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Guardians of the Galaxy Deception

GotG
Sexy aliens from Guardians of the Galaxy.

With regards to the superhero genre, the big question in 2014, with the release of Guardians of the Galaxy Volume I, was: Who’s the Star Lord’s father? Quill’s mother was human but the Star Lord possesses alien abilities.  I speculated. Had theories. Asked: Who’s Your Daddy?

I was surprised there wasn’t more chatter on the web about who the possible patriarchal candidate might be. Even my family didn’t see what the big deal was. However, my uncanny preoccupation with the question prevailed, and in Volume Two of GotG the question dominates the storyline.

Deceived


Yondu
Who I thought the Star-Lord’s father was. Yondu is played by actor Michael Rooker.

I speculated that Quill’s daddy was Yondu. Made sense. Quill’s mother said he had the face of an angel—which the actor portraying the role does not—but the character is blue-skinned, giving a whole celestial feel to the alien. And he does sorta rescue Quill, after the kid’s mother dies, and teaches him how to survive. Even though the life-lessons Yondu teaches Quill are not in accordance with society’s Dudley do-right rules, Yondu does manage to keep Quill alive even at the protests of his followers, the Ravagers.

Yondu is a reasonable guess, but the few who speculated on the web had other possible candidates with valid reasons as well, like The Collector or Thanos.

Now, here is the deception. My guess was not entirely wrong nor was it right. At the conclusion of GotG Vol. 2, we are left with this grey area. And it all boils down to my original question: Who’s your daddy? The grey area (or blue area, if you prefer) seems to be that the father who tries to kill the Star-Lord may not be the same as the daddy who sacrifices his life for him.

For those of you like me, who wondered who Quill’s daddy was, our question is put to rest. We find out but are deceived, because the character who is the Star-Lord’s biological father never makes an appearance in Volume 1. All of our guesses were to no avail. We weren’t presented with all the candidates in the first movie to make an accurate decision going forward. (Psst, it’s the new guy on the block.)

I’m a big lover of whodunits and am pretty good at figuring who the murderer is way before the finish line, but only when all the game players are presented. I curse when writers throw in a wild card, someone who never made an appearance until he/she was nailed. I felt a little like this after seeing GotG Vol 2. Cheated. Deceived. Damnit, I just knew it was Yondu.

One of the game pieces was missing. It was unfair. Who could win?

Having said that, I must in all fairness give the movie a 5 star plus rating. It was great fun and the ultimate in  syfy entertainment for me. And I wasn’t totally wrong with my 2014 predication that Yondu is Quill’s daddy. (I’m trying not to give too many spoilers in case you haven’t seen it.)

My family and I had been on a movie marathon when we saw GotG Vol 2. (So many movies. So little time.) We saw Alien: Covenant, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales, and GotG Vol 2. I asked my family which was there favorite of the three—by the way all three were awesome—unanimously the vote was GotG. (My favorite was Alien, which I will explain later in the blog.) My granddaughter did not hesitate to shout, “Guardians.”

In my Guardians 2014 blog post, I reported my faves from the movie. In order to get a teen perspective—because as we all know teens know best or at least they’re brutally honest—I interviewed my granddaughter on what she liked.

Favorite Character

Drax and Mantis
Drax (Dave Bautista) and Mantis (Pom Klementieff) provide humor in their exchange of philosophies. Perhaps, a budding romance too. 

Granddaughter Mantis, she is a new character and an empath. I believe my granddaughter liked this about her. Mantis can touch someone and feel their emotions.

Me Yondu because he is the true hero in Volume 2.

Favorite Scene

Granddaughter When Quill said he thought his father was David Hasselhoff and gave reasonable explanations as to why he though that. (Of all the actors from that era, David Hasselhoff?! Hysterical.) She also liked when the Ravagers did fireworks in honor of Yondu, and when baby Groot dances in the opening scene while the Guardians are fighting a monster. (She had many favorite scenes.)

Me The scene when Yondu is in Quill’s arms and they’re floating around in space. Beautiful, touching scene. I also like the new world Ego introduces Quill to. Again, gorgeous cinematography.

Favorite Line

Granddaughter

Yondu: “He may have been your father, Quill, but he wasn’t your daddy.”

