.

Do we want to see him in other stuff? Eh. How much Jurassic Worlds can we take? I think we've seen enough of them there, too. So let's Let's retire a lot of Chris Pratt.

We get maybe too much of him for a while. Yeah, I mean, they're going to take a break from him, obviously. Like you, I would also like to see the other Guardians team do some stuff. Yeah, I would much rather see any of those other teams. They're all kind of way more interesting characters, and even as we left them, they're all. kind of going different places that I'd like to follow.

So I'd pick up with any of them. And it's an even stranger team, because you've got Rocket, who's leading them. Groot's still there, so you've got a little bit of muscle. You've got Adam Warlock, who's major muscle, but he's also learning how things work. You have a literal child on the team.

And then you have a former Ravager, who just recently figured out how to work the weapon that was passed down to him. So you've got a very interesting... much more ragtag band of misfits than you even had with the original Guardians. Yeah. See, again, I want to watch those adventures. Yeah, yeah.

With them, I want a good series. Let me watch the different, every episode, they go to a different planet, solve a different thing. Like, I'd be all for that. Yeah, I'd be down with that. But, yeah, I've seen a lot of, you know, really good reviews for this film and basically people saying, oh, yeah, this is definitely one of the better films of this phase.

And I would agree. What strikes me is that people who don't have a reaction like oh this is a really solid film or just kind of like they kind of was like yeah i'm like what is. Wrong with you what i noticed in the real world was coming i once i got up and left the theater and looked around i was. Like these are all like parents. Like my parents like it was like not a bunch of dorky like white guys it was.

Like grown up old parents and different women. And like, again, there was like a several like women in like their sixties that were even in front of me. And the couple next to me was like, just not your normal, like comic book people. I was just like, this pulled in a lot of different people. And I don't know if it's just because everybody eventually got around to seeing like the Avengers.

And like, so like there was enough tie in, like, I guess maybe they saw the first two. I don't know. It was like not your normal comic book movie crowd. So I was just like, It's interesting that the crossover that this, of all of them, the most spacey, you know, you would think they would at least be like. Oh, like Captain America.

I know what that is. Like, you could go into that a little easier. Where this one, especially once you get to the crazy biological world, I'm like, what is Grandma over here thinking? Right, yeah. So, I don't know.

But it pulled in a full. House and it was a lot of different types of evil that I didn't expect, which is good. But also, like, strange that this of all of them, so I don't know if it's just. again, like Sean Gunn makes it more fun. And then like, it's easier to just. Kind of watch these one-off as opposed to watching 32 other movies.

Like, I don't know, but. Well, that's the, that's the beautiful thing about these Marvel films and series becoming as popular as they are. They are able to spread to a completely general audience who wouldn't be touched by this stuff. So in, in my experience, talking with a lot of different folks and just meeting people and whatever else, um, Within a few minutes of a conversation, you're going to know a big thing about me is basically I love comic books, especially Marvel stuff. I don't know what I'm talking about.

So I love talking to people when basically I found out, oh, you have interest in this stuff here, and I'm going to talk to you, see how big your interest is. It's like, oh, yeah, those are good movies. I watch those. Or you really get into them, and you now are in the presence of a, I don't want to go on more, but an expert in And you have questions or you want things clarified for you or else. And so I love those conversations.

So I've talked to people who are literal grandmothers who are way into this shit who have never read a comic book. Or they maybe read some Archie and, you know, Bugs Bunny comics when they were a child. But they are into superhero stuff. It's a crossover in weird ways that you wouldn't have expected. And again, I guess it's just because it's so huge.

But, again, maybe these, because they, from the beginning, were like, oh, this is a totally different tone than those other ones. Like, we're doing a different thing. So maybe they're just more attracted to the Guardians series because they're more fun. So, I don't know. But, yeah, it's definitely pulled in an eclectic crowd.

Well, I think the Guardians, James has done some, made a great achievement of basically taking an obscure team filled with very obscure characters. And making them household names. Yeah. Like, if you would have told me ten years ago that, you know, people would be walking around saying, I am Groot. Like, really?

And that one crossed over kid lies. Like, there are people that are talking about, like, kids. Freak out for Groot, you know? Yeah. And that wouldn't necessarily be the case.

