Cast your mind back to August 2014, when the Marvel Cinematic Universe launched their riskiest project to date: Guardians of the Galaxy. No one could have predicted its enormous success, especially given the obscure source material and bizarre characters. It could have gone very wrong.
However, it turned out the film was a huge success and is considered by many as one of Marvel’s best. Inevitably a sequel was green-lit. These days audiences are often wary when approaching sequels but Guardians of the Galaxy Vol.2 not only matches the original, but actually surpasses it. The film truly is one of Marvel’s best, and surprisingly, most emotional outings yet.
Without spoiling anything, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol.2 sees our favourite gang of intergalactic misfits (plus their prisoner Nebula) encounter Peter Quill/Star-Lord’s father, whilst also on the run from a powerful galactic race known as The Sovereign. This time round, the group is split-up for most of the film, which proves to work perfectly. At the core of this film is exploration of the father/son relationship, as well as the issues of rejection and abandonment. As with the first film, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol.2 features a stellar soundtrack that includes tracks from Fleetwood Mac, George Harrison and Yusuf Islam/Cat Stevens to name just a few.
The entire cast is pitch-perfect. Dave Bautista provides several standout moments, Kurt Russell oozes charisma as Ego the Planet and Michael Rooker shows off a different (and surprisingly moving) side to Yondu. Of course, one of the main standouts is the ADORABLE Baby Groot, who is just too cute to deal with. As you’d expect, the visuals are top-notch and the action set pieces are flat-out awesome (one set piece involving Yondu and Rocket will make you want to stand up and cheer).
Once again Marvel has stepped up and shown it knows what it takes to make an interesting and emotionally engaging superhero film (looking at you DC). Bravo Marvel.
Be sure to stay through the credits, as there are 5 post-credit sequences you don’t want to miss.
