Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2

What's the title?

Who directed it?

James Gunn

When was it released?

2017

Would I recommend it?

Yes (I mean, obviously.)

What's it about?(non-spoilers)

A few months after the adventures of the first film, the Guardians are off being buttholes and making bank, capitalizing on their galaxy-saving reputation. Things get complicated when Rocket pisses off the pettiest alien species ever put to film and Quill’s long absent father shows up out of the blue looking to reconcile.

What did you think? (spoilers)

It’s Guardians. It was fun and silly and had a great heart at the center of it. Of course I liked it. I will say it’s not as good as the first installment. I have friends who disagree with that assessment, and I can completely see why they would. I think the first GOTG was more my cup of tea – and I can point to concrete reasons as to why which I will do shortly – but I think whether people will enjoy Vol. 2 more than its predecessor comes down more to personal taste than it does to objective metrics of merit.

Vol. 2 is bigger and louder and allows the audience to get deeper into the characters' psychology – all good things. It’s also grimmer and darker. That’s not to say it is a grim or dark film (this is still Marvel we’re talking about here), but it takes a drive on the darker side of the galaxy.

I understood, plot-wise, why some of the brutal action had to happen. Would we have been okay with Rocket and Yondu going on a gleeful murder spree if we hadn’t been subjected to a lengthy scene of the Ravagers jettisoning the loyal crew-members out of the ship to their death? Hopefully not. (Honestly I’m not confident that an audience should be okay with a gleeful murder spree under any circumstance, but that’s a question to unpack at a later date.) Even in the less gruesome scenes, all it takes is the tiniest scratch at this movie’s candy coating of tone to find some pretty weighty stuff.

For instance, every character on the team has lived through significant trauma. This should be obvious after the character introductions from the first film, but the impact was slightly muted by the fun of “getting the band together.” In GOTG, the Guardians are finding a new family for themselves. In Vol. 2 the audience is left to see that, despite finding this new family and the joy that has brought, the Guardians are still very much dealing with and carrying around the weight of their respective traumas.

The characters processing their trauma is both a boon to and a weight on the movie. With a cast this large, it’s impressive that Vol. 2 is able to give attention to each character and allow them all to have their own complete arc in the narrative. Seriously, applause.

However, this attention to character also slows the movie down a bit, just because there is so much story to cover. The second act, in particular, gets a little sluggish and bloated, as opposed to in GOTG which was able to be economical and tightly plotted. Despite the slower pacing of Vol. 2, I wouldn’t change it because it allows the audience more time with its characters, and these are great characters that I love spending time with.

I ADORED the Gamora storyline. (And I’m not the only one – most of my friends I have talked to about Vol. 2 have name-checked the Gamora-Nebula story as a hallmark, because it’s awesome.) While Gamora got a few shining moments in GOTG, she felt more like a Smurfette than a real part of the team. I feel like I finally got to truly meet Gamora in Vol. 2, and she is just so lovely. She’s competent and intimidating but has such a large heart. She’s so much more than a mere love interest, which Vol. 2 respects by giving her a Bechdel-passing arc with her sister, Nebula.

Ah, Nebula. How can I describe my admiration for the blue and purple ball of anger mismanagement? I remember leaving GOTG longing for more of Nebula. Vol. 2 delivered on that desire, and she was just as awesome I had hoped she would be. Nebula is now tied with Drax as my favorite character in the Guardians franchise.

I was surprised by how much I enjoyed Mantis. From the trailers, I thought I was going to find the new character an annoyance, but I was wrong. Mantis is a delight. She’s such a little weirdo, and her friendship with Drax is precious and weird. I want more, much more, of them. Thank you.

While Mantis was a delightful surprise, I have to say – Baby Groot was a little of a letdown.

I know. I know. I deserve to be pelted with rotten produce for even thinking such sacrilege, but it’s true. I loved Groot in the first film. “We are Groot” can reduce me to a puddle even all these years later. And, don’t get me wrong, I liked BG. I was properly outraged when the Ravagers were bullying the little sapling. But where Groot was a (lethal) sylvan Pooh Bear, BG is kind of a dick. I appreciated the role BG played, particularly in the team’s interactions with him – care-taking shows how much of a family the team has become. However, as a character, I felt the way I sometimes do when I’m around a friend’s terrible two. Like, I know I’m supposed to be charmed on account of how little the child is and the obvious cuteness factor, but he’s being a brat and I am not endeared.