Me

Drax: When you’re ugly and someone loves you, it means they love you for who you are.”

Funniest Line (and there are many)

Granddaughter

Quill: You look like Mary Poppins.

Yondu: Is he cool?

Quill: Hell yeah, he’s cool.

Yondu: I’m Mary Poppins, y’all!

Me

Rocket: Does anybody have any tape out there? I wanna put some tape over the “Death” button!

QuillNobody has any tape!

Rocket: Not a single person has tape?

Quill: You have an atomic bomb in your bag! If anyone is gonna have tape, it’s *YOU*!

Favorite Song —(Quill’s walkman, a defunct piece of electronics, remains a key component to the storyline.)

Granddaughter “Mr. Sky Blue” written by Jeff Lynne and performed by Electric Lights Orchestra. “Father and Son” written and performed by Cat Stevens

Me Hands down, “The Chain” by Fleetwood Mac. Fleetwood is my all time favorite group so hearing a song by them in a movie I’m loving was fantastic and added to the entire adrenalin ride.

Some Trivia

Matthew McConaughey was considered to play Ego, but passed on the role in favor of The Dark Tower (2017).

Kurt Russell wasn’t the only one considered to play the role of Ego. Other actors who were considered were: Gary Oldman, Viggo Mortensen, Christoph Waltz, Christopher Plummer, Max von Sydow, and Liam Neeson.

I would love hearing your favorites from the movie. Please share if you have time.

(ProbeWARNING: Trailer has a spoiler.)

 

Alien: Covenant


I can’t close my blog without saying two words about Alien: Covenant. It’s Awesome!

Technically, that’s three words. It’s back to it’s roots in this sixth installment of the Alien franchise. Prometheus was a little way out there metaphorically speaking, as well as literally. You never really knew what was going on. And you were left with all kinds of questions, like WTFrak does that mean. This Alien is back to scare-the-crap-out-of-you, with the ultimate kick ass monsters.

It also puts me in mind of the good old days, when scary movies were all about scaring you and not some deep, dark, hidden message. I saw the first Alien movie with a bunch of my Journalism students I’d taken to a workshop at OU. Fun times! So here’s to (raises her glass) all the Journalism teachers taking their students to workshops this summer. Treat them to Alien:Covenant.

Yes, the language is bad. Many Fbombs. Yes, 1979 was an entirely different time and mindset, so maybe get parent permission first, but it will be a time to remember especially when you and the kids jump out of your seats.

Some of my former students are now friends of mine on Facebook. I get messages from them saying: Remember when we went to see Aliens?  And so-n-so jumped out of her seat went the alien popped out of the guy’s chest. (And yes I remember.)

Don’t Judge Me— Editorial


Some parents are more cautious these days, as well they should be. But being a theatre as well as a journalism teacher, I’m a bit more open-minded and believe exposure to real life, such as bad language, helps teens to formulate their own rules for appropriateness, which follow them throughout their lives.

We took my twelve-year granddaughter to see Alien:Covenant. She understands we never use that kind of language in our household—well, almost never. In fact, she gets very upset with us if we use even mild cuss words. We get the look!

My dad was a major in the army during WWII. I grew up familiar with every cuss word there was. He couldn’t express his deepest emotions without an expletive or two or ten. Did his love of the cuss word influence me?  Occasionally, I find it necessary to interject a bad word to get my point across. But what the hell. It’s only a word. (My dad was a wonderful man and a great role model.)

If you don’t want to comment on the movies, tell me, do you think exposing teens to movies with bad language will influence them to cuss? Or do you believe with a little guidance, teens will decide to leave the Fbombs out of their vocabulary? I go with the second choice.

Do I think Alien: Covenant would be just as great a movie without all the Fbombs? Definitely! I went  to see the movie not to hear words that make me cringe, but to see monsters that do. My granddaughter wanted to see it for the same reason—big, old, ugly, scary monsters. (Kinda takes after her Nanny that way.)

The Probe’s Mission Statement


Ironman
Ironman took time from his busy schedule to pose with my granddaughter and me at the Lubbock Comic Con. (Thank you, Charlie for taking the pix.)

