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Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2: A Far From Perfect Sequel, But Still One of Marvel’s Best

  • Bradley CooperChris Pratt...
  • Action & AdventureScience Fiction
  • James Gunn
reviewed by
Marija Djurovic
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Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2: A Far From Perfect Sequel, But Still One of Marvel’s Best

Though not as fresh as its predecessor, the follow-up to James Gunn’s 2014 directorial debut, Guardians of the Galaxy, still manages to live up to much its promise. Much like the original, Vol. 2 – a film that marks the fifteenth instalment in the MCU franchise –doesn’t take itself too seriously and the story, although slightly disjointed this time around, manages to offer up plenty of cosmic whimsy, zany humour and an excellent lead cast that keeps this action-packed sci-fi space-opera very much alive.

After managing to earn a name for themselves from a couple of years before, the Guardians of the Galaxy; Peter Jason Quill aka Star-Lord (Pratt), Gamora (Saldana), Drax the Destroyer (Bautista), Rocket Raccoon (Cooper) and Baby Groot (voiced by Diesel) now find themselves serving as the go-to-guys for any planet-saving missions that may arise. However, things soon go wrong when they’re hired by a genetically-engineered race of gold-skinned super-beings known as Sovereigns to protect their highly-cherished batteries in exchange for Gamora’s captured and psychotic half-sister Nebula (Gillan).

Having made the mistake of keeping some of those batteries for themselves, the Guardians soon find themselves on the run and after bumping into some serious trouble that damages their ship, they’re rescued by a mysterious ancient entity named Ego (Russell), who claims to be Peter’s long-lost father. While Peter is seemingly excited at the prospect of learning more about the man who made him, Gamora remains sceptical about Ego’s true motives. Meanwhile, Peter’s old boss, Yondu (Rooker), is hired by the Sovereigns leader, High Priestess Ayesha (Debicki), to track his crew down and bring them back for punishment, causing even more trouble for the ‘noble’ saviours.

Opening with yet another dance-number – this time courtesy of Baby Groot dancing to ELO’s Mr. Blue Sky – Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 sets the tone right from the very start with Gunn ensuring that everything that made the original the charming hit that it was, remains very much intact.  However, although still pretty entertaining for casual and hardcore Marvel fans alike, there isn’t as much novelty to their interaction with some of the humour coming across as a little flat, if not recycled, with the writing failing to offer any diversity or growth in its approach in evolving the Guardians’ dynamic.

On the other hand, the intergalactic world – and the action set-pieces that fill up most of the running time – is executed to the highest degree of sophistication with everything from make-up and costumes, to its clever use of CGI and colour, bringing the story to life. The performances from the main characters are once again pretty reliable, however, as is usually the case with superhero movies, the villains feels a little short-changed whilst the likes of Kurt Russell, though fitting to the storyline, doesn’t really get the attention he deserves.

Wacky, eccentric and charmingly entertaining, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol.2 does not disappoint and even if it is a little flimsy in terms of story, there is still plenty of fun to be had.

Like This? Try

Guardians of the Galaxy (2014), Doctor Strange (2016), The Avengers (2012)

360 Tip

Gary Oldman, Viggo Mortensen, Christoph Waltz, Christopher Plummer, Max von Sydow and Liam Neeson were all considered for the role of Ego.

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