Even watching that first movie, it's like, I guess you get baby Groot and it changed things. And especially now he has his own show. So it's like, it crossed over, so there's like, you're pulling in this group, you're also pulling in the grandparents. So it's like, you've got the whole spectrum of audience members. Basically, the moment everybody falls in love with Groot in the original Guardians of the Galaxy was towards the end of the film, where they're basically fighting a bunch of guys, and Groot has the moment where he basically extends his arm and impales five or six dudes, smacking them around the walls, and then he turns around and says, hey, you know what I mean?

That moment cracks my wife up every time. And that's the moment people fell in love with Groot. Because it's like, he looks like this strange, very intimidating thing. But he's a little buddy. He's a goofy kid.

He's a goofy kid. Yeah. So we get that for real because he becomes a kid as the next two movies. Yeah, exactly. We're just now getting to him being a grown up kind of again by the end when.

He's like super massive giant version of Groot swole Groot yeah well I mean the very end when he's like king Groot oh yeah when he goes. Kaiju yeah he's like huge by the post credit scene he's like the rock behind him you're like oh shit that's Groot. Like yeah I love it that was huge yeah I love that thing we get kaiju Groot kaiju don't go kaiju don't go kaiju But, yeah, we get all kinds of moments in there. But I think that's kind of just the beauty with the Guardians is that, you know, we've grown up with this group. The large majority of the viewing audience didn't know who any of these characters were.

So you kind of learned who they were, fell in love with them, picked your favorites, whatever else. But also the soundtracks work for a great nostalgia thing. You've got a bunch of songs that had lost their popularity. We're not known by a general younger audience who now know these songs. Yeah, definitely from those first two.

But that's what I was eventually going to get to, too, is like, because now we have. The Zoom, so we can work in new, you know, eras. So we go all the way up to the 2000s and. I think it is an. Interesting, they're pulling from different times because it was all kind of that same, well, it had to be because of the cassette tape, but still he was picking just weird, like people knew him, but not like the hits, you know, it was just stuff on radio rock all the time that you're like, I know that song.

Wait, who does that song? It was that kind of thing. And then now he sort of does that, but with like other stuff from different decades there. And I think the best tie in as we're moving into the 90s, was they also get into the Intel bunny suits thing. The first time I saw it in the trailer, I was like, oh, God, here we go.

Again, visually, it's amazing, but at. The same time, it was just like, what a weird pull that only a handful of people of that era are going to see that and have that recognition of, like, oh, yeah, remember when those commercials were on constantly? Yeah, I was thinking of the Intel, I was thinking of the Teletubbies, and then there's, what's that video game that kids play, like, the tiny little robots? Yeah, they reference that, too, and I didn't know it, because I'm not that, I missed that wave. I was the Intel wave, obviously.

Yeah, but yeah, the tiny little robots, and everybody's, like, got different color spacesuits and whatnot, but I can't remember what it's called, but yeah, those images, I mean, because everybody's got, like, different suits, and I love that, too, like, They're hiding the suits, and they basically launch the suits out of the airlock. Which, again, blaming Mantis. Like, she's just doing what they needed to do in the moment. She didn't know that was what it was for. Yeah.

A little just hostile. Yeah, the trash shooter or whatever else. They're watching the suits fly by. Yeah, that was great stuff, dude. But, yeah, so, yeah, we get a 90s-heavy soundtrack, and then basically Rocket has the Zoom now, because that was a great thing, too, is that Basically, the reason why Peter almost dies is to give the Zune four rockets.

It's nice when it's four rockets. Initially, I'm just like, once again, Peter, you're an idiot. Don't go back for the Zune. You can go get another Zune. It will be harder to find.

You'll have to go back in time. But, yeah, I was just like, really? You're going to kill yourself over the Zune? You would think, like, okay, it's like, you know, we're finding all these, like, ancient technologies, but it's like, There are supercomputers and AIs in this world. Like, couldn't they just like download every song in existence from that?

Couldn't we get it like that dude with the thing in his head and like you could just access him all right in the brain and have it hardwired into the side. Of your head? And I like that guy. I kept going, wait, I know him. Oh, yeah.

Superstore. Yeah. He was awesome on Superstore. Yeah, he was. He was a jerk in this movie.

So it is fun the way they take him out. I was like, oh, this is not going to go well for you. Nope, there it goes. Yep. But yeah, get one of those nice implants in your head.

