Spoilers for Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 ahead:
Just saw Guardians of the Galaxy: Vol 3 the other night. Overall, I thought it was a good movie. I was entertained. I laughed. I cried. I had that butt-clenching sensation you get when the main character, against all odds narrowly avoids being crushed by a giant spaceship.
It was a decent story too, a little more focused on the relationships between the characters as opposed to just about getting the bad guy.
But something that always bothers me about superhero movies, especially modern ones, is the blatant and shameless selective adherence to guiding principles. Throughout the movie we constantly hear chirps from the characters about how everyone deserves a second chance or how we need to save as many lives as possible or how I’ll do whatever it takes to save my friend!!! I guess of those examples, at least the last one is true. Despite the so-called-Guardians sanctimoniousness about saving lives and protecting people they do a pretty lousy fucking job of saving lives, except maybe when it comes to the lives of their comrades.
The whole movies is full of indiscriminate use of deadly force on bad guys with sprinkles of hesitation and pause for no apparent reasoning, except for maybe in cases where they need to manipulate a baddie for their own gain.
Did all those mutants and security guards and administrative workers(?) who were subject to the will of the High Evolutionary not deserve a second chance? Were they all so reprehensible and beyond redemption that they all deserved to have their skull crushed by Drax or to be ripped apart from the inside out by strangely-proportioned pubertal Groot?
How about the entire population of Counter Earth. Did the Guardians even shed a tear when a literal planet of people was just erased and the only survivors were these outsiders who were shown hospitality despite their sudden and intimidating arrival? Did they even think for a second about trying to save any of those inhabitants, or are they just completely not on the GotG radar in terms of priorities.
Sure, you can argue it was kill or be killed in the case of the enemy mutants, or that those monsters (only by our anthropocentric perspective) were beyond saving; and you could argue Counter Earth was doomed anyway. But isn’t that supposed to be the difference between heroes and villains? Heroes live by a code, a set of parameters that they operate within, and their job is to go beyond (Plus Ultra) and save people against all odds? Whereas the villains are “free” to work towards their goals no matter the cost to those around them. Couldn’t they have made the Guardians seem at least a teeny tiny more bit sad or concerned?
Anyways I’m glad all those animals were saved at the end, it almost made me forget all the lives that were taken for Rocket’s sake.
nANIMOv 