Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 – Film Review

Guardians of the Galaxy was such a hit that there are so many expectations surrounding this entry of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. This film is a much smaller story based film in comparison to recent MCU movies. As cinephile, I appreciated the fresh take on having the story feel grand but also intentionally smaller to not outdo the first film — but to continue its story logically. The supporting characters get a better chance to shine including Nebula, Yondu and Kraglin.

Some of the weaker points of the film is that it feels a bit uneven where there were too many threads that came together in the end, but felt made the main storyline feel less important than it should. The end game felt a little rushed. But what balanced out those problems were the characters who we all loved from the first film who continued their quirks and were enjoyable throughout. The visuals are fantastic and are extremely colorful. Highly recommend for 3D viewing. It feels this is the way it was intended to be seen.

He says, “Welcome to the frickin’ Guardians of the Galaxy!” Only he didn’t use “frickin'”.

The songs on this entry took a minute to listen to multiple times for me to take a likening to them. “Fox on the Run”, “The Blue Sky”, and “Father and Son” were standouts for me. The seem more well written into the story than the previous entry, and not only are they well orchestrated into the script but they don’t feel forced for having a catchy song which I highly appreciate as an audience member. Some of the new supporting characters I appreciated including Mantis and Ego. Taserface was a smaller villain that didn’t have much of an arc but had strong motivations.

The Sovereign race was very well designed from the production, costume and makeup. I felt like I was watching a higher production “Star Trek” episode with a vibrant alien race with vastly developed technology. I felt that the Sovereign had a great introduction, but weren’t used how I thought they were going to be. Yondu’s arc was the strongest out of every character in the film. He was the heart of this movie. Nebula brought some great character development between her and Gamora. Rocket, Groot and Yondu had great chemistry in their storyline in this film. Baby Groot will sell all the merchandise.

Overall I really enjoyed this entry in the Guardians franchise, though it doesn’t have as strong of a splash with its novelty it is still a great time at the movies for any Marvel fan. It does feel more like an ensemble film rather than just a Peter Quill film to me personally. I felt everyone had a moment to shine. Though Gamora and Drax didn’t have as much to do I appreciated their presence on screen.

8.5/10