You can just download all your music. But you would be the only one to be able to, unless you have an external speaker. Or you just open your mouth and people can hear the music. Which I do, right? Again, they made a point of how much they don't just work it in as a soundtrack.

That the characters themselves are listening to these songs. And have favorites. Yeah, so I mean... like Rocket has. It paired with the speakers in the town so like everybody's enjoying that and number one I do like Creep like I've loved Creep from the first time I heard it but like in this crowd, like, you know, the entirety of the Downer lyrics are perfect for this group of broken-ass people. But the thing is, to come off of, like, okay, so we see this, like, flash of Rocket's origin, and then we go to the present day, and we're seeing Rocket, you know, all forlorn, and then he brings Creep on, like, holy shit, are we trying to kill the audience?

We have boosted Creep. Let's bring in even more. Yeah, even sadder. Even more low-key. We don't even have the cool, like, oh, really loud guitar that kicks in acoustic is just downer.

All the way through and i'm a weirdo and everybody. Around me is a freaking weirdo this whole town is a bunch of weirdos and so i like that as a tie-in but then as we go forward again i don't. Know if it's just something with this time that we're in but you need a good way to wrap up your sci-fi. Movie is to kick in with some beastie boys How many times have we seen it? We've seen it like twice in Star Trek.

And now this movie. I was just like, man, people love the Beastie Boys. And rightfully so. They are awesome, but... What a.

Weird tie-in for sci-fi that has become a thing now. And, of course, Intergalactic was used in the Marvel trailer. In the Marvels, yeah. Which I love the bit of trolling that they do, too. Because, you know, they incorporate the first line of the song with a, don't you tell me to smile.

And so it's like, oh, that was all the bullshit they were going with. That's the whole theme of Captain Marvel, yeah. And it's like, oh, why don't you smile a little bit? Because she's fucking Carol Danvers. She's not a smiley person.

She's a business lady. She's military. And in the real world, everybody's pissed at this woman anyway. Like, I'm kind of surprised they suckered her back for another movie. She took a lot of heat off of that.

And I don't know why. Because it's a bunch of dorky boys that don't come to terms with the fact it's okay for her to be a girl and be in a superhero movie. I just don't like that she's all powerful. But other than that, I have no problem with her as a character. She's just the Superman of this bunch, which makes me not like her.

I mean, again, I know her character. And so I was fine with her and I was fine with the performance. Carol's not, you know, she's a good person. She does the right thing, but I wouldn't qualify her as being warm and fuzzy. Yeah.

You know? Well, and I, as it's going on, it's like, I still like the property because Rambo seems pretty awesome. And then I really like our, our Ms. Marvel. Like I was so, I played the trailer.

I was like, I'm so glad she's as featured as she is in this. Cause it's like, I enjoyed that series so much. And then like, I'm going to like her more than Captain Marvel. So she's way cooler than you. Well, I think too, you.

Know, Kamala is definitely going to soften up Carol a bit too. Yeah. Which is good. Like, She's very detached in that whole movie. So it's like she kind of needs something to.

Make her more accessible to the characters themselves and the audience. So I think that will be handy moving forward to maybe make people like her a little more. Because she's maybe the least liked of all the Marvel characters. I don't know what it is, but nobody took to her, really. What I think, too, it has a lot to do with the fact that basically Carol kind of comes off as elitist, but you have to think.

It's like, She was Air Force, and then she was abducted by aliens after she had been given this power from the flight accident. Yeah. So she's super powerful, abducted by aliens, put in another elite force in an alien world, in an alien environment, where she's not away from Earth for 20 years. So it's like, what do you expect out of her? She doesn't know what it's like to be humans.

She doesn't really have normal relationships, does she? Yeah. It's like she's been out doing shit literally in the universe. She has a greater universal awareness than even the Avengers do. Yeah.

Because she makes the point in Endgame. We're like, yeah, we could use you for this shit. Well, guess what? Not everybody has the Avengers dipshit. The universe doesn't revolve around Earth, actually.

Yeah. Exactly. As previously thought for a long time ago. Yeah, actually, there's other shit going on out there, and nobody else is fixing it. The Earth has you guys.

I'm the only one out there doing everything else. It almost seems like that line, too, was for all the social media trolls. It doesn't revolve around you. I like that occasionally they cross over with a little bit. Hey, guess what?