Another underwhelming aspect? Yondu. Just like with Nebula, I was excited for the expansion of Yondu’s character in the second installment. Vol. 2 did a great job of adding complexity and gravitas to the character. His backstory, his motivations, his vulnerable core – all good things, and Michael Rooker's performance is one for the books. But when the time for his ultimate sacrifice comes, I casually thought “Oh, that’s sad.” Maybe it’s because Peter and Yondu got so little interaction on the screen, but as great of a line as “But he wasn’t your daddy” may be, it failed to reduce me to an utter mess the way “We are Groot” did.

Yondu-adjacent, what is it with characters explicitly saying what has already been made abundantly obvious? Yondu literally yelling at Rocket that they two are the same, like why does that need to be said? Was that not obvious? Like overwhelmingly, blatantly obvious? Logan did this too. I forgave it then because it allowed X-23 to give an epic comeback to Wolvie’s “no-duh” statement. But I don’t want this to be a trend. I get that it’s a hard line to thread between trusting your audience and leaving your audience in the dark, but come on. A little faith would be nice. And you know what, maybe I’m wrong. Maybe a large chunk of the audience wouldn’t get it unless Yondu/Logan/He-Man literally spells it out for them. But I imagine that chunk of the audience would be satisfied by all the pretty explosions and wouldn’t really mind being confused for those two minutes of character development. (Is this a condescending attitude to take? Am I a bad person? Does anyone reading this care? Is anyone reading this? These are the real questions.)

Now, let’s get to the Kurt Russell of it all. It’s not exactly a secret that MCU doesn’t home great villains. There’s been Loki, but he’s been turned into more of an anti-villain than a true baddie. Red Skull could maybe be considered a worthy villain if we're being generous. But by and large the MCU villains have been either forgettable or yawn-inducing. No MCU villain, however, with the possible exception of Thor: The Dark World’s Malekith, has been less charismatic than GOTG’s Ronan. How, in a movie as fun as GOTG they managed to take an actor as charming as Lee Pace and produce a character that is a black hole, sucking all verve from any scene he’s in, is oddly impressive. All that to say that Ego is an infinitely better villain than Ronan. I heard someone describe Ego as greasy, and that is the perfect descriptor for him. He’s slick and oily and off-putting, but – because it’s Kurt Russell – still somewhat charming. You understand why the Guardians go with him and also why they don’t trust him. I also appreciated Peter’s reaction to the villain reveal.

Monologuing in superhero films is one of the most frustrating hallmarks of the genre. If you hate someone, if someone is threatening your family or your evil plan, if you have the chance to save a city – you don’t spend time telling your opponent your feelings, your motivations, your intentions as to how you will handle said opponent. You just handle it. When Ego reveals that he planted a tumor in Mom Meredith’s brain, Peter doesn’t express his hurt, his shock, his intention to make Ego pay. He just shoots the bastard. Several times. That really blessed me. (Look, I may have qualms about gleeful mass homicide, but angrily avenging your mom? I’m okay with that.) I’m not saying Peter’s reaction was healthy or the high road or anything. But it was honest; it was what a person like Peter would react in that situation.

Speaking of Peter, I love how much of a dork he is. The Avengers all have their quirks and vulnerabilities, but (with the exception of Banner, who is a proud nerd through and through) all the OG Avengers are cool. Natasha Romanoff is the essence of cool. Tony is suave. Cap is classic. Thor is Chris Hemsworth. Peter tries to act cool, but, as a kid, he got into fights with his classmates because they hurt frogs and lied that his absent dad was really David Hasselhoff. That is adorable. I also love that it’s these dorky, genuine sides of Peter that Gamora appreciates.

I’m sure I have more thoughts about this movie that I will remember just as soon as I publish this blog post because that’s how my brain works. Seeing that this post is already too long by far, allow me to sum up by saying, that despite my nit-picky problems, Vol. 2 is a great film that allows Guardians to remain one of the best franchises in the MCU, and possibly the strongest. I cannot wait for Vol. 3.