Hello everyone! 🙂

Welcome to ‘Bradley’s Basement’ blog and I’m Tim Bradley!

I know I’m not up to date with all the ‘Marvel Cinematic Universe’ stuff that’s been released this year. I’ve seen the 2022 movies, but I haven’t seen all the ‘MCU’ shows on Disney+, including ‘Ms. Marvel’ and ‘She-Hulk: Attorney at Law’. Hopefully, I’ll get to catch up on those sometime next year.

As it’s coming to the end of 2022 and this is Christmas in December, I decided to check out the conclusion to Phase Four of the ‘MCU’, which is ‘The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special’. Thankfully, this didn’t end up like the ‘Star Wars Holiday Special’. 😀 It turned out to be a lot of fun.

Mind you, that is what I was expecting with this Christmas Special, especially concerning the Guardians of the Galaxy. Their movies in the ‘MCU’ have been fun so far, but I wouldn’t say I’m a huge fan of them. I particularly enjoyed them in this Holiday Special, but I don’t go nuts about them.

This special is…okay. It’s good to spend 42 minutes on, but it’s not something I would go back to seeing again and again. Maybe once this year and twice if I revisit it to do an in-depth review on. Comparing this to ‘Hawkeye’ last year, I enjoyed all six episodes of ‘Hawkeye’ more than this special.

In the special, the Guardians have purchased Knowhere from the Collector. They’ve also taken in Cosmo the Spacedog as their new member. There’s no reference made to Thor being one of their gang in this special, although one assumes this special occurs right after ‘Thor: Love and Thunder’. 🙂

The special’s cast includes Chris Pratt as Peter Quill/Star Lord, Dave Bautista as Drax the Destroyer, Karen Gillan as Nebula, Pom Klementieff as Mantis, Vin Diesel as Groot, Bradley Cooper as Rocket and Sean Gunn as Kraglin Obfonteri. It was nice to see these characters for a festive outing as this. 🙂

Mantis, who turns out to be Peter Quill’s half-sister (something I apparently didn’t realise until this special), is worried about his half-brother being depressed. This is especially when Kraglin tells the Guardians the story about how Yondu, who was Peter Quill’s father figure, ruined Christmas for him.

Incidentally, the scenes of Yondu ruining Christmas for Peter Quill are done as animated flashback scenes. A bizarre and unusual way to present flashback scenes, but it’s way better than the animated adventure that was shown in the ‘Star Wars Holiday Special’. Michael Rooker returns as Yondu in those scenes.

Peter Quill is also depressed following the loss of his lover Gamora. Deciding to cheer Peter Quill up, Mantis and Drax decide to go to Earth to find the perfect Christmas present for him. They soon retrieve Peter’s childhood hero, who happens to be actor Kevin Bacon. Kevin Bacon plays himself. 😀

Mind you, I wouldn’t trust Kevin Bacon to be a reliable Christmas gift. Not because he’s simply an actor, but he mistreated Magneto badly in ‘X-Men: First Class’. 😀 I also keep seeing Kevin Bacon in the EE adverts at cinemas in the UK. How come it’s an American guy and not a UK guy doing the ads?

The scenes with Mantis and Drax chasing Kevin Bacon so that they can take him with them to be a Christmas present for Peter Quill are fun to watch. If it were in me in that situation, I wouldn’t mind having Sarah Sutton from ‘Doctor Who’ as a Christmas present, but I wouldn’t want her kidnapped. 😀

I would prefer it if she and others like Sophie Aldred and Wendy Padbury just came to see me at my house some day before Christmas of her own free will. 😀 Actually, now I think about it, having seen the ‘Home Alone’ movies recently, I have an idea of a ‘Bradley’s Basement Christmas Special’, starring me, Sarah Sutton and Peter Davison as ourselves. 😀

Anyway, I’m rambling on. 😀 The special also includes Rhett Miller and the Old 97’s, an American rock band from Dallas in Texas, who play Bzermikitokolok and the Knowheremen, an alien band on Knowhere. I guess they’re the equivalent of Starship Jefferson from the ‘Star Wars Holiday Special’.

Gosh, I’ve made quite a few ‘Star Wars Holiday Special’ references, haven’t I? Anyway, ‘The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special’ has been a lot of fun to watch. I’m not crazy about it, but I’m glad I’ve seen the special to satisfy my Christmas viewing and it was nice to see the GOTG characters in it.

I imagine this is all to set up the ‘Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 3’ movie that’s coming out in 2023. This is especially as the special is written and directed by James Gunn himself. Incidentally, I liked the scene at the end where Mantis reveals to Peter Quill that she’s his half-sister, as he’s happy about it.

Thanks for reading!

Bye for now!

Tim 🙂