Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2
Directed by: James Gunn
Grade: B
The guardians return to save the galaxy from a new threat. There’s also insulting of powerful people, all kinds of family issues, the threat of Thanos looming over the galaxy and Kurt Russell. I had been looking forward to this one for a while and while I think parts of it fell flat it also packed quiet an emotional punch.
One big problem. I feel like 85% or so of the movie I saw in the marketing and ads. I also felt the big event at the end was heavily foreshadowed to the point of my being like, “Yeah, that’s gonna happen.”
Second a lot of the humor especially concerning Drax just fell flat for me. That’s purely personal though. I saw this with my brother actually who never saw the first film and asked if that was as funny as this one. I don’t know why most of the Rocket stuff worked but the Drax character (who I loved in the first) was mostly meh.
It felt like they were trying to hard there.
But despite my issues damned if it didn’t bring the feels and I was crying at the end. I admit it.
I thought Chris Pratt did a good job with finding his father and his chemistry with Gamora (Zoe Saldana) is still on point.
The stuff with Rocket trying to self-destruct his friendships and his new found family was also well done and surprisingly I liked the arc Nebula had with her sister. As much as I like Karen Gillian this isn’t a character I would have expected to have sympathy for or at least understand where she was coming from…
Speaking of family and heart Michael Rooker definitely stole the show. I’ve always been partial to the actor (I think killing him off The Walking Dead when they did was a huge loss.) I never really like how he has to yell so many lines as Yondu although I admit it makes it a stronger contrast when he’s doing the softer Yondu has a heart stuff it all worked for me here. Like I said the ending was really lovely.
Also five credit scenes Marvel? Five?
To be honest I didn’t really care about any of them including the Adam Warlock one until I saw that Nikolaj Coster-Waldau might be in the running for that part. Now I’m like bring on Vol. 3!
Recommend: Yes. I didn’t love it as much as the first but the cast and the message of family, love and redemption sold me in the end.
