Guardians 2: A Review

SPOILERS

I remember seeing the trailer for Guardians of the Galaxy, and not being too fussed. We already had a range of Marvel movies to enjoy, did we need any more? I didn’t really know who the Guardians were, and as a bigger fan of the DC characters there was a slight bit of jealousy.

Either way I went to go and see the first film not knowing what to expect, and obviously loved it. Much in the same way I loved The Hangover. There was the expectation it would be funny but I didn’t quite realise how funny it would be!

I was obviously looking forward to see the second installment and see what high jinks Star-Lord and his friends were getting up to.

I went in expecting jokes and baby Groot, and we got both from the very beginning.

How cute is baby Groot!

The jokes were coming thick and fast, as the Guardians find themselves wanted by the Sovereign’s and have to flee. It looks like it’s all over before the Guardians are saved by none other than Star-Lord’s dad.

Star-Lord’s dad, it turns out is a “Celestial” and plans to do some pretty bad things with that power.

But Star-Lord always wanted a dad to play catch with so doesn’t pick up on the vibes everyone else is feeling.

At the end of the day Star-Lord comes to his senses. He realises that he already has a family with the Guardians and a father figure with Yondu. How Fast & The Furious.

Joking aside, I enojoyed that the film gave us some solid character development. From Quill’s doomed relationship with his father to Gamora’s with her sister, each member of the Guardians together with Yondu gets some depth exposed.

Yondu levels with Rocket, who was doing the best he could to alienate everyone. Gamora finally discovered why her sister hated her, and also opened herself up to something happening with Quill.

Yondu! How good was Yondu. Exiled from the Ravager community and betrayed by his men, I really dug his redemptive arc.

His arrow is one of the coolest weapons too. Excellent scenes when he is killing everyone on the ship, shout out to the shot in the dark too!

Whenever Drax was on screen I was waiting for something funny to happen, and he delivered. From sensitive nipples to practical jokes, Drax gave Baby Groot a run for his money in scene stealing.

I liked the introduction of the empath, Mantis, and she shared some top banter with Drax, but it was the scene on the stares when she feels his feelings when he is thinking back to a particular memory that showed Drax has a lot more to him. I found that scene particularly striking.

Speaking of striking scenes, when Star-Lord is about to break out of the trance or whatever it was he was in, he thinks of his friends and the love that they share and experience. That reminded my of the scene in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, (the film) where Voldemort has entered his mind and Harry thinking of his relationships and friends tells Voldemort

“You’re the one who is weak. You will never know love or friendship. And I feel sorry for you.”

Got a similar vibe in Guardians 2 too.

As the sequel to a well received volume one it had a lot to live up to, and considering there will be a third film too there was a few things being set up such as Star-Lord and Gamora figuring things out and an adolescent Groot!

It wasn’t all perfection, I found the “Taserface” joke a bit too drawn out, and I didn’t love Ego’s plot to destroy the world. It was a bit too isolated, it was really localised, with scenes of this weird gloop erupting on places around the universe but it didn’t have the same threat level. I just didn’t dig it so much.

Otherwise we saw a young Ego, using this age-reversing technology, we’re going to see that EVERYWHERE. I’m not particularly fussed tbh, but probably bad for young actors who could pass off as younger versions of older more famous actors.

I mentioned The Hangover above and I’ll end continuing the comparison. After the success of The Hangover there was excitement for the next two films in the trilogy, but I don’t think they hit as well as the first. They were good, don’t get me wrong, but they weren’t good in the same way Guardians 2 is. And I’ll put that down to a little bit of heart! ❤️