Guardiani della Galassia Vol. 2

The movie is full of heart , well directed and has some great messages as the first one but it is funnier than its predecessor. This can be sometimes an advantage and other times a disadvantage. Not quite as fresh as the original, but it's still a great triumph with one of the most emotionally impactful endings of any Marvel Cinematic Universe story. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 might not be as amazing as the first movie but it's a fun ride with characters we love.

Rating: 7,8.

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 is a great movie, and I would say better than the recent superhero movies. I'm afraid thought that the first movie set the expectations so high that is not crazy to doubt if this one was able to keep up.

Visually is as good as the first one, the acting is on point and the soundtrack is dope. The plot is fine, although it falls under the "knowing better the characters and realizing their sad and deep feelings" cliché. It leaves me with the feeling that the first one was innovative and fresh, wherever this one just reused the formula.

Apart from that, this is an entertaining and fun movie, and I would recommend it to anyone who is into superhero or science fiction movies. It doesn't disappoint.

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.

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.

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.