The Probe is a blog devoted to the exploration of the unexplainable, to finding the truth in occurrences that resemble science fiction, and to researching and reporting on topics that could be flung upon the wall of weird. New posts are featured as often as I can find WiFi, and as often as I have something I think you might find interesting.

Join me here for more close encounters of the alien kind, or ghost kind, or animal kind, or travel kind, and please share your own. Science Fiction or Fact? Doesn’t matter to me. I just like a story that gives me the chills, makes me laugh, makes me think, or makes me imagine.

Sign up to get my slightly irregular blog posts delivered directly to your email. We are becoming popular. And thank you everyone for supporting me through all my learning of how to do a blog. If you haven’t signed up, better hurry. They’re going fast.

LubbockCom
So fun! Actually touched R2D2.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Clara Bush
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2 replies on “Guardians of the Galaxy Deception”

Hi, Clara.
Just seen Guardians 2 the other day and loved it. Amazing eye-candy and soundtrack. I love the way they make the soundtrack work (It really shouldn’t. I imagine spacey techno – type stuff for superheroes from outer space.) Kurt Russell was amazing as Ego and I always have been a big fan of his. Fave scene & song is kinda a two for one. Like you ‘The Chain’ was my favorite song in the movie. I like how they used it when Quill takes a run at Ego; excellent direction.

I seen Alien Covenant the day it came out, I just had to. My curiosity was killing me. With regards to your comments about how this installment of the franchise is back to a basic scare you out of your seat formula, I’m gonna have to disagree. I found Covenant to be a very deliberate movie in its statements regarding Artificial Intelligence, Religion, Cloning and (of course) Aliens. Ridley Scott definitely had an agenda when making this movie. I found his use of symbology and metaphors to be ubiquitous throughout the film. But where to start?

The character of David quite literally is the character Prometheus from Greek mythology. The Greek Titian, Prometheus is most know for stealing fire from the gods and giving it to man. He did this because in fact it was Prometheus who created man by fashioning a golem out of clay and then dripping his own blood on to it giving the golem a soul (making it human). The Bible’s Adam was a golem as well until God used his breath to make Adam human (so the story goes). The character of David is seen blowing his breath into the humanoid (bipedal) alien before the preacherman blasts it to pieces. David’s favorite song is Wagner’s Entry of the Gods Into Valhalla. David is obsessed with being a creator (or some might say a god); the one thing he was programmed unable to do. At least that’s what he says. This begs the question how did an android develop emotions and an urge to be like his own creator. When showing his ‘work’ (the many very cool hybrids) there is one on his desk that is what I call Alien Christ (the one with an alien head, human body that was crucified). What was Ridley Scott trying to say with that one? Nothing in movies of this scope is by accident. Although images may appear for only a second, you can bet your bottom dollar that it was there on purpose and had a very specific meaning. I could deconstruct this movie frame by frame and find an esoteric meaning in almost every one. That being said, Alien Covenant for me definitely had a deep dark hidden message (several actually. The dangers of A.I. being another major theme as well as Faith). Like I said, I could go on for days about this movie. But at the end of the day it delivers exactly what your experience of the movie was as well; A kick-ass sci-fi thrill ride.

Hey Jason,

Your words ring true, as always. Sorry I scooted over all the “hidden messages.” But then the purpose of my attendance had more to do with introducing my granddaughter to THE ALIEN that puts all other aliens to shame (as far as I’m concerned), and to escape the real world for 123 minutes. Alien: Covenant did that for me, and then some. This storyline brought me back to fond memories of the first time I saw the original Alien. As we said it’s “a kick-ass thrill ride.” And I’m sorry to say, I allowed it to do exactly that without delving deeper into Scott’s true intent.

Prometheus mythology has always fascinated me. And when I taught it, I asked my students to do a Venn diagram of Christ and Prometheus. They were surprised to find more likenesses than differences. Perhaps Scott was saying, with his Alien Christ, all religions have some sort of a “savior” figure. David was a god, giving life to a new species. The hybrid would be their savior.

Now that I have fulfilled my initial goals with regards to viewing Alien: Covenant; I will definitely watch it again and use a more critical eye.

Thank you for the comment. You truly bring excellent points to the table. As far as David, like the alien he has evolved. What caused David’s evolution is a mystery, much like our questions about human evolution. But that’s only my opinion.

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