Sunday, May 21, 2017

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2

My second trip to the cinema this year was to see Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 with my nephew and my mom. I enjoyed the first movie and there was a lot of positive hype about this second one. So what did I think about it?


For sure, it was good fun, but I don't think it was as good as the first. I think this sequel understood what elements of the first had the biggest impact with audiences and it focused on those elements a lot. To me, though, I felt that it went a bit overboard. Yes, Baby Groot was cute. But there was too much attention on the cuteness of Baby Groot that I found a bit distracting (I guess it wasn't my thing). :) There was also quite a bit of emphasis on family here, including the father-son relationship between Star-Lord and his real dad (and with Yondu) and the sisterhood of Gamora and Nebula. Personally, I felt it was a bit too touchy-feely for a fantasy-action superhero flick. I also noticed some some inconsistencies. First, Ego easily wiped out an entire fleet of space ships with his power but towards the end of the film, this power seems to have dissipated as he was unable to destroy his opponents with the same ease. Second, Drax the Destroyer is supposed to be very literal, meaning he is unable to speak figuratively or metaphorically. However, this seems to have disappeared in Volume 2. It could be that he has adapted due to his constant interactions with the rest of the Guardians of the Galaxy but it wasn't really explained in the movie.

That said, I liked how we got to see a different side of both Yondu and Nebula in this film. There was still a lot of humor-injected conversation, a trademark in almost every recent Marvel superhero movie. I also liked the new character, Mantis. The multiple end-credits scenes were also quite entertaining (I think there were maybe 5 of them? Make sure you stay until the very end). Then of course there is the set-up for future films in the Marvel Universe. All in all, while it is not my favorite Marvel superhero film, it is still entertaining and it helps move the entire Marvel movie saga forward in an interesting direction.

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