Another year, another batch of Marvel movies for us to consume. Let's get to it.
Guardians of the Galaxy: Volume 2 (which, for the rest of this review, I'm gonna shorten to just Guardians 2 because that is a seriously long-ass title) is the next installment in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and is - obviously - the sequel to 2014's Guardians of the Galaxy. That being said, you pretty much know the drill by now. Quill and friends get into a mess, their friendship is tested, they find themselves in a bigger mess, and now they have to get out of said mess. This one is still directed by James Gunn and it still makes for some pretty good entertainment.
I enjoyed the first Guardians movie quite a bit, and I absolutely loved the movie that landed James Gunn his Marvel gig, Super, so I was excited to see this one. At the very least, I was hoping for more of the same.
Instead we got more of some at the expense of other things.
I'll explain what I mean by that in a while, but, first, let's talk about what I liked.
First of all, this movie is seriously pretty. It's beautiful. The colors were bright and vivid without being overly saturated. The cinematography in this movie was some seriously excellent stuff. Every shot was so picturesque and well-composed that I could think of a good number of them that I'd have printed and framed.
It was, as the kids say, a e s t h e t i c as fucc.
And, as you've come to expect from an MCU movie, the action is solid and entertaining. It's MCU-style action as you've come to know and love, and I don't think I can really take anything away from that. Another thing I really did end up liking about the action - specifically the final fight scene - in Guardians 2 was that it had layers to it. The end fight did feel like a really difficult boss battle, and, since I personally dig boss battles when they're done well, I'll say that's a plus.
Another thing Guardians 2 has going for it is that it really does try and build on the characters they've established in the previous movie. You get to see exactly how their individual personality traits could come into conflict with each other and get to dive a little deeper into their respective histories. You also get to know a lot more about the universe in which Guardians 2 takes place, particularly about the Ravagers, so that was cool.
We also have...
I've been waiting to say this for the longest time, but, after so long, we have a villain we can actually consider a good villain. That's right - an MCU movie with a villain who wasn't forgettable. How crazy, right? In all seriousness, though, Ego was cool.
He's a bit of an archetype, for sure, but as far as execution goes, I think they really did something great here. Kurt Russell played the part very well and really did play up the cool guy factor of Ego (in the movie, at least) to a tee. He was genuinely powerful, both as an on-screen presence and in terms of strength.
And I just gotta say that the throw-down involving him is f*cking epic.
As usual, the writing and a lot of the comedy in the movie was sharp and on-point, and, as far as being a follow-up to the first movie goes, I do think that this is a good follow-up to the first movie. So, that's something.
However, Guardians 2 is far from being the best thing ever.
Some of the jokes in the movie either dragged on for too long, and others were just kinda flat - in some cases, the humor kinda just took away a lot of the gravity that some scenes should've had. It felt as if they noticed that people really liked the funny parts of the first movie and said, "Hey, why don't we make this movie the funniest thing ever?" While a lot of the jokes are funny and do stick, there were also a lot that just didn't cut it.
In some cases, even, it was almost as if the movie just really didn't know when to stop, and, like I said earlier, that took a lot of potential gravity away from certain scenes. For example, these characters get themselves into a shitty situation that was supposed to be dark and dire until someone said something funny and just took all that tension away. Okay, look, I don't require my movies to be all dark and somber. I just happen to like it when movies either know when to stop or maintain a balance of tones.
It also took away from how much of a threat these guys could've been.
I'm gonna be honest with you here: I couldn't take the gold people seriously. As hot intimidating as the Priestess was, I just couldn't really bring myself to see her underlings in the same light. Something about them just seemed too silly and kinda over-the-top. I also feel that way about Nebula and her weird-ass speaking mannerisms.
The next point I'm about to make is more of a personal thing than an actual gripe, but I hope you don't skip to the end and just hear me out. A lot of this movie really just felt as if it was the MCU showing off, and it was kinda tiring. Apart from the oversaturation of humor, I felt that Sylvester Stallone's (who's only in the movie for like two moments) cameo was unnecessary. He literally could've been played by anyone and it would not have made a difference. And I never thought I would say this, but the post-credit scenes got incredibly tiring, especially when a lot of them didn't really add much to the movie and felt more like set-up for something else instead.
I feel like a lot of the big "surprises" in this movie would've been so much more impactful if we knew jack-shit about the movie, but sadly, knowing squat about an MCU movie is pretty much impossible at this point - to me, anyway. Everything's always covered and so hyped-up and those reports are so in-your-face that it, personally, takes a lot of the "wow" factor away, you know?
This is still a good movie, though, don't be mistaken.
I know it sounds like I've bitched about this movie a lot, but that doesn't mean I hate it. In fact, I like it - a lot. I'll probably talk about my gripes with MCU marketing and the hype-train in particular in another post, but I will end this post by saying that Guardians 2 really is worth your time, and that, in my book, it's worthy of a Jar Jar thumbs-up.
Have you seen Guardians of the Galaxy: Volume 2? If you have, leave a comment below, let me know. I'd also like to give a shout-out to my buddy Gian for hooking me and my friends up with tickets (thanks, G). You should give him a follow on Instagram, he does some pretty kick-ass art.
As always, this has been Rafa. Stay classy.
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