It's not all about you, so get over yourself. So I'm on Team Bree, so trolls, go F yourself, and leave my girl alone. I'm just waiting for Ms. Marvel to take over. I'm not sure what they're doing with this plot.

Watching that trailer, I was like, there's a lot of body swapping and place swappings, and it's going to be interesting to then take that and be able to come up with a good story to build all this around. But I'm looking forward to it, again, mostly because I like Ms. Marvel. Well, and I'm kind of waiting for Kamala to catch up to who she is in the comics, because right now she's still very juvenile and still very new. Which is my favorite part.

Like, it was such a high school story, and like a small stakes story of just her and her friends. And like, that was mostly wasn't universe changing where now she's been thrown into the middle of that. So I kind of love that as the series, because it's one of the few times we get something that's just a personal story about her and learning to use her powers. And like, so now again, she's thrown into the universe and has to fight, you know, to save the world or whatever. But I think that it's going to do wonders for her character because in the comic how she was introduced in Captain Marvel is, of course, she's a fangirl and kind of ends up, you know, getting powers and so Carol has to kind of like mentor her and help her out and whatever else.

So because of her interaction with Carol, Kamala becomes a hell of a leader. Yeah. And to a point where basically like, you know, when she grows into an adult, she's going to be one hell of a hero. You know, so already at a young age, she's kind of leading around her counterparts of her age, like, you know, Miles Morales and Ironheart and whatever else. Yeah.

Yeah, they're all, you know, the Young Avengers are all in her age group. So, yeah, she's a hell of a leader now. So she's going to be even greater then. So I'm looking forward to seeing that journey possibly in this upcoming Marvels movie. Yeah.

And, of course, we get to flesh out Monica Rambeau because we enjoyed her in WandaVision. Yeah, WandaVision's the best we've gotten from her character-wise. So, yeah, we'll give it a chance to expand a little on her, too. It'll be interesting to see how they're going to tie in how all three of these characters are related. Because in the comics, they're not related in the only way there are is by legacy.

Because, you know, Carol Danvers... You know, is the. They're passing the torch every time, not all there at the same time. Yeah, well, Carol had the more interesting journey because, basically, she was kind of the sidekick of the original Captain Marvel, and she took the name Ms. Marvel, and so she took that moniker for a number of years, and then when Mar-Vell died, she was expected to take the Captain Marvel moniker, and she didn't.

She instead would take monikers like Warbird or Binary when she basically had these, like, weird, like, her powers had this weird flare-up point where she looked like she was basically, like, literally crackling with cosmic energy where she didn't even look human. And that was a brief period in the 90s. But yeah, so anyway, so then finally in the early 2000s, in the Kelly Sue DeConnick run, she takes finally the mantle of Captain Marvel, whereas Monica Rambeau in the 80s was a different Captain Marvel. She had different power sets, but she took the moniker with Carol's blessing. And then Ms.

Marvel, Kamala hasn't taken the Captain Marvel role just yet, but she's now Ms. Marvel. Obviously, that's where she's going. But she's going to go there in one way, shape, or form. Yeah.

Yeah. So, yeah, I'm going to be interested to see how they will tie in all three of them together. So, yeah, as they wrap up to this movie, that's where we're going next. Yeah. Well, we know at least that's the next step in this crazy journey.

And then where we're going from there remains to be seen. Nobody's really sure. I mean, because, of course, we've got to wait until November for the Marvels, but it's like, We should have had Secret Invasion in the spring, and it's been pushed back to later in the year. Yeah. Loki...

I don't know, because I got a feeling they're holding, because as far as I knew, Loki season two was ready to go. Yeah. That's why in Ant-Man we get the tease. But how much of it revolves around that character? Okay.

Yeah. And the answer is a lot. What are they going to do now? Yeah. So I'm curious if they're just, if they're holding off on that series because waiting to see what happens in the real world with Jonathan Majors. because yeah he plays a big role in season two yeah they definitely set that up the first time around and in the end of that movie so yeah so yeah yeah that's trouble so yeah and then of course like we still don't know like I know Echo had some production issues so they were delayed um I think Born Again the Daredevil series is currently being developed or currently they're working on it but it's not running yet um You know, I don't know anything more about Agatha.

We keep hearing casting announcements. I'm not even sure what to do with that one. Like, what story are you... Again, you're switching that. Now we're going with the villain-ish.

