Review - "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2"

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2 - directed by James Gunn
***  spoiler free ***

Starring: Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana, Bradley Cooper, Dave Bautista, Kurt Russell, Karen Gillan, Michael Rooker, Sean Gunn, Sylvester Stallone, Vin Diesel, Tommy Flanagan, Elizabeth Debicki, Ving Rhames, Michelle Yeoh

Screenplay: James Gunn

Music Score by: Tyler Bates

Cinematography: Henry Braham

Edited by: Fred Raskin & Craig Wood
Running Time: 136 minutes
Language: English
Rated: M - Violence, Profanity 

The first Guardians movie was a shot out of the blue and a brilliant, refreshing surprise.

The Marvel films before it had been getting progressively darker and even with a barrage of quips from Tony Stark and some light hearted biffo between Thor and the Hulk it was all pretty serious stuff.

Good stuff for sure but still.... dark and threatening was the direction the Avengers and co were heading.

Then along came a walking tree, a talking raccoon, a sexy alien, a loveable thug and a laconic, cock-sure Han Solo type to lighten the mood in the best way possible.

I loved the first film and saw it a bunch of times.

It was purely and simply enormous fun.

Which adds a boatload of pressure to the follow up film.

Now, I have only seen "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2" once and I do like to see the Marvel films a couple of times before I feel comfortable assessing them because expectation needs to dissipate so that I can get a feel for how much I like them (or not) on their own terms but at this very early stage I am very comfortable in saying that at the very least this film is funnier than the first one by some margin.
Whether it is overall better than "Guardians of the Galaxy" I cannot say but the fact that I am not saying that it isn't should speak quite loudly as to how much I liked this second film.

There was a lot of talk as to the identity of Peter "Star Lord" Quill's Father at the end of the first film and it is clear pretty early on in the sequel that the question and its answer will feature very prominently.

Actually it is pretty much the entire plot.

Without the need to bring the 'team' together this time this movie hits the ground running (literally) with an opening scene that introduces Peter's parents on Earth before we shoot off into space and the future to witness a visually impressive dust up between the Guardians and a tentacled beast.

With ELO's jaunty 'Mr Blue Sky' playing we see Baby Groot drifting amongst the carnage with barely discernible madness occurring all around him.

It is a terrific opening that points to two of the things that this sequel does so well.

Firstly it is driven purely by character.

We know each and every one of the Guardians well enough to know what they desire, what they fear and how they relate to the others.

So the sexual tension between Peter and Gamora is back - 'that unspoken thing' he calls it in a scene loaded with eighties references.

Rocket is still devious and antagonistic, Drax is still loveable but literal to the point of appearing dense and Groot is of course still the teeny tiny version of his former self that we saw at the end of the last film.

And every single one of them is funny as hell.

There is an early exchange between Peter and Rocket in which the former throws an insulting nickname at the latter and it had me in stitches.

Character is the key to the success of the films and this is even more apparent in part two

The second aspect of this film that works really well is the sense that these characters have history together.

The Fast and Furious movies rattle on and on about 'family' all while tossing allegiances around to suit whatever nutty plot each new installment comes up with.

In the case of Guardians there is a similar problem to get around as Fate of the Furious in that one character with a history of doing bad stuff is required to switch sides.

Guardians Vol 2 does it so much better and by sticking true to the characters and what we know about them it is believable and it works really well.

In fact nothing that happens in this film feels forced or wrong.

I am not going to go into detail but there are a bunch of revelations and at least a couple of major events that will shake things up for the third film.

Each character (not just the Guardians but everyone) changes due to the events of the film and it makes me super excited for the already announced third film.

The soundtrack from the first film was stunning with its great roster of seventies hits and this time we get more of the same.

On a track for track basis I would argue that the first films soundtrack is stronger but director James Gunn uses the songs even better this time.

He is a master at using a song that seems contradictory to the action on screen in a way that somehow works.

Tarantino is very good at this too of course but Gunn could take his crown very soon.

The ELO track is a beauty but there is also killer use of Fleetwood Mac, George Harrison and Cheap Trick.

The songs fit the action perfectly.

And on that note.... the action scenes are terrific.

They are spread out nicely across the film and even though the standard big finish was always going to be there there are a bunch of smaller, no less entertaining smatterings of action leading up to it.

And the film looks amazing too.

The first film injected a much needed dose of colour and brightness into the MCU but this film cranks it up to eleven making even the psychedelic stylings of "Doctor Strange" seem muted by comparison.

The new characters are all great but Mantis emerges as the real surprise

I loved every second of this film and even if the trailers spoil far too much of what happens even scenes that I have seen almost in their entirety in the trailers still seem fresh and new in context.

In particular the 'do you have any tape?' scene from the last trailer is bigger and much funnier when seen in the final film.

Rocket is incredible in this scene and it is clear that he is viewed as something of the breakout character.

He gets a lot more time on screen and much more action and dialogue.

And why not when he is as fun and funny as he is?

There was a lot of potential for this film to feel rushed and odd but Gunn has carefully steered these character through a second adventure that feels completely like we are seeing the same crew that we loved last time.

The new additions from Kurt Russell's Ego to Stallone's Stakar all fit in perfectly.  Great to see Stallone and Rooker share a scene too - it was way back in 1993 that they starred in Renny Harlin's super fun "Cliffhanger" together.
And the one character that I was worried would not work is damned near the highlight of the film.

Mantis.

This character is a delight with her naive innocence.  Her interactions with Drax are wonderfully funny and the film milks them at every turn.

Any doubt that Baby Groot would be a cutesy misfire disappear fast too.

One scene in which he is required to retrieve something for a couple of other characters is about as funny a scene as I have seen on screen this year.

Even the real world references that threaten to break the fourth wall pretty much all hit the mark.

There is one notable guest appearance that had my audience clapping and chuckling with glee and a host of videogame, technology and pop culture jokes that are always just on the right side of going too far.

Gunn has yet again proved a more than steady hand here and is clearly totally in tune with his characters and their stories.

His brother Sean gets a beefed up role too and often it appears he is channelling Kirk from "The Gilmore Girls".

No bad thing obviously - he is very, very funny.

Everything that could have gone wrong here from beefed up roles, romantic entanglements, cutesy changes like Baby Groot and Peter's Dad revealed instead become absolute strengths.

There is more scale, more colour and more humour this time

So "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2" is every bit as good as you would hope it would be.

I suspect that the second viewing tomorrow will confirm my sneaking suspicion that it is in fact the stronger of the two films.

If it isn't it will be damned close.

I am really excited to have another look.

There is the chance that I will find it disappointing with none of its secrets left to be revealed but I really don't think it is a worry.

I laughed a lot and I laughed hard regularly through this film.

It's in the writing of course but mainly the success of this film is mainly down to one one thing.

These are great characters performed by a perfectly selected cast under the guidance of a writer/director who clearly loves them every bit as much as the millions of fans who will line up to see this film twice, three times.... maybe more.

Cast aside your sequel doubts.... this one more than delivers.

Note: It hardly needs saying but stay for the entire end credits - there really are five extra scenes to see! 

RATING: 88 / 100

CONCLUSION: This is how you make a sequel.  A brilliant second swing and a hit from Gunn.  This film is even funnier than the first one.  The action delivers but it is the characters that make thes films work - something that a lot of other franchises would be smart to learn.