Contrary to what a lot of people think.... I DID NOT HATE the first movie.
I just didn’t like it that much.
Now there were parts of it that I did hate (“Dance off, bro”) but there was also parts that I liked a lot (“We are Groot”) that I’d wish been played out a little more in the movie. But overall, I did not like the first movie.
So with a lot of tempered expectations I went to see the sequel to a movie that I hoped would be a little more fulfilling for me as a comic book fan and more enjoyable as a movie than the previous one.
And you know what, it is….for the most part.
GOTG vol. 2 is BETTER than the first one…but …it is also WORSE than the first one.
To say I went in seeing this movie with low expectations is an understatement.
But I’ve just come to terms that I’m never going to see the original GOTG from the that I grew up reading and that this version in the MCU isn’t going to connect with them in any way to the original team’s comic book lore and just see them in the movie for what it is.
Still, I was hoping for a movie to knock me off my feet and give me a sequel that would wipe away some of the faults and bad feelings I had with the first one.
And in a way, it did.
I was really, really pissed off walking out of the theater after seeing the first movie.But with this one, I felt that it was enjoyable, and a lot of the issues I had with the previous one were not in this one.
I wasn’t too impressed with Chris Pratt as Peter Quill /StarLord in the first movie and for the most part I thought he was just annoying and not funny at all and really has no rhythm, I mean really can’t dance at all.
But here, they certainly fleshed out his characterization a little bit more to show that he is more than just a wise-cracking, egocentric (no Pun intended) bounty hunter with a “heart of gold” just for comedic relief, but actually someone who is a vulnerable person with actual depth that makes him more compelling than I thought he ever could be.
And Pratt plays the part very well.
There is a scene where is taught to use his ”light” from Ego and then enjoy a game of “catch” with his father, in an interstellar sort of way, that is very touching. And it is later contrasted very nicely when he display just how much he is still hurt with the passing of his mother and how that affect the way he is in life when learning it was his father, EGO, that was the one that killed her.
And much later in a scene where Yondu sacrifice himself to save Peter, in a way that reflected how Peter saved Gomora in the first movie, that Chris Pratt, with just little words but show a wide range of emotions, just nails it.
I was very impressed with his performance in this movie although I think he has less time on screen in this movie than the previous one.
Speaking of Yondu, Yes, Michael Rocker is just AWESOME in this movie (As he pretty much is in everything he’s in)!
Yondu shines in a way even more so than the first movie by displaying a range of depth for the character that will have you cheering and fearing him all at the same time! I really wished he would have found a way for him to come back for the next one he is really one of the highlights of this film.
And his funeral is more majestic and beautiful than even Friggas’ from Thor: the Dark World.
And even more awesome than Yondu is my main man…or rodent, Rocket Raccoon! Can we just get Rocket in a movie on his own already!
Rocket was one of the few characters that I enjoyed in the first movie but oh man, did they make him even more awesome in this one!
There is a scene where he face off with the Ravagers that shows just how dangerous he really is if someone think they can sneak up and catch him off guard, which he never is, and he even shows that he don’t need any device to take out a challenge, he just as dangerous using his fighting skills.
And like the previous two characters I mention they added a layer of depth to him with a realization between a connections with him a d Yondu of how it’s important to let others in your life and not pushed them away.
And speaking of connection, I really loved Rocket’s bond with Baby Groot. I thought they had as good chemistry as Rocket had with Groot.
And I didn’t find baby grot to be that annoying as I thought he would be. And I was even happy whe he got his revenge on some of teh Ravegers that tortured him!
Kurt Russell is awesome as EGO and has great chemistry with Pratt as his father. But it’s Kurt Russell; he’s one of my favorite actors since I was a kid so I expect nothing less.
And this movie is very emotional, and it will tug at the heart strings it comes off as being very sincere.
Some of the cameos are very nice touch, Sly Stallone, David Hasselhoff, of Course Stan Lee…TALKING TO WATCHERS!!!!!!
With some nice touches in the after credits particularly seeing a version of the “original team” and especially ADAM WARLOCK’s cocoon!But I must say the 5 after credits scene was a little too much.
And this movie is VISUALLY STUNNING! It’s just incredible to look at! There are some shots that will take your breath away!
When half the Guardians go with Ego to his planet as the classic “My Sweet Lord” by the late George Harrison is playing, it is transcending! Amazing cinematography throughout this whole movie!
So by now, if you are still reading this review … you’d probably thinking that I really enjoyed the movie.
Well hold on … I ain’t done yet!
