WARNING: NOW That's What I Call SPOILERS (Vol.
2)
This time around, the greatest heroes in the galaxy are
Pac-Man and Mary Poppins.
After the events of the first movie, the Guardians of the
Galaxy have taken up a job as soldiers of fortune. When one of these jobs goes
wrong and they wind up being hunted down by a conclave of gold-skinned purists,
they find solace with the last person they thought they’d encounter: Peter’s
dad, a.k.a. Ego the Living Planet (played by Kurt Russell). Yes, that planet with a giant face from the comics is Star-Lord’s daddy. Long story. But while
Peter bonds with his immortal deadbeat dad, the Guardians learn that not all is
what it seems. Meanwhile, the Ravagers mutiny against Yondu for betraying their
code. Everyone learns what true family is. And Groot is a baby.
The best parts of Guardians
of the Galaxy Vol. 2 are the characters and where the film takes them.
Everyone gets their own fair share of development in this movie, and you’ll
definitely be reminded of why you liked these characters from the first movie. The
film does what a lot of sequels to ensemble/team movies do and “split the
fellowship” by having some of the cast in Plot A, and the others in Plot B (see
The Empire Strikes Back or The Two Towers for further examples).
This way, we get to explore different corners of the universe while still
following the main cast. This also allows for some interesting character
combination dynamics that never really crossed my mind, like Rocket and Yondu bonding,
and the chemistry between Drax and newcomer Mantis. Baby Groot doesn’t get as
much focus as the advertisement made it seem, but with how many characters
there are in this movie, that’s a very minor complaint.
And as good as the main characters are, it was the secondary
characters that surprised me here. Like I said, everyone is given depth, and
when some of these side characters didn’t have that much to go on from the
first film, that makes them stand out all the more. Nebula is the Loki of this
movie: a first movie villain who gets more development in the sequel to make
her more fleshed out. Her monologue about how Thanos would replace bits and
pieces of her with cybernetics when Gamora would best her in battle is one of
the more powerful bits in the movie.
Yondu gets a character arc involving his atonement for past
sins, which makes his sacrifice at the end all the more heartbreaking. Freaking
Kraglin even gets to be a compelling character! Yeah, the guy from the first movie who was literally just an excuse for director James Gunn to cast his
brother as a character becomes a kind of vital part of the Guardians by the
end. To quote the harrowed words of the great Chancellor Palpatine: A surprise
to be sure, but a welcome one.
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| I am Groot. |
I also thought the villains here were better than in the
first movie. Ronan the Accuser was by the far the weakest part of the first Guardians film, owing to the fact that
his staunch seriousness and resemblance to past MCU bad guys didn’t really gel
with the less serious atmosphere. Here, the villains feel like a more organic
part of the scenery. Ayesha and the Sovereign are a quirky bunch of aliens who
get a few laughs, and the stupidity of Taserface doesn’t feel out of place in a
movie that has a talking raccoon.
Ego is probably the most serious villain of the lot, but
with how much more emotional this movie is than its predecessor, it feels
right. He’s Peter’s dad, but is also responsible for killing his mom and wants
to become the entire universe, regardless of the lives it would kill in the
process. On top of the much more serious, universe-level threat, there’s a
layer of familial drama piled on that makes the protagonists’ conflict with him
all the deeper.
The humor is still good in this movie, though I feel like
the jokes were better in the first one. Don’t get me wrong, there are a lot of
laugh-out-loud moments here. It just feels like whereas the first film focused
on jokes more with a surprisingly powerful undertone of emotion, this one
focuses more on that emotion and character and delegates the jokes to the
sidelines a bit. Not a problem at all. Darker, more emotional sequels have worked
for Marvel movies in the past, and this is no exception.
Carrying over from the first film, the visuals are
astounding. The effects for Rocket and Groot continue to amaze me, and there
are a few new CGI creations thrown into the mix, like the giant snaggle-toothed
Cthulhu monster at the beginning. According to Marvel, Ego’s planet was the
biggest visual effect they’ve done thus far, and it shows. To my knowledge, Marvel
doesn’t normally do entire CGI environments, and when they do, they don’t have
multiple facets and moving pieces. But with Ego, the entire environment is
alive with brightly colored flora and fauna. At times, it looks like something
straight out of Avatar (the alien
Smurf-cats movie, not the Last Airbender).
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| "I am Groot?" "I am Groot." |
Another plus the film has going for it: the most important
Stan Lee cameo in the whole MCU, because it pretty much confirms that STAN LEE
IS UATU THE WATCHER, AND ALL OF HIS CAMEOS ARE THE SAME PERSON!!! Well…it’s
actually very vague. He’s just having a conversation with some Watchers about
his previous cameos, and he doesn’t really look like them at all. But it’s
something, damn it! This fan theory has never been closer to being confirmed
and I’m ecstatic!
