I’m not going to over-elaborate here about Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 because I think it’s pretty straight forward. Not a lot of surprises, other than some fun guest star apearancss.
In this bigger, more joke-laden sequel to the wholly unique and brilliant first Guardians film, Peter Quill, aka, StarLord, finally finds out who his father is, Gamora and her so-called sister work on their strained relationship, Yondu deals with a mutiny, and baby Groot dances some more to groovy late 70’s, early 80’s tunes.
First off, Guardians Vol. 2 offers more in the way of huge green screened action sequences and mayhem. That’s not necessarily better, of course. I think this film suffers mildly from what usually happens in sequels like this. They try to go bigger and do more which ends up feeling too obvious and takes away form the story and characters.
There are a couple of jokes that are too obvious as well, but that’s not terrible. unfortunately, much of the plot points are a bit tired; the father/son story, the estranged sisters story, and the path those take are not terribly unique. On the positive side of that, at least the material is emotional enough – shall I say, we care enough about these people, that I was on board.
But those are really the only complaints. Guardian of the Galaxy Vol. 2 is chock full o’funny, more so, I think, than the first, and it makes up for any short-comings here. This is really a comedy with action thrown in. I laughed out loud fairly constantly.
All the main players are back: Chris Pratt, Zoe Zaldana, Dave Bautista, Bradley Cooper, Vin Diesel, Michael Rooker, Karen Gillan are back and having fun, and there are some great celebrity co-stars throughout. Kurt Russell plays Ego, Peter Quills father. Sylvester Stallone appears as Stakar Ogord, head of the mercenary group of which Yondu was a part.
But that’s not all. You may recognize (or not, depending on the level of make-up) Ben Browder (Farscape), comedian Steve Agee, Rob Zombie, and Gregg Henry. And let’s not forget folks like Ving Rhames, Michael Rosenbaum, Michelle Yeoh, and the voices of Seth Green and Miley Cyrus. And then one super amazing appearance by an actor I won’t divulge here, even though people may already know because of word of mouth. Really funny.
All in all, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 is not quite as good as the first, but still has a lot of the same spirit and fun – and more than enough humor – to be thoroughly entertaining. Still giving it just about four kittenhands.
Worth a look on the big screen.
~ Neil T Weakley, your average movie-goer, still found this satisfying despite some of the usual problems with sequels.