Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special Review!!

Published: November 25, 2022, 5:10 PM CST by HouseOfMacleod

Hello, Marvel fans, and welcome on this beautiful November eve to House of Macleod's film and TV review corner! Today we watch Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special (2022 44M) starring Dave Bautista, Pom Klementieff, Chris Pratt, Karen Gillan, Vin Diesel (as Groot), Bradley Cooper (as Rocket), Maria Bakalova ( as Cosmo the Space Dog), Sean Gunn alongside the big man himself...Kevin Bacon.

Traditionally, the Christmas special is one of two things: great or really terrible. James Gunn's offering for this holiday season is thankfully not a Star Wars Holiday Special. What he created is frankly one of the craziest bits of TV I've had the pleasure of watching all year. At 44 minutes, it's easy to digest and fills you with that warm Christmas spirit. You know what kind I'm talking about, the kind of Christmas magic that normally only comes from Home Alone or The Muppets Christmas Carol. This particular holiday special is about how Yondu screwed up Christmas for Peter Quill and the utterly crazy lengths that Mantis and Drax will go to bring the festive spirit back to StarLord's heart. The special is rounded out with an animated sequence that sets up the events of the story, which I found particularly poignant, especially considering Yondu's death, which brings a nice added dimension to the couple's relationship. Sure, it's been reported to set up the events of the next Guardians movie, but I think it served more to reduce exposition. When we see the third entry we won't need to explain various things to ourselves and with this we can get straight into the action, I think it has been wonderfully done.

This Christmas bargain has it all, it's funny, it's touching, it's got musical numbers, it's got a big name guest star, basically it's got all the components of a great Christmas special and I think Gunn really nailed the Christmas spirit of it all. I can't wait to see what he has in store for Guardians before he takes charge of DC. If it's half as funny, heartfelt and action-packed as this one, we're in for a hell of a ride. Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special is available on Disney+ right now. Did he ring your bells or roast your chestnuts over an open fire? Let us know what you thought of it in the talkbacks...

Official House of Macleod score: 9/10. Ho Ho Ho, now I have a ray gun…