Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 Review

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 Review

Joe Bozzella, Staff Writer

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 is the sequel to the 2014 smash-hit Guardians of the Galaxy and sees the return of all of the original cast and crew, while adding the legendary Kurt Russell (The Thing, Escape from New York) to the cast as Peter Quill/Star-Lord’s father, Ego the Living Planet. This movie is a more than adequate follow-up and, while it does not reach the consistent heights of the first film, is still a great time at the theater. The movie starts with the Guardians being tasked to defend this planet against an interdimensional being and immediately reunites the viewer with the rag-tag group that they grew to love in the previous film. Writer-Director James Gunn returned for this film with the intent of revealing to the audience who Peter Quill’s father is, and the movie revolves around the question of whether somebody can live up to your expectations after you spent your entire life waiting to meet them.

The entire cast is tremendous again with Dave Bautista, as Drax, and Michael Rooker, as Yondu, being the true standouts of the movie. Rooker absolutely steals the movie and Gunn has finally given his longtime collaborator, a great role for him to truly shine. Russell kills it in this film as Star-Lord’s father and just looks like he is having a great time on screen, while being extremely reminiscent of his days as the premier B-movie superstar from the 80’s. Even Sylvester Stallone (Rocky, Creed) appears in the movie and chews up the limited amount of screen-time that he has with gravitas and fun.

While the movie is extremely fun and makes the entire run-time fly by, it still has its faults. The central core of this movie, Peter meeting his father, is not as strong as the first movie with the plot getting convoluted in certain areas. Also while 95% of the jokes land, some of the humor does not pay-off well and feels out of place. The entire alien race of The Sovereign also are completely unnecessary and while enjoyable, are not needed in the story. Additionally this film does not have nearly as good of a complete soundtrack as the first one, with some songs falling flat.

Overall Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 is an extremely fun movie and a worthy sequel that is definitely worth your time and money to see in a theater.

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2: 8 out of 10

Photo Credit: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3896198/