And then, like, what? Oh, I don't know. Like, that one, I just don't know what you're even going to do with it as a story. I'm curious, too. That thing is that Agatha has ridden the line in the comics of hero and villain.

And the only reason she's ever been a villain is because the reader is taking from the point of view of Wanda... who we think is a hero. As it turns out, not so much. Anyway, yeah, there's been times in the books we've found out that basically she's very easily corrupted by her powers or by other magical beings or by just her own ambitions and has done some bad things. Basically, one has broken bad about four or five times in her years. Became her thing.

So, Agatha, at times where she comes off as a villain, turns out, oh, well, actually she was working for us. So, So she's definitely been a complicated character. So I'm curious to see what they're going to do with that series. If this is kind of her hero's journey. If this is opening up more of the magical realm of things.

I don't know. There's a lot of questions. We know we're supposed to get a season two of What If. We know we've got the X-Men 97 series coming up. I figure the What If is the easiest one because it's detached.

So... It seems like it should be able to do, though. Yeah, it just takes time to produce. Yeah, animation is a lot more work. Yeah, so aside from the Marvels, what's coming next for Marvel?

Definitely a lot of things. When and where? Who knows? Yeah, I guess, was it June 24th, I think, is when Secret Invasion? So, yeah.

They're running ads for it a lot, so I'm assuming that one's going to happen. Yeah, they gave it a date on Disney +, like you can turn to the page and see Coming June 24th, so... Yeah. So, I wish reality would stop getting in the way of my fiction, goddammit. If people would quit being assholes.

Yes! Stop saying that. If we've learned anything from this story, don't be like Peter and be a jerk. Or. These characters are...

But they all turn a corner and eventually realize they're alright. So just stay alright and don't be a jerk in the real world. Exactly. Then we can make things without having to CGI out your face. Just wondering where they're going.

Now you can kind of do that technology. What if you take the entire second season and just put somebody else's face on him? As our new actor moving forward anyway. Can we just shoot all out of your face and work it in and then later we'll put you in the movies. How about that?

Yeah. Who knows? You can do that now. So. Who knows indeed.

But yeah. So. We've got some interesting stuff possibly coming down the line. It doesn't matter when the hell it's coming out. Yeah.

Yeah. But at least here we, we. Get another director finishing out their trilogy. So that's become a couple in a row now. So we, We've had another one, and maybe the most successful?

I mean, James Gunn is pretty solid all the way through. Yeah, he really is. Definitely at least sort of had a pretty good plan for where he was going and. Stayed true on most of the characters. So, yeah, I'm always impressed with James Gunn, but yeah, he's pretty impressive.

I guess the next thing we'll see from Gunn is a Superman movie. Yeah, which I'm more concerned about him moving to the DC side because Most of the DC stuff I don't care about as much, and definitely not Superman. But, again, he's done, you know, the Suicide Squad was a good example. It's like, you take something that failed, give it to James Gunn, it's a super fun movie. So it's like, maybe he can do it.

And who would have thought Peacemaker would have been as much of a hit? Yeah, I mean, to take a weird character anyway, that's a side character in this movie... And then just take it in a whole new direction and spin it off into your own separate series. Yeah. I mean, I got to give a lot of credit to John Cena and his performance as well.

Oh, yeah. But the other thing, too, is, you know, James is very much a music geek. So, you know, he popularized a lot of hits of the 70s and the 80s for his Guardians films. And then kind of, you know, maybe brought back some 90s, you know, songs maybe some younger folks didn't know about or BBB. People forgot, but then you go into the Peacemaker series, and it's my kind of music.

The hair metal, or metal that may be newer, but sounds like it's hair metal, kind of stuff like that. Just the whole thing with basically Wigwam resurrecting their career because of Peacemaker. Yeah. Because the story was basically their management dropped them a week before the Peacemaker series was going to debut. Yeah.

And then their song, Do You Want to Taste It, is the theme, and everybody is obsessed with that opening. I mean, that kind of works in their favor, because now you can set the new price for being represented by whoever you want. Well, this literally was, basically, by the time the third or fourth episode came out, They had new management, and the album that was finished they'd been sitting on was now ready to be released. So, yeah, Wigwam, bless their hearts, got themselves a bit of a second bump there. I mean, and they've been around, you know, they've worked for Sweden, and they've, you know, had a couple albums.

