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When the Marvel Cinematic Universe released the film adaptation of its lesser known characters The Guardians of the Galaxy in 2014, it surprised audiences with its witty writing, fun characters, cool action sequences and awesome soundtrack.
Since then we’ve been eagerly waiting for its sequel which turned out to be a solid effort that captured pretty much everything that we loved in the first film.
Following their defeat of Ronan in the previous film The Guardians- Peter Quill (Chris Pratt, Passengers), Gamora (Zoe Saldana, Star Trek Beyond), Drax (Dave Bautista, Spectre), Rocket (Bradley Cooper, Joy) and Baby Groot (Vin Diesel, The Fate of the Furious)- are now heroes among the Galaxy and go on various adventures where they carry out missions for people in the Galaxy.
The main story of the film is Peter being reunited with his long lost father Ego (Kurt Russell, The Hateful Eight) where they develop a father-son relationship as well as Peter and we learn about why his father has been absent from his life as well as his relationship with his mother.
In addition to that, the Guardians are also trying to evade from the High Priestess of Sovereign (Elizabeth Dubecki, The Great Gatsby) whom Rocket has stolen from and tries to attack them and bring them to justice as well as forming uneasy alliances with Gamora’s adopted sister Nebula (Karen Gillan, The Big Short) and Yondu (Michael Rooker, TV’s The Walking Dead).
Director, James Gunn has done a pretty good job at replicating everything that was great about the first film and bringing it to the sequel creating this stunning visual world, retaining the wit and humor that we know and love about the films as well as the banter/rivalry between Peter and Rocket and giving us answers to the mystery behind Peter’s parentage. Whilst this film isn’t as fresh as the previous film, Gunn still manages to create an entertaining follow up that will keep us happy and wanting more adventures from the Guardians.
The film really did well at exploring the different relationships in the film including Peter and Ego’s developing father-son relationship and the strain between them due to Ego’s absence, Gamora trying to fix things between her and Nebula as well as Drax’s newfound friendship with Ego’s empathetic assistant Mantis creating some powerful emotional scenes between them.
Baby Groot of course steals many of the scenes especially in the opening sequence where he dances along to Mr Blue Sky tracking his entire dance routine whilst the other guardians fight off a monster, as well as a hilarious mid-credit scene that won’t be spoiled for you here.
As for the soundtrack, it’s just as awesome as the first film that includes songs such as The Chain by Fleetwood Mac, My Sweet Lord by George Harrison and many more cool songs that keeps the upbeat feeling of the film.
The one nitpick about the film was the reveal about the main villain, once their backstory and motives were told it seemed a little bit predictable about where it was going to go from there but the final battle between our heroes and the villain managed to balance action, comedy and heartbreak so well that it can help you look past it.
Whilst it’s not better than the previous film, Guardians of The Galaxy Vol. 2 is still entertaining and worth watching and it will keep you excited for their future appearances within the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
4/5