While this movie was a vast improvement over the first one, but I also think it worse than the first one in that it could have really been a great movie… if James Gunn didn’t get him his own way.
How can someone be such a talented director and a hack at the same time?
In spite of all the things that was done to make this movie much more enjoyable than the first, it is as equally as frustrating with some of the directional choices that he made that just make you shake your head and ask “why”?
The most glaring is the characterization of Drax the “destroyer”. When did Drax the Destroyer become “Drax the Dufus”?
Drax is not known for his intelligence, but Gunn has characterized him as having the mental capacity of a brain damaged spider monkey who has some of the most cringe worthy lines throughout the movie that is supposed to be funny, I guess?
And some are not just unfunny, but mean spirited and quite crude at times. Some of his “observation” about Mantis as comic relief just don’t work. He was the only one laughing at his own joke in that instant because nobody in the theatre was.
And he gave off one of the most forced laughter I ever seen an actor do in a movie.
But I will give Gun credit that at least this time he didn’t have Drax lose every fight he went up against like the first movie but that’s because he didn’t really fight anyone at all after the opening scene against a space monster. He really is reduced only to bad jokes and nothing else.
Additionally he seem to just repeat some of the same scenes that was in the first one in this one.
The climatic shot in the prison escape scene was very similar to the prison escape scene from the first one just with more body count and the sovereign space armada fly and formatted similar to the Xandian space fleet from the first one.
Can we say redundant, redundant? It’s like they run out of ideas halfway through the movie.
And the pacing of the movie is really off at times.
I mean there are moments where it’s going a mile a minute and then there are moments that are dragged out so much that I almost start to drowse off. I did check my watch at one point in the movie.
Gunn just has to incorporate his own “gunnisms” (let’s call them that) in every aspect of the movie that it overtake the actual scene they are in.
For example the opening fight with the team vs. the space monster, and in trying to make it irreverent than any other fight scene in a comic book movie he focus the attention n on a dancing Baby Groot than he actual fight itself. And that would have been actually clever if the fight in the background looked more appealing.
The family Freud between Gomora and Nebula is such an afterthought to the overall plot of the movie that it was obviously added just to give the actresses something to do in the film and appear to be reverent to their characterization.
But you could literally edited that part in the movie and it would not affect the story at all.
Even after they discovered that Ego was killing and burying his children in a cave underground after their battle, Mantis had already informed Drax that it was already taking place and on their way to warn Peter, so it was a just a waste of time.
And per usual in a Marvel movie, the “Villains” are wasted and ridiculously bad.
The Sovergn and their co-harts are basically reduce to snotty kids playing video , the mutinies Ravagers are basically dumb keystone cops than really a threat and even when Ego is found out to be the “Big Bad guy” he is so easily able to be defeat that even a baby could beat him… and actually does.
And this brings to the part of this movie that makes it even worse than the original.
The blotted and overuse of humor at the inappropriate moments in this movie.
It is so frustratingly maddening to see a movie that builds up to an emotional or action scene that have capture your attention with the suspense only to be played off by some stupid campy over the top “joke” that ruins the previous scene.
This is done so much throughout this movie that you can even pinpoint when it is going to happen if you are in either an intensely emotion scene or the action is rearing up.
Is it so much that Gunn has to lighten up a heavy scene with flowing humor either throughout or after one as if the audience can’t handle the heaviness of it? It loses so much weight when it is done over and over again to the point of ad nauseam that is seem as a “crutch” to just hide bad film making.
And make no mistake, Gunn beats you over the head with his cheesy form of slap stick humor in this movie that it makes what he did in the first one looks like a movie from the ‘Dark Knight’ trilogy. I get comedy relief, it’s necessary for a comic book movie, but don’t be force it so much on the audience just for the sake of it.
The one that sticks out to me so much was doing the final fight between Quill and Ego and they are using their powers to turn into various forms to fight and it pretty intense and in-between all that Quill decide to turn into PACMAN.
It was brief, but it ruined the whole scene.
This movie really could have been good if Gunn would step away from his own brand of movie making, just slightly, and let the movie flow without his unnecessary “Gunnism’ he just thinks needs to be added…when it doesn’t need to be.
Would it been on of the MCU if he done so? No, but it would be a more enjoyable movie.
Verdict: So while I thought this was an improvement overthe first movie it was also a step down than the first one because it had the basic foundations to be a good movie. But was chained down with James Gunn overuse of his own “gunnisms” that he set up in the first one that it won’t have any lasting impact.
Well at least he didn’t have Starlord challenge his father to a “Dance off, PA!”