I mean, the album that Do You Want to Taste It, I think, came out like in 2010. Yeah. So it's an old song to them and to fans of Wigwam, but, you know, there you go. Well, that's the way the whole industry works now. There was some other new weird song that on the radio they're playing all the time now.

And they were like, yeah, this came out like 12 years ago. And it got picked up because it was on specific TikToks. And then kids were like, oh, what is this song? So now basic regular radio that usually only plays brand new stuff is pulling the stuff out and running it because it found a weird second life. Because the new generations don't have any connection.

There is no. Specific time and place, or they don't even pull from their own era. Like, their era is anything that's in front of them, because everything is accessible to them. So, like, nothing... follows patterns anymore it's all just whatever happens to take off happens to take off and like. Now the old school guard that runs everything is like shit how do we do this like they're getting caught off guard by all these things that are popular for no reason as far as they know because it's out of the blue because they're not sitting.

On tiktok all day so They don't know what the next song is going to be because you can't predict it now. It's not following any trends anymore. You're right. Yeah. I mean, I've got a nephew who he's 16 now and like his musical tastes run from like 1920s jazz to like goth synth wave.

Yeah. I was like, there is no, at least everything before was. Dictated by someone else. It was like, when I was a kid, you listen to the radio and you know, it's like an MTV came along and they picked specific things that became popular. And it was all, we were all in that same timeframe.

So like every kid sitting at home is watching the same video premiere at the same time. Nobody does that now. Nobody's in charge now. Now kids are just like, what do I want to listen to? And everything in the world is accessible.

And like, so they find their own way, which is awesome on one hand. And at the same time, like, there are no trends. There are no waves of anything. Like nobody follows a click music wise anymore. Like you had all the metal kids and the punk kids.

Now every kid's a whatever. So you don't have those little clicks anymore. Like every kid finds their own way. So that's great. But at the same time, it's so foreign to people that came from everybody's a click and.

Everything is a wave of this and that. And if doesn't do that. Though I still gotta give it up to the goth and the metal kids, because at least they still follow the dress code. They look the part, but then if you start delving into their musical case, yes, they like the stuff they're still looking about, but then almost like, oh yeah, I'm also a big fan of the Brady Bunch. Yeah, they're totally a mixture of everything now, so.

Or like, you know, I was like, you know, Baby Shark was one of my favorite songs growing up as a child, and you know, I look like I should be, you know, back up for the cure, but also like all this. Yeah, so. You know, you're right. There are no rules anymore. Yeah, yeah.

But yeah, I still get, you know, because part of my job, you know, working at the comic book store is that I do auctions online. And so most of the time I'm playing music and my, you know, my go-to is like 70s through 90s hard rock and metal. So like a Triumph song came on, Never Surrender, right? So I mean, I've known this song for decades. It's one of their.

I've got their greatest hits sitting upstairs. And that song is on there, yeah. It is. It is. It's not one of their hugest hits, but it was a big hit.

They've got a lot of, like, anthems kind of rock stuff. Like, that's what they did. And so this song's playing, and it gets kind of, like, midway through the song. I got the big solo in there, and one of my people that's in the auction, and he, you know, was a younger guy, and he's like, oh, yeah, what's this song? And so I told him what it was, and, like, I'm thinking, like, okay, he's probably his early 20s.

I didn't even ask him for his age, but he's a younger guy. Yeah, yeah. Has not a clue who that is. But it's like, dude, like... Have you never listened to classic rock in your own town where it's like that song is probably on a loop?

Probably not. Like, where would you... Exactly. It doesn't get thrown out there now unless you go seek it out. So, like, they have to find their own way essentially now.

Like, it's not like. Again, people were, like, curating stuff for you. Not the best version of it. It was usually corporate run stuff. But still, it was like, here's the things that are out right now.

You have to listen to all these. And, like, now nobody does that anymore. Yeah, it just fascinates me how... young people find stuff. A popular title now, the Garbage Pail Kids and Madballs have come back in comics to the point where they have a mashup. Garbage Pail Kids have their own book, and then they did a mashup with the Madballs.

I've got kids that are under 15, 16 coming in asking for Garbage Pail Kid books. Are you going to be GPK? I'm like, How do you know? That is what it stands for, but I would not expect that from you. Yeah, the first time somebody, some young guy, you know, asked for, you got any GBK books?

