Welcome to this week’s article of The Good, Bad, and What The?, where we took a good, long look at characters in movies, video games, anime, and books and put them on the judgement table to see if they are worthy to be in their respective stories. I strongly believe that well developed characters are more important than anything else in a good story, so I always judge them hard. At the end of every character’s evaluation I will give them one of four ratings: Good for those characters that are developed and deserve their place in the story, Bad for those characters that have no place being made or interacting with anyone else in the story, What The for the characters I just can’t figure out, and then the characters who are dull as dishwasher will get the rating of Sack of Potatoes. Today on the judgement table: Groot and Rocket from the movie “Guardians Of The Galaxy.”
Of course to start off, let me explain why I’m cheating again. The thing about Groot and Rocket is that you just can’t do them alone. Groot can only say three words and Rocket is a violent mercenary who likes his guns. Alone, the two are not full characters, really.There simply is no such thing as Groot or Rocket; it’s always Groot and Rocket. Because of this, I’m going to talk about the two of them as if they were one character. Now I haven’t read the comics, so there will be no comparison. I am only talking about them as they are in the movie.
“Guardians Of The Galaxy” is about one of Marvel’s less know teams: the Guardians of the Galaxy. The story follows the team of Starlord, Drax, Gamora, Rocket and Groot, who are all ex felons. They all were after a rather large bounty that turned about to be much more important than they realized. The object that was worth so much turned out to be a powerful artifact that a great villain named Ronan was after. This of course caused one thing to lead to another, and the felons who were going after the mighty money bounty became the saviors of the galaxy. Groot and Rocket were the dynamic duo that always stuck together even before the Guardians team formed.
Groot is a large tree man who is made of wood and can grow plant life from his body. Rocket Raccoon is Groot best friend and the brains for Groot. Groot in the beginning of the movie is described as being Rocket’s hired muscle. That is how it appears right at the start. Groot is this big tree man who Rocket seems to order around. Rocket seems equally harsh and violent in the beginning as well. He is a mercenary who attacked Starlord for the pure fact that he wanted a big pay check. He isn’t very good at fighting, so he uses huge guns and explosives to deal with his opponents. He is an excellent gunner and a fairly smart little guy. The two are seen together right from the start when they get into a fight with Starlord and Gamora. It appears the two are going to be very rough characters: the crazy, money-hungry gunner and his big tree man muscle. These two, of course, do not stay this way. They are simply hard to get to know.
The biggest sign of inner feeling is when Groot meets a small girl. The team is in a place called Knowhere which Gamora describes as “A place where there are no rules.” In this violent and dangerous part of space, Groot grows a small flower in his hand a gives it to the little girl. This is a big sign of kindness from a character who can’t really communicate through words. He also does this when the rest of the team was already walking ahead. This means Groot can be kind to anyone, even if no ones see it. Rocket, however, isn’t as kind-hearted as Groot. This is one of the best parts about the two. They balance each other out and show that they do care, even if Rocket would never admit it.
Rocket does show there is more to him, though, too. Rocket was experimented on to make him the way his is before the time of the movie. He was genetically altered and has cybernetic implants that enhance things like intelligence and reflex. At a point in the movie Rocket becomes very drunk with Drax. The two characters get into a fight and Rocket pulls out a gun on Drax and yells “He called me vermin!” Rocket starts to almost cry because he is sick of people putting him down like this and says “I didn’t ask to be messed with. Being pulled apart and put back together!” Groot stands by Rocket’s side, not sure what to do because he wants to help his old friend Rocket but does not want to hurt his new friend Drax. This also shows the partnership between Rocket and Groot. The best sign of their friendship, though, was towards the end of the movie.
The team is in a ship that is about to go down and explode. They are all stuck in this ship and are gonna die once it hits the ground. Groot starts to shoot out large branches from his body and slowly forms a cocoon of wood around the team. Groot is protecting the team, but the explosion will kill him. Rocket runs up to Groot’s face and says, “What are you doing, idiot! You’ll die.” and starts crying. Groot then extends a small branch and wipes Rocket’s tears away and says “We are Groot.” This scene is very strong as it really showed that the crude raccoon with the big guns really does have a soft side and Groot knew it was there the whole times.
The verdict on Groot and Rocket is Good. They are two awesome character who fit together and never stop fighting. In the two hours of the movie you really get to know these two and watch them grow together. You see that a character that can’t talk and a character that often says things that are crude and mean can really have feelings. They are a great team and never fail to get the job done. This movie is amazing and if you see it for no other reason you should see it just for Rocket and Groot. They were no doubt my favorite part of the entire movie.