SPOILER-FREE MOVIE REVIEW
Showtime, a-holes!
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 is the sequel to the surprise smash-hit Guardians of the Galaxy (2014) - a movie featuring characters literally no one knew anything about and yet MANY people still went to see it because Marvel, and everyone would watch something with the Marvel badge slapped on it these days.
And with the automatic appeal of the studio's name, the first movie also delivered the goods in what was a fun, laid-back, adventure-filled diversion from formula that came together with the best 1980's song compilation ever featured in a movie.
Did the sequel manage to deliver the goods at the second time of asking? Well, let's delve into it, shall we?
The sequel essentially picks up exactly where the first movie left off in terms of tone, style of comedy as well as the manner in which the characters interact with one another.
The team are more bonded and share an even greater chemistry this time round. This makes it easy for a new family-like dynamic to be eased into the character arcs of these folks.
Having said that, however, in this sequel, we don't get as much team action as say, individual character scenes/sequences.
To some, that may be a really good thing and normally, I'd appreciate such touches when it comes to big-budget blockbusters.
This time, however, I kind of wanted a bit more team action than what we got. Instead of the majority of the movie being about the Guardians, it was more about Star-Lord (Chris Pratt) and his story with his dad, Ego (Kurt Russell). If they had named the movie "Star-Lord: A Guardians of the Galaxy Story", I wouldn't mind at all but this is, at the end of the day, a Guardians movie and I simply didn't feel it at all.
In that sense, it kind of took the "Empire Strikes Back" approach rather than the "Avengers: Age of Ultron" (ugh) approach, where a more character-driven story was preferred to even bigger team-up action.
Speaking of Empire, this movie very evidently drew plenty of inspiration from it and writer/director James Gunn has even cited it as a major influence for the making of Guardians 2, and I feel that that's pretty cool thing.
Other issues I had with the movie were in the introduction of too many truly redundant characters who only appear once or twice and never appear again for the rest of the movie or at most, appear just once more.
I'm of course talking about Sylvester Stallone's character, whose name I can't even recall because of how little he appeared in the movie. He literally had one major introduction scene and THAT WAS IT. I was so annoyed because of how they wasted Stallone just like that.
The movie also really dragged whenever it slowed down to have more expository scenes, which was a huge bummer because that let everything else down in terms of humour, dialogue and action, which all worked so brilliantly up until the time came for more exposition.
Okay on to the positives (before MCU fans come looking for PG-13 blood).
As mentioned earlier, the chemistry of the cast is excellent and it really helps to bring the movie to another level in terms of enjoyability. I mean, can you imagine the Guardians having the chemistry (or lack thereof) of say Hayden Christensen and Natalie Portman in Star Wars: Episodes II and III? That'd be bloody painful to watch.
I have to talk about Baby Groot (Vin Diesel) too cos he (or it) was ADORABLE. I initially feared that the whole cuteness appeal of Baby Groot would wear off really quickly but I was proven very wrong. Baby Groot was brilliant in this one.
I loved how they also gave Yondu (Michael Rooker) a much bigger role in this one and truly fleshed his character out. He became such a badass and he actually became a memorable character this time.
There's this one scene Yondu has in particular which is shot in glorious slow motion where he pretty much seals his badass status. You'll know which scene I'm talking about once you've seen it.
The development of the sibling rivalry/unresolved childhood grudges between Gamora (Zoe Saldana) and Nebula (Karen Gillan) was a really nice touch, and it also made these characters very real and human (even though they're alien. I mean, one's green and the other's blue).
On a technical level, the film is shot supremely and the use of such extravagant colours (even more than in the first movie) made for a visual treat.
However, for a film that was 110% CGI, the visual effects did disappoint at times. Also, the climax of the film was an absolute headache for me. I think I would have been sick if I had watched it in 3D.
Oh and Awesome Mix Vol. 2? Not that awesome, in all honesty. I felt the songs included in the new soundtrack suited the story and the deeper, darker tones it had but lacked the feel-good factor which was synonymous with Vol. 1, whose soundtrack went Platinum.
All in all, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 was a solid sequel with a good character-driven story featuring some standout performances from the likes of Chris Pratt and Michael Rooker.
However, it falls short when put up against the first movie, which felt more cohesive and fun. Having said that, Vol. 2 does impress on many fronts such as in majority of the visual effects and in the development of key characters.
Do stay behind after the credits (but you already knew that cos it's a Marvel film) because there are FIVE post-credits scenes.
