Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2

Despite being a huge comic book nerd I was not familiar with the Guardians before the first movie came out. I did some googling and upon learning about this sci-fi superhero team consisting of a talking raccoon and tree man I was hardly impressed.

I finally got round to watching the first film and was blown away. It had a remarkable charm that even the other Marvel titles didn't have. It was filled with great humour, memorable moments and fit into the Marvel Universe long running story perfectly.

Because of this I pumped by expectations up high for the sequel to a degree where it was almost guaranteed to fail yet somehow, someway it didn't.

Not only did it meet my expectations but it exceeded them, GotG2 is amazing.

Full of the same five star humour, being a visual treat and once again with an excellent soundtrack the film gripped me from the outset and delivered that charm all over again.

This time including several industry veterans including Kurt Russell (Who has been on great form since his return) and Sylvester Stallone they fit in well and don't detract from the franchise as I feared they might.

With cameo appearances along the way from the likes of Farscape (1999) lead Ben Browder to industry legend Seth Green as Howard the Duck this is a fun rollercoaster ride than left me positively gagging for more.

This is one of those films I feel like I could rant about (In a positive way) for a while and so I'm going to resist the urge and merely say that Guardians 2 is a contender for the best Marvel movie, contested only by the first Avengers film.

Masterpiece.

The Good:

Cast are great again

Charm returns

Excellent nostalgic soundtrack

Looks amazing

The Bad:

Only one movie with Baby Groot? Noooo!

They seem to have dropped Drax's taking everything literal jokes away

Michael Rosenbaum was wasted

Things I Learnt From This Movie:

Batista should have skipped over wrestling and just been an actor

I had my doubts about this one while going to the cinema, because I am a big fan of the first one and was genuinely worried that this one wouldn't live up to it's predecessor. While I do believe that the first one was a better movie, this one is what I would consider a perfect sequel.

Guardians of the Galaxy vol. 2 does the right thing by letting us get to know the characters a bit better. What I was most surprised by, however, was the choice to focus more on the character of Yondu than that of Chris Pratt's Star Lord. I thought it was a brilliant choice; Michael Rooker really shines in this role and is by far the best character in the movie. There are also some really cool action scenes with his arrow. Star Lord gets thrown to the side a bit, which is good since we already know pretty much everything about him except for who his dad is, which we do find out in this movie. All in all, the action was fun, the characters were great, the colors were great, it was much funnier than the first one (this movie is very much a comedy with some absolutely hilarious one-liners, mostly from Drax) and just overall a delightful experience. It definitely exceeded my expectations.

That being said, I do have just a few problems with this movie. They don't ruin the movie for me and they're not that bothersome, but still. We all know about the recent trend in big superhero movies such as this one, which is bad villains. And, honestly, all of my problems start with the villains. The Guardians are being followed throughout the movie by these golden people, which ultimately serve no purpose in the movie other than being "villains", I guess. I say "villains" because it's very much debatable what their motivations are and even who they are, and we just don't know enough about them to care. Everything they do is pretty ridiculous and over the top. The other problem I have is with Kurt Russel's character. Now, I love Kurt Russel and I was excited to see him play Peter Quill's dad, but his character just feels like a big exposition machine and, not to get too spoilery, goes the typical cliché route. His motivations are clear, but very much overused and he's basically in the movie as a plot device. These two things, though, aren't that big of a problem to me because they were just devices for the movie to give Star Lord something to do (of course, a movie needs conflict), and they were background things working around the jokes, fun, and the adventure the characters we love were on. And the ending does get quite emotional.

Ultimately, I think fans of the first movie will have no problems enjoying this one as well and I believe it has done everything right as a sequel. Let's just hope Marvel continues down this path of movies that know what they are and are just plain fun.