Like, oh, first-world kids. Like, yes. Like, wait a minute. You sure you don't need this for your dad or your grandpa? Yeah, I wasn't trying to be like a gatekeeper or anything.

No, you just don't expect it. I was fascinated, like, how do you know what this 20-year-old property that basically hasn't had anything new produced in decades until now? Well, and it's like that's what I've thought recently with TV, too, because there's like kids will reference whatever, but it's like hit and miss. Because everybody that grew up before, like there was your networks. You had three, maybe four if you went forward in time.

But like that was it. Everything that came on, it was a set schedule that somebody else put together. It was all at the same time every week. Yes, I watched it. That was it.

Nobody does that now. There isn't. I mean, there is network TV, but nobody cares about it. Nobody appointment watches a damn thing. So there is no version of that anymore.

Yeah, I've got basically, in the entirety of shows I watch, there's only one show I have that's appointment television, and it's wrestling. But other than that, it's like nothing else I watch is appointment television anymore. I watch Ghosts every week because I love that show. Also because you can't watch things anymore unless you buy everything. Like even network television.

You have to sign up for their special deal and have a streaming version of it. Or even if you watch it on antenna... you can't watch it. If you go online to watch it, you have to put in. Your cable provider and once again prove to them that you're blowing a lot of money to be able to watch an old episode. So now I just have to watch it when it's on or sign up for more services I can't afford.

See, that's why I kind of like services like Pluto and Freebie and whatnot or Tubi is another good one. Tubi is great if you want to go down the rabbit hole of obscure or like, you know, old movies, grindhouse kind of stuff, just, you know, movies that have been forgotten by the decades. That's a great place to just discover. They've got pretty good and bigger name stuff, but then there's all those other weird ones. I just downloaded another one on the player thing because there was like, somebody said it was some movie that I was like, it wasn't even like a big studio movie back in the like 50s, 40s.

And I was just like, well, it's maybe streaming because nobody's going to care anymore. So if there's a version of it out there, it's probably streaming on a little damned if it wasn't. So I'm like, well, now I'm going to go watch this movie. It's like, there's so many options of that stuff that's just out there and free most of the time. If it's older stuff that people haven't heard of, which is usually the stuff I like finding.

Well, I mean, like last episode, we talked about Bronx Warriors. That's on freebie. I've been a big fan of the Quentin Tarantino podcast. A lot of the movies they talk about there, you can get on freebie. You know, you got to watch those commercials from time to time in there.

But for the most part, it's free shit. So it's because you've got stuff like that. It's like, you know, I was talking to somebody about Pluto. We watch a lot of it. It's fun.

Jump around different channels and all that kind of stuff. And somebody was like, oh, yeah. I was going to get there and watch this little love boat show. I was like, oh, yeah, yeah. That was a big show back in the day.

It was like, yes, that was a big deal because that was on Saturday nights. I'm like, really? He's like, yeah. I was like, people actually watch television on Saturday nights because there was a twofer. He had Love Boat and Fantasy Island.

And they had never heard of Fantasy Island. Oh, boy. But see, but that's the thing. Again, it's like hit and miss. But there's no Fantasy Island 24-7 channel.

No. But there's a 24-7 Love Boat channel. So it's like, so they know, oh, Love Boat exists. Love Boat gets referenced, you know, every now and then in pop culture. And, like, points to MeTV.

They do pick up specific stuff and then just run it for as long because there's only half of them are, like, a handful of seasons. So it's like, you're playing it daily. Like, you're through those same shows over and over again. So, yeah. At least i think once a week on love boat because i do see him every once in a while and i'll just go in and be like all.

Right let's see who's the stars on this one it's always fun. To see who they roped into stuff because it's always people working on other stuff at the time and it's like here's your chance to play somebody else for 45 minutes like or you get like the super love boat episodes where like you have like there's like a lot of like you know, Rue McClanahan was a regular in The Love Boat, or, you know, Dick Van Patten. Fred Ward on this one. Please do. You're like the one that has Rue McClanahan and Fred Ward and Dick Van Patten and so-and-so.

As long as Charles shows up, that's all I'm waiting for. Yeah, I mean, you get like, holy shit, it's every guest star was on this one here. Those would be impressive. Yeah, but it's just so fun how you get a younger audience. Because they're cutting the cord, and they're either doing antenna and streaming, or one or the other.