7/10.
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 is the sequel to the surprise smash-hit Guardians of the Galaxy (2014) - a movie featuring characters literally no one knew anything about and yet MANY people still went to see it because Marvel, and everyone would watch something with the Marvel badge slapped on it these days.
And with the automatic appeal of the studio's name, the first movie also delivered the goods in what was a fun, laid-back, adventure-filled diversion from formula that came together with the best 1980's song compilation ever featured in a movie.
Did the sequel manage to deliver the goods at the second time of asking? Well, let's delve into it, shall we?
The sequel essentially picks up exactly where the first movie left off in terms of tone, style of comedy as well as the manner in which the characters interact with one another.
The team are more bonded and share an even greater chemistry this time round. This makes it easy for a new family-like dynamic to be eased into the character arcs of these folks.
Having said that, however, in this sequel, we don't get as much team action as say, individual character scenes/sequences.
To some, that may be a really good thing and normally, I'd appreciate such touches when it comes to big-budget blockbusters.
This time, however, I kind of wanted a bit more team action than what we got. Instead of the majority of the movie being about the Guardians, it was more about Star-Lord (Chris Pratt) and his story with his dad, Ego (Kurt Russell). If they had named the movie "Star-Lord: A Guardians of the Galaxy Story", I wouldn't mind at all but this is, at the end of the day, a Guardians movie and I simply didn't feel it at all.
In that sense, it kind of took the "Empire Strikes Back" approach rather than the "Avengers: Age of Ultron" (ugh) approach, where a more character-driven story was preferred to even bigger team-up action.
Speaking of Empire, this movie very evidently drew plenty of inspiration from it and writer/director James Gunn has even cited it as a major influence for the making of Guardians 2, and I feel that that's pretty cool thing.
Other issues I had with the movie were in the introduction of too many truly redundant characters who only appear once or twice and never appear again for the rest of the movie or at most, appear just once more.
I'm of course talking about Sylvester Stallone's character, whose name I can't even recall because of how little he appeared in the movie. He literally had one major introduction scene and THAT WAS IT. I was so annoyed because of how they wasted Stallone just like that.
The movie also really dragged whenever it slowed down to have more expository scenes, which was a huge bummer because that let everything else down in terms of humour, dialogue and action, which all worked so brilliantly up until the time came for more exposition.
Okay on to the positives (before MCU fans come looking for PG-13 blood).
As mentioned earlier, the chemistry of the cast is excellent and it really helps to bring the movie to another level in terms of enjoyability. I mean, can you imagine the Guardians having the chemistry (or lack thereof) of say Hayden Christensen and Natalie Portman in Star Wars: Episodes II and III? That'd be bloody painful to watch.
I have to talk about Baby Groot (Vin Diesel) too cos he (or it) was ADORABLE. I initially feared that the whole cuteness appeal of Baby Groot would wear off really quickly but I was proven very wrong. Baby Groot was brilliant in this one.
I loved how they also gave Yondu (Michael Rooker) a much bigger role in this one and truly fleshed his character out. He became such a badass and he actually became a memorable character this time.
There's this one scene Yondu has in particular which is shot in glorious slow motion where he pretty much seals his badass status. You'll know which scene I'm talking about once you've seen it.
The development of the sibling rivalry/unresolved childhood grudges between Gamora (Zoe Saldana) and Nebula (Karen Gillan) was a really nice touch, and it also made these characters very real and human (even though they're alien. I mean, one's green and the other's blue).
On a technical level, the film is shot supremely and the use of such extravagant colours (even more than in the first movie) made for a visual treat.
However, for a film that was 110% CGI, the visual effects did disappoint at times. Also, the climax of the film was an absolute headache for me. I think I would have been sick if I had watched it in 3D.
Oh and Awesome Mix Vol. 2? Not that awesome, in all honesty. I felt the songs included in the new soundtrack suited the story and the deeper, darker tones it had but lacked the feel-good factor which was synonymous with Vol. 1, whose soundtrack went Platinum.
All in all, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 was a solid sequel with a good character-driven story featuring some standout performances from the likes of Chris Pratt and Michael Rooker.
However, it falls short when put up against the first movie, which felt more cohesive and fun. Having said that, Vol. 2 does impress on many fronts such as in majority of the visual effects and in the development of key characters.
Do stay behind after the credits (but you already knew that cos it's a Marvel film) because there are FIVE post-credits scenes.
7/10.
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