Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2 is fun, sugar rush of a sequel.
Guardians of the Galaxy is very much a James Gunn film while also having many of the common MCU tropes. While it heavily relies on comedy as the main cornerstone of the film, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol.2 expands on the story lines and character threads from the original in some very interesting ways.
The main cast are mostly spot on. The character development and character writing is mostly good and has a great synergy with it’s previous film. The only complaint I have here is with Drax. A character who was innocently funny in the first film quickly drags things down with very excessive and forced jokes. While this is in line with his “character” to some degree, after a while, it gets really old and takes you out of the film.
The villain of the film is pretty great. Probably in the best tier of MCU films. Without getting into spoilers, the villain has both the emotional but grand approach that makes the stakes high and keeps the emotions close to the chest.
My main gripe with this film comes with the very constant comedy. In many ways, Guaridans feels like a comedy film with 2 or 3 serious moments. While it’s not necessarily a bad thing, sometimes moments when you’re trying to feel emotionally serious is taken away with a bad pun by Drax or a quick joke. It keeps the mood light at all times outside of some key moments. Some people prefer comedy films with serious moments and others prefer serious films with some comedy in them. It’s really up to taste but sometimes the comedy in Vol.2 comes off as forced.
Overall, the second half of the film really saves the movie. The emotional and strong story points all take place here and James Gunn does a fantastic job blending great character moments and putting primary characters in tense situations. Chris Pratt steals the show again and proves he is very capable of leading big films like these. With a mix of charisma, charm and emotion, Peter Quill is definitely the focus of this film throughout.
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol.2 is visually one of the most beautiful films in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and James Gunn has done a great job with both films to create something unique yet familiar to the universe. While Vol.2 does not always hit the mark due to constant comedy, when it does get to the stronger emotional moments, it’s some of the best work out of the MCU. I look forward for James Gunn round out the trilogy with Vol.3.
3/5
