Review: Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2
Can you believe it’s been 3 years (almost) since the first Guardians of the Galaxy movie came out? It felt like it was so much more recent when we were first introduced to the dysfunctional team of misfits that saved the galaxy. The first film was an utter delight so I was pretty excited to see the second one; I was not disappointed.
Featuring 5 post/during credits scenes!
The Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 starts off not long after the events of the first film and follows them as Peter Quill aka Starlord is finding out the truth about his long lost father. Unlike the first movie this sequel feels less epic and more of a personal, more intimate story of the Guardians working to be a team and a family. This worked very well for me because after seeing superhero movie after superhero movie the “epic-ness” of the plotlines starts to become tiring.
Something I absolutely loved about this movie was its opening credits scene. It really set the tone for the rest of the movie. It was cute (it featured Baby Groot), it had some action and most of all it was funny! This whole movie was hilarious and they really showed you in advance that they wanted it to have humour throughout the drama/action. Compared to the other more recent superhero franchises I much prefer the silly jokes and cameos to the hard drama and action all the time.
Just one of many laughs.
The one thing I didn’t love was the overall plot and some of the Gamora/Nebula storyline. I found the plot and storyline to be predictable. While I liked the more personal feel of the overall plot, it just didn’t feel very original or have any real twists in my opinion. Maybe I’m too suspicious when watching movies and the average movie goer does not over analyse things as I do. As for the Gamora/Nebula storyline, along with being predictable, it just felt like filler. With a bit of tweaking the rest of the plot could have existed without the whole story. I imagine it was required to set up future storylines for the next movie perhaps. I should also mention that even though a certain event was predictable (to me) it still made me cry!
Like the first movie, music was a big thing for both the main character of Starlord and the film. The music is all songs from the 70’s (with two from the 60’s) much like the first film. However, unlike the first film I wasn’t familiar with more than one single song. Now I was born in the late 80’s so it makes sense that I wouldn’t recognise 70’s music but in the first movie I knew at least half of the soundtrack due to the lasting popularity. I don’t think it is super important to recognise the music in the film. No songs used in the movie felt out of place or wrong. This movie just lacked some of the fun vibes I got in the first one from the music I knew.
I never noticed this in the first movie that Sean Gunn (writer/director James Gunn’s brother)
plays Rocket in addition to Kraglin!
The last thing I will mention is that the makeup, costumes and special effects were top notch. This isn’t very surprising considering that the first movie was nominated for both make-up and visual effects. Not everyone is into special effects heavy movies but you couldn’t have this movie without the special effects used. I personally didn’t think it was too much, but I also knew what to expect after seeing the first movie.
That being said there is good use of makeup and costumes as well that make it more difficult to see every use of CGI. Did you know that the makeup process took a lot longer in the first film than the second? Both Drax and Nebula’s makeup time were cut in half for this film!
I would highly recommend this movie to anyone who likes action, comedy and/or superhero movies. If you cannot handle silly jokes or funny, adorable baby trees then this movie is definitely not for you.
I give this movie 4 out of 5 guardians (of the galaxy).