Theatrical Release: May 5, 2017
Genre: Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi
Rated: PG
Guardians Of The Galaxy was a film that came out of nowhere for me, and delivered on every cylinder. It was funny, charming, and entertaining. Needless to say, my expectations for Guardians Of The Galaxy, Vol. 2 were high after seeing that “The Guardians Of The Galaxy Will Return…” After watching the trailer for the new one, and being re-introduced to these characters and even a new Groot in the form of Baby Groot, I knew that I was very excited for this movie (I would have gone opening night, but my most anticipated game of the year Prey came out the same day, and I had to prioritize…stay tuned for a review of that). Better late than never for a review, so here we go.
Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 2 is a Action, Adventure and Science Fiction movie about The Guardians Of The Galaxy having some troubles as they meet new people and interact with old adversaries.
Guardians Of The Galaxy is directed and written by James Gunn. His directing filmography consists of Slither (2006), and Guardians Of The Galaxy (2014). I really like his style of directing, everything that he shoots is really vibrant and pops out at you. He doesn’t seem in my mind to waste film, and all his shots seem to have some sort of meaning. I think he did a lot better capturing the action in the sequel than in the original as well, the technique he used to capture the fight scenes seemed a lot more logical to me.
James Gunn’s writing filmography consists of Scooby-Doo (2002), Dawn Of The Dead (2004), Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed (2004), Slither (2006), and Guardians Of The Galaxy (2014). I thought that Guardians 2 (I’m going to abbreviate to just this from now on to save from typing it out over and over again) was pretty well written. However I think that the writing was a lot better in the original film. I thought the original film had more heart and was funnier than the sequel. But thats not to say that the sequel was bad, I just feel like I was more surprised by the original because I didn’t know the characters and I didn’t know what to expect.
Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 2 stars Chris Pratt as Star-Lord, Zoe Saldana as Gamora, Dave Bautista as Drax, Vin Diesel as Baby Groot, Bradley Cooper as Rocket, Micheal Rooker as Yondu and Kurt Russell as Ego.
Chris Pratt’s filmography consists of The Extreme Team (2003), Moneyball (2011), Zero Dark Thirty (2012), Her (2013), Guardians Of The Galaxy (2014), The Lego Movie (2014), Parks and Recreation {TV Series} (2009-2015), and Jurassic World (2015). I really like Chris Pratt in anything I have seen him in, his character as Andy in Parks and Rec {TV Series} was one of my top characters in that TV show. I also thought he was superb in the original Guardians movie, and thats no different here. I really liked seeing him return to play Star-Lord again in the sequel.
Zoe Saldana’s filmography consists of Get Over It (2001), Pirates Of The Caribbean: The Curse Of The Black Pearl (2003), The Terminal (2004), Guess Who (2005), Vantage Point (2008), Star Trek (2009), The Losers (2010), Out of The Furnace (2013), Star Trek Into Darkness (2013), Guardians Of The Galaxy (2014), The Book of Life (2014), and Star Trek Beyond (2016). I really enjoy Saldana’s acting, she was fantastic in the original Guardians film, she’s lovely in the Star Trek movies. I would even say despite being in so many good things, that she is a very underrated actor. I would honestly watch anything that she was in.
Dave Bautista’s filmography consists of Guardians Of The Galaxy (2014), Spectre (2015), and Heist (2015). It was a surprise to me, that Bautista who is an ex-WWE superstar could actually act. He was surprisingly great in the original Guardians Of The Galaxy (2014), and I thought he played his role really well. I think he played the role even better in the sequel, he had some more of his quips and quirks but I feel like he really got them down to a science.
Vin Diesel’s filmography consists of The Fast And Furious Franchise {Except 2 Fast, 2 Furious} (2001-2017), Saving Private Ryan (1998), The Iron Giant (1999), Pitch Black (2000), xXx (2002), A Man Apart (2003), The Chronicles Of Riddick (2004), and Guardians Of The Galaxy (2014). Its weird to discuss Vin Diesel in any of the animated films that he has been in, because I think he speaks less than 3 lines in each movie. However, I think he voices Groot very well, and honestly Baby Groot is the cutest character that I’ve seen in a movie so far this year. My favourite scenes in this movie all included Baby Groot in one way or another.
