Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 2

This review may contain spoilers!

This was a highly entertaining film from start to finish and, in my opinion, Marvel's best film yet. I would give Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 2 a 9.5/10.

Marvel films have always been great at setting the bar for superhero films and when the first Guardians of the Galaxy film dropped it was a truly new and original sci-fi feature; now we've been delivered a film that is not only as good as the first Guardians but surpasses it. The film explores all the characters of the first film, whether they be major or minor, and adds a ton of depth to them all. The storytelling model is also great for a sequel, with the main group of heroes being split up at the end of the first act so that we have more to watch as an audience and get to spend a lot of the film with each character on an individual basis. The humour used throughout is pretty good when it's serving the scene or the characters, there is a heavy dose of satire and some good pop culture quips. Guardians 2 provides a great story about a son finding his father, the value of family and a bunch of heroes flying through space to become two time galaxy savers. The cinematography is stunning and moves about sets with a natural ease; the vivid colour palette of the film is expertly framed and captured. The special effects also look visually incredible; Baby Groot, Rocket, the various spaceships and Ego all look stunning. As always the music for Guardians is one of the best aspects with a soundtrack that ranges from "Mr Blue Sky" to David Hasselhoff rapping in "Guardians Inferno"; the score is also a big step up from the first and probably marks one of the better scores to have come out of 2017 thus far.

Chris Pratt, who played Star-Lord, recaptures that charismatic and somewhat naive space scoundrel for a second time; Pratt really does a good job of building up a relationship with Russell and then bringing out all the rage and hurt over his mother's death later on. Zoe Saldana, who played Gamora, really had so much more to do in this film which was great to watch; Saldana did a great job of showing her frustration at trying to keep her team together while also being the most insightful to the duplicity that was going on around them. Dave Bautista, who played Drax, brings a more joyful side to his character this time round; in saying that Bautista's most poignant scenes are the one's where he is reflecting upon Drax's deceased wife and child. Vin Diesel, who voiced Baby Groot, was a big hit before this film dropped for good reason; this time round Diesel voices a Groot who doesn't understand much about the world around him and is incredibly vulnerable. Bradley Cooper, who voiced Rocket, once again brings out this roguish and cunning character who is a stand out part of the team; Cooper's portrayal of Rocket this time round results in some tension between Rocket and other characters that gets resolved as Rocket himself develops a lot more as a character. Karen Gillan, who played Nebula, has so much unchecked rage that gets shown throughout this film; Gillan reveals the extent to which Nebula has been tortured and broken as a character and it becomes hard not to sympathise for her by the film's end. Pom Klementieff, who played Mantis, is quite a sweet and innocent character; Klementieff crafts a character you feel a bit sorry for at first which makes it great when she reveals her character's guilt over her service to Ego. Sylvester Stallone, who played Stakar Ogord, is a real tough as nails leader figure that fits the Ravager persona; Stallone's rage towards Rooker over breaching Ravager code is really a powerful scene. Kurt Russell, who played Ego, is a very laidback and likeable father figure to Pratt at the start of this feature; however as we come to see his twisted justification for wanting to destroy the universe we get one of the best Marvel antagonists from Russell yet. Sean Gunn, who played Kraglin, really has a lot of guilt on his conscience over the course of this film after helping in the mutiny of Yondu; Gunn really adds so much to the impact of Rooker's death scene and fits quite nicely as a comedic pilot for the Guardians.

However the best performance came from Michael Rooker, who played Yondu. Rooker brings forth a Yondu who is a bit more isolated and less sure of himself when we meet him again in this film. It's clear that he's more of an outcast when it comes to the Ravagers and he's slowly losing control of his own crew after trying to stick with his moral code and relationship with Pratt's Quill. Rooker only puts his role through more torture as he watches many of his loyal crew members get executed in front of him; this turns to self-righteous rage which results in a great scene in which he executes the rest of his crew that turned on him. We come to see the depth of Yondu, the reason why he cared for Peter Quill so much and just how much of a father he really was to the young boy he saved from Ego. The scene where Rooker sacrifices himself for Quill is one of the most emotional moments to come from the MCU and one hell of a death scene.

The flaw for this movie comes when it tries to force it's humour in places where it just doesn't need to exist, often a joke will be repeated too often to the extent that it loses it's comedic value. Character relationships were seriously affected by this misuse of comedy in places; the most obvious example of this was the relationship between Drax and Mantis which came off as more cruel than kind at times.

Elizabeth Debicki and Ben Browder, who played Ayesha and Sovereign Admiral respectively, were these elitist arrogant antagonists that had very little depth to them; the rather stiff delivery from Debicki really sapped the energy from scenes she was in. Chris Sullivan, who played Taserface, was really only in this film to be the butt of a comedic joke that admittedly got overused; Sullivan did not feel tough or dangerous enough to be the Ravager that overthrew Yondu. Miley Cyrus, Ving Rhames and Michelle Yeoh, who played Mainframe, Charlie-27 and Aleta Ogord respectively, were cameos that felt a bit cringeworthy at best when they were awarded too much screen time; the presence of these performers almost threatened to undercut Stallone's great appearance.