The Guardians of the Galaxy spend their time in Knowhere, a space station built in the skull of a dead Celestial (huge creatures that appeared in The Eternals). Peter Quill (Chris Pratt) worries about the loss of Gamora, Rocket (Bradley Cooper) equips a settlement with a telekinetic dog Cosmo (Maria Bakalova). Well, Drax (Dave Bautista) and Mantis (Pom Klementieff) decide to give a gift to the yearning Peter. Namely, they go to Earth to steal the idol of their friend, actor Kevin Bacon (Kevin Bacon), and bring him as a Christmas surprise.
For the past couple of years, James Gunn has been on a forced vacation from Marvel – and during this pause, he shot several projects for their main comic book competitor, DC, and even managed to become the creative director of the MCU there. But, most importantly, the director gave free rein to his dark side: in the second “Suicide Squad” and “Peacemaker” we saw the same Gunn from the times of “Super” and “Porn for the whole family.” A cynical 50-year-old teenager who was not quite allowed to roam the rigid vise of the Disney system. For the new Guardians, James has clearly returned a little refreshed, rested and, oddly enough, much more kind than ever before. It was as if the pendulum rule had worked in his career – and after the bloody bacchanalia of DC projects, Gunn wanted to do something completely opposite.
The Guardians special is both ironic about the clichés of such uplifting Christmas movies—which in Hollywood are churned out by TV channels like Lifetime in batches every year—but also follow them rigorously. There is a classic story here about “saving the holiday”, where the gloomy hero will definitely be reminded of the value of family and friends. There is a sugary atmosphere of the world where, in principle, nothing bad can happen. There is, after all, a hilarious song written specifically for the film. True, the aliens in it sing about Christmas as a strange tradition with Santa the burglar.
Even the adventurous plot with the kidnapping of Kevin Bacon and battles with the police (as well as one very unfortunate cosplayer) eventually turns into the same gingerbread course. Heroes forgive everything at the right time, forget about all the problems and do things solely for reasons of absolute kindness. And it is obvious that Gunn is well aware of the naivety of his film – but, like any sensitive author of the world of victorious post-irony, he does not let this realization break him down. The Holiday Special embraces its own simplicity, winks at the viewer slyly, and still tells an endlessly touching tale of two strange characters attempting to please a friend. Although they have no idea how to do it.
The film proves that James Gunn can remain himself even without any hint of transgression – in the space of a harmless Christmas movie, he feels as confident as in the perky exploitation. But, most importantly, the “Holiday Special” is another example of how you can manage to maintain individuality even in the face of the impersonal Disney corporation. Of all the recent Marvel films, it is the 40-minute Guardians that seem to be the most human, alive and creative: there are even animated flashbacks made using rotoscoping (this is when they draw on top of the actual shooting, as in Linklater’s Blurred). It’s a pity that the company’s big comics films rarely allow themselves even a modicum of the creative energy that this little trifling small-screen special has.
