Guardians Of The Galaxy Volume Too!

Having seen Guardians of the Galaxy Vol.2 I can say without reservation that Marvel Studios has wrought yet another entertaining movie. The gang is all here, with Starlord, Gamera, Drax, Rocket and even a pint-sized Groot. Along for the ride this time are a more sympathetic Yondu and even a somewhat more relatable Nebula. Add to these a host of new characters and you have a heady brew.

First some SPOILERS.

This story picks up pretty soon after the end of the first one and the Guardians are celebrities of a sort and are working as soldiers for hire for a golden race of people who need a monster slain. The Guardians do the job but Rocket steals some stuff which puts the Sovereign on their tail with a vengeance. When a mysterious man comes to the rescue and soon reveals himself to be Ego, the long missing father of Starlord. He takes Starlord to a distant world and reveals himself to be in fact a Celestial and the planet itself and further that he had relations with Starlord's mother in order to produce an heir capable of helping him makeover the universe in his singular image. Gamera, Drax, Rocket, Groot, Nebula, Yondu and a new character named Mantis work together to slave one another and stop Ego's weird and dangerous plan and that's a movie. There is a sacrifice which needs to be made to end the threat.

End of  SPOILERS.

The movie is a funny outing with wonderfully entertaining beats for all the characters. Drax gets a lot of great lines and Rocket is just as entertaining as in the first movie. The romance between Starlord and Gamera moves along a little bit and to be honest both seem a little less intense in this one which overall tends to hurt the proceedings. Mantis is a fun addition. But the focus of the movie really seems to be on Yondu and the Ravagers get a lot of attention. We meet the original Guardians and learn something of what drives them.

But truth told this one is less engaging than the first movie. There's a lot of talk about family but to clear no one seems to move that far along in terms of their personalities, though they do have to make some choices. Little Groot comes close to stealing the movie right at the beginning in and outstanding opening credits sequence which comes close to being my favorite moment in the movie. That and seeing most of the original Guardians get some screen time. Now we have had Yondu, but they added Martinex and Charlie-27 this time along with Starhawk and Aleta. Good stuff, though I miss Vance Astro myself.

It was neat to see Ego, one of Jack Kirby's finest creations get some attention and he's a worthy adversary for the Guardians. The movie does a good job setting up the next one and at times, to be honest, this did feel rather like an episode of a longer work, rather than a full-fledged movie which was intended to stand alone. If you didn't see the first one, grokking this one might be tough.

But all that said, I still recommend it. It's a light-hearted frothy movie with some great sequences.

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