My main gripes with this movie are with the pacing. The
movie speeds through the first act to get Peter and the Guardians to Ego, but
then it takes it time through the second and third acts. The ending especially
feels like it goes on for an eternity, mostly due to the fact that the climax
keeps adding in stuff to make it longer. They have to get to Ego’s core to blow
him up. Oh, now the Sovereign are back to fight. Oh, now Peter and Ego are
going to battle with their Celestial powers. Oh, now Yondu’s going to sacrifice
himself for Peter. Oh, now we’re going to have a funeral for Yondu because
apparent this is Wrath of Khan all of
a sudden,
I also felt like the film couldn’t really decide who it
wanted the main villain to be until the third act. When it starts out, it looks
like Ayesha and the Sovereign are going to be the main threat because they’re
pissed off at the Guardians and hire Yondu and the Ravagers to get them. But
then when it starts focusing on the Ravager mutiny, Taserface becomes the main
villain for a while, with Ayesha still in the background. Then Taserface is
killed and Ego reveals himself as a villain, and he stays the primary threat
for a good part of the third act. But then during the climax, the film
remembers that the Sovereign still want revenge on the Guardians and toss them
into the final battle seemingly as just another obstacle that only loosely ties
into what’s going on right now.
Also, in terms of the broader universe’s continuity, the
timeline is a bit confusing. The film is supposedly set in 2014, only a few
months after the first Guardians.
Which means that Vol. 2 takes place
before movies like Age of Ultron, Ant-Man, and Civil War. But then there’s the issue of Ego’s plan taking hold,
and how multiple planets are shown with that weird cosmic growth stuff
sprouting from their crust and causing untold damage…including Missouri, on
Earth. Which means that in the MCU continuity, Missouri had a giant clump of
unknown cosmic schmutz destroy a Dairy Queen and probably ate a few people in
2014, and nobody – not the Avengers, not the sorcerers at Kamar Taj, not the
agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. – mention this or look into it. Is the Marvel Cinematic
Universe at the point where stuff like this happening is just not a big deal
anymore? Also, Stan Lee’s cameo has him mentioning being a FedEx deliveryman, even
though that happened in Civil War,
which would not happen for over a year after this film takes place. A little
wonky, unless Stan Lee exists out of the perimeters of time and space and
experiences events nonlinearly, like Dr. Manhattan (or, arguably, the Genie
from Aladdin).
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| I am Groot. |
And be warned: there are five post-credit scenes. Now, I’ve
had a problem with Marvel’s post-credit scenes for a while now, as I feel like
they just haven’t been putting in the effort that they used to. But the sheer
brazen amount of them in this movie is something to be admired. The first movie
was already a less serious interpretation of the Marvel formula, and this movie
ups the ante by basically saying, “You guys sick of post-credit scenes yet? Too
bad, here’s five of ‘em.” Fortunately, these scenes are all quick and go by
pretty fast interspersed throughout the credits. Only about two of them are
really plot important, and the others are quick jokes. But I think they’re all
pretty solid.
Guardians of the
Galaxy Vol. 2 is a good movie, but not as good as the first Guardians. It reminds me a lot of Age of Ultron: it’s a fine movie on its
own, but it unfortunately doesn’t live up to the hype of the previous smash hit
and doesn’t always strike the same chords as the first. The themes of family
and parenthood I thought were something welcome, and the emotional bits were
definitely stronger here than in the first movie.
But honestly, I’m just glad that this movie is as good as it
is. Guardians of the Galaxy was a
surprise smash-hit, blending comedy and adventure with likeable characters and
bringing an obscure team of superheroes to the same spotlight as the Avengers.
Never did I think I’d ever live in a world where Rocket Racoon is as popular as
Iron Man. The first film could have easily failed, and it certainly was a gamble
by Marvel. It’s hard to pull off that kind of magic twice.
In terms of Marvel sequels, it’s not as good as movies like Winter Soldier or Civil War, but it’s also not as disappointing as Iron Man 2 or Thor: The Dark World. I’d rank it around the same as Age of Ultron, though this movie
probably scores a little bit higher.
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| I. Am. Groot. |
Final verdict: 7.5/10
So now that the MCU has Howard the Duck, Taserface, and Ego
the Living Planet, how long before we get Beta Ray Bill? Come on, Thor: Ragnarok, throw us a bone.
