The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special

This Christmas special is all I wanted it to be. A shot, (bitter)sweet special with usual Gunn humor. This captures the Christmas spirit perfectly.

This short also explores themes of fatherhood, friendship and contains some songs too without overstaying its welcome.

Mentis takes lead in this, which is great because she doesn't get much chance to shine. Drax is great as always. You can see that this does not bother itself with it being connected to the rest of MCU, not even its own sequel. Which is rare as for the rest of MCU stock. The animations used in this is also good.

Also, Kevin Bacon.

The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special is the 2nd Marvel Special.

It's a fun little Christmas story with little stake and that is perfectly fine. However, it doesn't mean that the special doesn't give important information because it certainly does.

I really appreciate that for the special, Star Lord isn't the main character. This special was a perfect way to give other characters more of a spotlight and in this case it was Mantis.

One minor issue I had in GOTG2 was that Mantis was more of a joke character who was not remotely as cool as her comic counterpart. The special finally gives us a Mantis that is more competent which was great. Additionally, we get to see more of Drax's ability as well. Unfortunately, Mantis and Drax are still treated as idiotic characters which is a shame. While Mantis is slightly forgivable because she actually has a serious dilemma and aim but Drax is just really dumb and I really want him to be more serious in GOTG3.

Overall, a fun little 40 minute special that adds more to the Marvel universe. So far the specials have been great and I hope they continue this trend.

The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special is much better than the Star Wars Holiday Special, though it may not be as memorable. This is a simple story about an inconsequential adventure for Drax & Mantis, who actually work pretty well as a comedic duo. And since it's a short Christmas tale, problems are resolved with a wave (or touch) of the hand, and the ending is wrapped up nicely with a little bow. I do wish they hadn't tried to cram modern Christmas hits in every couple of minutes--that was a little distracting. Still, this is better than most of the stuff we've gotten in Phase 4 of the MCU.

Pom Klementieff is given more screen time in this special than in all her other MCU appearances combined, and she makes Mantis the perfect point of view character for this Christmas special. She is both hilarious and heart-warming as she struggles to give Peter Quill the perfect Christmas, and her sincerity and chaotic energy are what carries this story. As alien abduction stories go, this one was pretty funny, and surprisingly touching. It still had all the corny Christmas special elements you'd expect - absurd musical numbers, references to old movies, and everyone learning the true meaning of American Christmas - getting presents. If they made another one next year, I'd watch it.

The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special ends phase 4 on a satisfying high, delivering a short piece of festive fun that still has all the humour and emotional weight expected of a James Gunn project and a reminder that he is/was one of the best filmmakers Marvel had.

The Guardians are all great in their small roles but it's absolutely Pom Klementieff's show and she finally gets to shine as Mantis, bringing new layers to her character and still having a really funny rapport with Dave Bautista. Kevin Bacon fits in perfectly, more than ready to indulge in the silliness and send up.

James Gunn's direction is excellent, it has more in common with his direction on Peacemaker and Super than the previous films and returns the MCU to a practical and lived in feel not properly seen since phase 1, which nicely counterbalances the shoddy CG. The soundtrack is terrific too, a solid selection of festive tunes that are implemented really well.