I was lucky enough to see this on 20/4 at an industry screening which allowed me to sit on the film for a few days before I gave a review. I can safely say GotG Volume 2 absolutely wowed me. I can't believe these bunch of lovable misfit a-holes made one of the most MATURE themed films in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The film is visually gorgeous. The use of colour, design and the straight up imagination of the source material outstand any MCU film prior. The action is glorious and astonishing. One scene in particular, I was jaw-dropped in its entirety as direction, action-choreography and music all came together so harmoniously. And THE MUSIC! What an eargasmic soundtrack. The songs are more poetic this time around and fit the subtext of the film perfectly. The trailers gave me the feel of the first movie; a straight-up Sci-fi action-comedy with a simple point A to B plot. GotGV2 is so much MORE than this! This film is patient with its characters and there is an emphasis on growth and family. It manages to balance 7-8 characters and gives almost all of them a satisfactory emotional arc. There is so much to chew on here with the issues and motifs felt by certain characters and I applaud that! This film is vastly different and I'm glad because I just love these characters so much! They are still so fun and energetic. It's great to see the team again and how their dynamic transforms. Also I forget to mention, the film is laugh-out-loud funny! All thanks to Drax who is by far the most comedic character and put me stitches.

Overall, this was both (I can't believe I'm saying this about the Guardians of the Galaxy) an emotionally dense and exciting blast. If Guardians 1 is the fast-paced Sci-Fi adventure like Star Wars was in 1977, then Vol. 2 is the deeper & richer film that takes its time to expand our beloved characters; just like Empire Strikes Back.

Quill finds his real father.

This is an enjoyable adventure with great humour and character moments.

The story is pretty threadbare outside of the development of characters like Quill, Yondu, Ego, and Nebula but this provides enough entertainment on its own. Written into most scenes are strong themes about family and friendship. What it means to be a parent. Surrogate parents and families. Estranged children searching for parental figures and family.

Of course it's all done with a great sense of humour, as characters like Drax, Mantis, Rocket, and Groot light up the screen with strong verbal and visual comedy.

Quill doesn't massively develop as a character, but we do learn more about his origins and powers. Alongside this the Guardians are portrayed as developing a family dynamic. This is great idea given they are all depicted as coming from traumatic beginnings.

Ego is an interesting character and fantastic visualisation of an outlandish graphic-novel concept. It is not particularly subtle, but the character epitomises an extreme version of the in-built selfish drives present in everyone. Kurt Russell is on great form.

The contrasting father figure of Yondu is written particularly well. He has been portrayed as having egotistical characteristics too, but here is given a huge redemption arc with with moments of great altruism. It is great to see Michael Rooker playing this type of character. He is as stereotypically violent and generally aggressive as in his previous roles, but for once he gets to show some heart.

Nebula and Gamora have solid moments of relationship development. These scenes all tie in well to the movie's main themes and are important to the overarching narrative of the MCU, particularly when watching The Avengers: Infinity War and Endgame. Karen Gillan and Zoe Zaldana both give strong performances, especially Gillan who is a consistently strong performer in the MCU.

Visually it is a colourful feast for the eyes and full of exciting spectacle as you would expect from a space adventure. For me the CGI action is a little too much on occasions and distracts from the story, but doesn't spoil my enjoyment of the movie. It generally tells the story through its cinematography and editing. Being a Guardians movie it has a great soundtrack of course with many a well placed song.

My god, I did not expect this movie to be this good. I am a big fan of the first Guardians of the Galaxy movie, and while I do think it is one of the better MCU movies, this one is just better in practically every way. The plot is well structured, and the pacing is great. The movie also explores its characters way more thoroughly than the previous one. The struggle of finding a place where you belong is a central theme, and every important character has their own struggles related to this. The performances are great as usual, every actor really brings their own flavor to their character. The movie also has great visuals, with all the wacky and fun ideas you might expect from a space movie. The action scenes are great, and the cgi is pretty flawless. The movie is also way funnier than any other MCU movie, with every character being a great source of humor. It's so much comedy being presented it's actually a little too much for me sometimes. Some of the characters feel like they exist only to be comic relief, even though they also have serious struggles that deserve a more serious treatment than they get. That is my only complaint though, as this is a movie with great plot, characters and visuals, as well as a fantastic climax, even though they pulled the whole "saving the world"-plot point again. This is one of my favorite MCU movies and space movies in general, it's a great time and I highly recommend it.