The Second “holiday themed” TV special for the MCU and this time it’s a good old fashioned Christmas Special with the Guardians of the Galaxy. Admittedly while “Werewolf by Night” was a good standalone special this feels like a very light bit of humour more in the line of an extra or bonus feature. Still, tis the season to be mildly amused! Let’s take a look… Not that it’ll take long!
Peter Quill / Star Lord (Chris Pratt) is still bummed out about his love Gamora’s death / alternate timeline version not liking him so Mantis (Pom Klementieff) and Drax (Dave Bautista) decide to do something to cheer him up and hear about the Christmas holiday so put two and two together and come up with the plan to bring Quill’s childhood hero Kevin Bacon to him as a present, still believing him to be an actual hero, so they pop over to Earth and straight up kidnap him, complete with a scene where Drax is amused at some police officer’s attempts to capture him.
The most surreal break-in you’ll see this season!
Screw it, no need for a spoiler section here: Peter is horrified that Kevin Bacon has been kidnapped and demand he be taken back but after hearing how much he meant to Quill Kevin stays behind for a bit and they all band together to give him a proper big Christmas party, complete with Mantis admitting that she is Peter’s half-sister, which Star Lord calls “the best present of all”. Awwww…
Seriously though a few jokes were great and Bautista and Klementieff make a good duo, though some scenes rammed things home a bit too much (the duo experiencing Earth culture went on way too long, as did their disgust in finding out Bacon was an actor) but at the end of the day it was a quick jokey special for Christmas so I can’t be too hard on it…
Overall Thoughts:
Awwww…. Merry Christmas everyone! (or something)
The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special is 40 minutes of sometimes genuinely funny adventure but sometimes also annoying adventure. Still, a heart-warming message, some lovely imagery and cheesy nice ending means it’s perfect for the time of year… not that I can see myself being in a hurry to watch it again…
Hogan Reviews 