And just randomly trying stuff. Yeah. Which, again, you don't have a video store to go stand in, so the new version is scroll through and be like, the hell is Love Boat? And just hit the button, and you're like, this is the cheesiest thing I've ever seen. And you're awake.

And maybe you love it, you know? It's like, you can't tell. You gotta wade into the waters and find your thing. I see what you did there. Wade into the waters there.

Ah! I saw a picture of Stubing younger he's always looked like that. He's always been bald he's always because he was on again I think it was MeTV was running promos and it's. Him on another show like a black and white show or he might have been in Mayberry or something and like Again, it's like 20 years before, and he's still no hair, looked exactly, I mean, he didn't look old in that one, it was just the hair thing, but he looked exactly the same. I'm like, that guy has been that way for his whole life.

There's certain actors you knew as being bald, and it's weird to see them. With hair, or it's also weird to see them in younger roles and they still don't have hair. Yeah. Like, James Tolkien's a great example. You know him from the Back to the Future movies, you know, the slapper.

He always played like a principal or an authority figure because he was great at that so that dude's never had hair. Jeez didn't that guy ever have hair no no he's never had hair I don't know maybe some childhood pictures but it's like he came out bald and. He stayed that way as far as his professional career goes I've never seen. Him with hair in a film sometimes it's better it's jarring if they look too whoa what is going on here yeah so Yeah. There's nothing worse than getting used to somebody who's bald and they get a hair piece.

I'm like, come on. Like, if they're doing, like, the natural hair thing, like the hair replacement, you know, like, that starts a gradual thing so you get used to it over time. But suddenly, like, you know, Johnny was bald and then he shows up and Johnny's got a hair. Like, no, no. I said that recently.

I was like, we're missing a whole new generation of bad, like, rugs. You just don't see people wearing bad toupees anymore. You either just shave your head or you go get full-on hair replacement. There's not a lot of middle ground anymore. You still see bad toupees, but these are usually men who are over the age of 60.

Yeah, that have been wearing it since there wasn't another option. Right, yeah. It's like they're too cheap to get the other stuff or, you know, they think they look fine. No, sir, you look like you have a rat on your head. And you have two different colors of hair and it's not a hair dye.

It's an obvious. Well, we've come full circle on that one. Yeah, we did. Four animals being tortured to. A rat on your head, so it's all come back around.

And somehow managed to work the love bone there, too. What the shit? There you go. So, as we escape this craziness, once again, when you're not here talking about this crazy nonsense, tell people where. To find you any other day of the week.

You can find me on the Fanatic Forum. I go live Fridays at 7 p.m. Eastern. I'm on Facebook and YouTube if you want to watch me live because there is a video component to the podcast because I'm talking about comics and showing them off usually. Yeah.

But if you don't want to watch me, then you can listen to me basically anywhere you can listen to podcasts. So I'm all over the place. Or, you know, hop on Whatnot, follow Clobber and Comics, and I'm on there four days a week selling books. You don't see me, but you hear my voice. Once again, there is no normal stream.

You find it yourself. So this is how you find it. You go find him, and then you click on it, and you choose your path and take him along for the ride. Damn right. We'll take you on some geek threads here for sure.

All right. Well, we've covered a lot, so we better get that out of line. Yeah. The ship is parked out back. It's over Topica.

I mean, granted, I'm not crushing some houses, but somebody now has some extra shade that they didn't have a few minutes ago. Gotta go re-board the boat and get on out. Otherwise, that about does it. We'll see you next time. Take care.

Thanks for listening. Later, y'all. Bye. I'm out of here. I lost everything I'll never be I lost everything I taught myself to show the world that I am the one deep inside my heart.

I lost everything I can't avoid anything from you You're my platform I'm not the scum to you To the left and out of my head Only powers. I escape. Bye. Bye. Bye.

Bye. Now I can't stay free. Thank you. Thank you. And then eventually some weird dude who kept jumping like it was a slasher movie.

There were two or three times when, like, something would, like, happen to Rocky. He'd be like, hold on. I was just like, dude, are you okay? Like, do you just not get out of the house ever? Which might be the case.

This episode is a production of Movie Meltdown, produced and edited by the Auditude Studios, with opening music performed by the Empires. For more on how to sponsor or support the show, email producer at moviemeltdown.com. Talk hard! This program is a proud member of the Battleship Pretension Fleet.