Bradley Cooper’s filmography consists of Wet Hot American Summer (2001), Wedding Crashers (2005), Failure To Launch (2006), The Midnight Meat Train (2008), He’s Just Not That Into You (2009), The Hangover (2009), The Hangover Part II (2011), The Place Beyond The Pines (2012), Silver Linings Playbook (2012), Guardians Of The Galaxy (2014), Wet Hot American Summer: First Day of Camp {TV Series} (2015), and War Dogs (2016). Bradley Cooper recently has been very hit and miss for me. I don’t think he’s all that he is cracked up to be, he has a couple of alright roles, but theres some of them that I have absolutely didn’t like like American Sniper (2014), which is why I didn’t include it in my write up of his filmography, because I reserve that space for films I would recommend, and I do not recommend American Sniper. I do however think that he is excellent in the role of Rocket and I think he nails it every time he talks.
Michael Rooker’s filmography consists of Mallrats (1995), The Replacement Killers (1998), The Bone Collector (1999), The 6th Day (2000), Slither (2006), Lollipop Chainsaw {Video Game} (2012), Call Of Duty: Black Ops II {Video Game} (2012), The Walking Dead {TV Series} (2010-2013), and Guardians Of The Galaxy (2014). Michael Rooker is underrated, I think he can play any role he wants too, and honestly my favourite role that he has done is the role of Yondu. He was fantastic in the original Guardians but in Guardians 2 he was better, I felt like he really nailed down the role and made it even better.
Kurt Russell’s filmography consists of Escape From New York (1981), The Thing (1982), Big Trouble In Little China (1986), Overboard (1987), Backdraft (1991), Stargate (1994), Vanilla Sky (2001), Death Proof (2007), Furious 7 (2015), The Hateful Eight (2015), Deepwater Horizon (2016), and The Fate Of The Furious (2017). Kurt Russell is brilliant in any role that he is in, doesn’t matter the genre or who he is acting with, he makes other actors look good. I thought he was great in Guardians 2, and had great chemistry with everyone he shared screen time with. It was a lot of fun to see him in this role.
It was great to see the original cast of Guardians Of The Galaxy back to reprise their roles, but the added body of Kurt Russell was the cherry on top of the acting pile. Each of the original cast really nailed down their roles, and the chemistry and added flare of Russell just made it better.
I also thought that the action scenes and the overall cinematography in the sequel was a lot better than in the original film. I was in awe in some scenes where the cinematography was outstanding. I feel like James Gunn was more confident as a director in this movie and was willing to show his audience different things than he did in the original. I found him linger more, which I thought added a lot to the overall feel and tone of the movie.
I did have some issues with this sequel though.
I don’t think that they could have topped the original film to me, as the original came out of nowhere, and was a breath of fresh air, especially for Marvel movies, which for me were becoming formulaic and stale. Not topping the original film is not a negative against this movie though.
I felt the soundtrack, which was a character itself to the original film wasn’t as good in the sequel. Every song in the original was fantastic, I was tapping my foot and smiling whenever a great tune was played in the original. In the sequel, there were a couple of stand out songs, but to tell you what those songs were I’d have to look up the soundtrack list and name off the song titles. I went through a phase of specifically listening to Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 1 front to back over and over again. I would listen to Vol. 2’s soundtrack but I wouldn’t purchase the CD.
I felt like the writing wasn’t consistent. I felt like some of the jokes and humour seemed really forced in places.
This sequel is definitely worth the watch, it was fun to return to the world that James Gunn created, and it is a worthy sequel to the fantastic original movie.
Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 2 gets a 4/5 from me. I’ll be adding this movie to my collection whenever the Blu Ray is released.
Until Next Time!
-Andrew
I was asked by my buddy Chris to hear how Guardians 2 compares to other films in the MCU. I am not the guy to ask for this, as I haven’t seen a lot of the Marvel films. However, I feel like I’ve seen enough to break down a top 3 or 5 films.
- Guardians of The Galaxy
- Captain America: Winter Soldier
- Iron Man
- Captain America: Civil War
- The Avengers
Honorable Mention: Ant-Man
I’ve seen a couple of other films but I haven’t seen a lot of Marvel movies, theres some I would like to watch though. If you have any recommendations of Marvel films I should watch, please recommend them to me.