Guardians of The Galaxy Vol. 2 Review

Review By Kyle Holly

As the first major Marvel Release of 2017 does Vol. 2 live up to the hype of the amazing first film?

Director James Gunn is back with the Guardians in their newest adventure to hit the big screen, with Guardians of The Galaxy Vol. 2. The film is filled with humor, emotion and all out fun from start to finish.

The Guardians are well know heroes across the Galaxy when we first meet them in Vol. 2. The movie starts out with them working a mission for the Sovereign, an original Marvel Cinematic Universe advanced galactic race, to protect important sources of energy on the planet from a giant alien monster. As they fight to destroy this monster the team member Groot, now consider Baby Groot, leads us into our opening sequence. This first scene sets the tone as its filled with action and many laughs.

Things go bad for the Guardians when they are added to the Sovereign’s hunt and kill list when Rocket steals some of the very items they were protecting. This act sets up one of the many plots in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2. With the Ravagers hired by the Sovereign to kill them this leads to many of the action sequences for the film. The main focus of Vol. 2’s story is Peter Quill finally meeting his father. Kurt Russell is the one to play that role as his father Ego. The movie wastes no time to introduce us to Ego as it happens towards the beginning of the film. The film plays with the idea, does Peter really need his father in his life now or has he been doing just fine with his closer friends like Yondu, Gamora and the rest of the Guardians.

The first film was about bringing the team together, this film biggest theme is about family. Ego and Peter are a father and son family while the Guardians are a team that equals a family with their bond and connections to one another. As this film does an amazing job at showing the perfect chemistry for each other towards the end of the film its the journey that leads to that moment that somewhat gets lost.

Director James Gunn does a great job giving us more back story and motives as to why certain characters do or act a certain way with each other. While watching we learn the story of Nebula’s hatred for Gamora, we get more back story of Drax’s deceased family, we get more character development with Rocket and his trusting issues, we even learn more about Yondu and his back story. Each members individual stories take over this movie which helps add to this film in a big way.

Adding to the already large list of characters we also get new supporting characters that help build the massive world of Guardians of the Galaxy that we can only hope will be used in future films to come. Some new characters include Ayesha leader of the Sovereign, played by Elizabeth Debicki, Taserface a Marvel villain and member of the Ravagers, Mantis, played by Pom Klementieff, and of course Kurt Russell playing Ego. Each new character adds to the films story plots, action and humor. There are many moving parts to this film and James Gunn does a good job at keeping it together.

The expectations for this sequel is high for many reasons. Since this is the third film in Phase three of the Marvel Cinematic Universe they have to build to the ongoing story of Thanos and the Infinity Stones. The first Guardians film set the bar really high for its sequel so to reach that level or surpassed that is challenging for the Director and Writers. This film also has to move the next set of films in the right direction for the future. James Gunn does a pretty good job hitting most of the expectations for this film.

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 may have some problems in terms of pacing and telling multiple stories then its first film, it’s still a very fun and exciting film for all Marvel fans to see. This film delivers on all that you love about Guardians of the Galaxy and adds even more to it. It’s tough to complain about characters that I really enjoyed in the first film, I believe Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 Fully delivers. This film keeps me excited for what is coming next for the Guardians and if the one of the five after credits scene told me anything, The Guardians of the Galaxy have a really big adventure in store for their future!

FINAL GRADE: B+

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