Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 Review

"I am Groot!!"


Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 is the latest release from Marvel Studios and is the sequel to the highly successful Guardians of the Galaxy. The sequel continues the Guardians adventures across the galaxy as they unravel Peter Quills true parentage (you will have to watch the film to find out if that is a good or bad thing!). Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 was directed by returning director James Gunn, and stars the likes of Chris Pratt as Peter Quill aka Star Lord (who??), Zoe Saldana as Gamora, Dave Bautista as Drax, Vin Diesel as Baby Groot, Bradley Cooper as Rocket, Kurt Russell as Ego, Michael Rooker as Yondu, Karen Gillan as Nebula and Pom Klementieff as Mantis.

When the Original film was announced the majority of audience members knew nothing about who the Guardians of the Galaxy where and was considered to be one of Marvel Studios riskiest projects, when the release came around Guardians of the Galaxy became a major hit, not only being successful with critics but very success at the worldwide box office, but can the sequel live up to the original???

Well I hear you ask is it as good as the original?.... and the answer to that question is of course YES!, and in my opinion goes on to top the original film as well. Whilst the first film felt fresh and different especially with the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the second film focuses on developing and fleshing out the characters. The film itself still keeps all the jokes you would expect (There are some great comedic beats!) and also keeps the quirkiness of the original, but what I absolutely love is the way every single character (well the main protagonists) get fleshed out which makes the film a much more personal film, whilst the scale of the film is grand and we travel across the galaxy, the film is still rooted in developing the characters audiences love from the first film, whilst bringing us fresh ideas and concepts and stunning imagery.

The cast as usual steal the show, there as some hilarious comedic moments between Star Lord (come on it sounds good!), Rocket and of course Drax, but one character by the name of Yondu absolutely steals the show and is one of the strongest and most compelling characters in the film. New characters such as Ego and Mantis also are amazing additions to the franchise whilst there is also a new main Ravenger called Taserface (an ongoing joke in the film!) who is less successful but we will go onto that in a bit. And how can I not do a Guardians of the Galaxy review without talking about the one and only Baby Groot, who is extremely cute and steals nearly every scene that he is in. One of the successful elements of the first film was the amazing soundtrack that the film was set to, and the sequel continues that trend and this time the songs really match and enhance the characters and their emotional state, which made me love the film even more!. The CGI in the film was incredible and extremely well done, it's bright and quirky and really matches the tone of these films and is a huge contrast to what we normally see in the Marvel Cinematic Universe in a good way.

There really was not much about this film that I did not like at all, I mean if I was being picky (which sometimes you have to be) I would say that there could of been more scenes with Elizabeth Debicki Ayesha, to help flesh out the character and her motivations (but there are much bigger threats to stop!!) and characters like Taserface, who in a way is a rival to Yondu (I guess he is just jealous of that fin!) just feels a little wasted in the film. If you are going to watch this film expecting a repeat of the first film than you need to realise that this film, whilst it takes elements of the first film is much more interested in developing the relationship between the characters and developing them as individuals rather than re hashing out a copy of the first film, which in my opinion is a very good idea and made me connect to the characters much more than I did in the first film.

Overall I really enjoyed this film and the MCU for 2017 is off to a very strong start, can Spider-Man Homecoming and Thor Ragnarok live up to the standards set by Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 who knows? But I am definitely excited to find out.

Verdict: 5 out 5 stars

(Make sure you stay for the post credit scenes there are five of them yes five of them!)