Review of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (2017) by David O — 16 Dec 2017

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 is a 2017 Action Adventure Sci-Fi Superhero movie written and directed by James Gunn and stars Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana, Dave Bautista, Bradley Cooper, Karen Gillan, Michael Rooker, Pom Klementieff, Kurt Russell, Vin Diesel and Sylvester Stallone.

The movie follows the story of the Guardians as they are hired to a new assignment by a group of golden-colored race known as The Sovereign. When a mischievous act takes place, the Guardians are hunted by the Sovereign which leads the Guardians to escape and meet with Ego (Kurt Russell) who claims to be Starlord's (Chris Pratt) father. The Guardians are split between exploring Peter's lineage and escaping the ravagers, they must learn to work and trust each other to save the galaxy once again.

The movie is a direct sequel to 2014's Guardians of the Galaxy and takes place 3-months after the events of the first film and is counted as the 15th film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Following the same style of humor and action, James Gunn once more presents a fun sci-fi-fi adventure with plenty of action sequences, music and the colorful imagination of Marvel.

The MVP's of the movie have got to be Drax (Dave Bautista) for his comedic performance as well as Yondu (Michael Rooker) for his emotional and well-rounded character arc. Most rememberable one-lines are given to those two characters that quickly turned into internet memes sensations. What's even more interesting, during the world-building, the focus on the family theme as being the core of the movie adds more value to franchise. The Father-Son relationship of Ego and Starlord, the Sister-Sister relationship of Gamora and Nebula, the Uncle-Nephew relationship of Drax and Baby Groot as well as the Brothers-in-Arms relationship of Yondu and Rocket.

The main weakness of the movie lies in the plot and overall story as it is clearly noticed that it primarily consists of one joke after the other and not having much development in the overall story. The direction seemed to be rushed to present comedy rather than providing enough time to flesh out more storylines and plots. Another weakness lies in The Sovereign characters which were more of a plot device instead of real villains.

As the selection of the songs is critical to the overall direction of this franchise, this sequel lacked the charm of the first movie. One wouldn't remember much songs, with exception to Brandy by Looking Glass due to it becoming part of the plot and Mr. Blue Sky by ELO as the film's opening baby Groot sequence are the only two songs that were interesting.

Overall, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, is a fun and exciting sequel with great performances that feels like genuine theme park ride but finds itself lacking to have the same effect as the first movie.

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 gets a B-.