dir. by James Gunn
Despite their acclaim, the films of the Marvel Cinematic Universe are fundamentally corporate products. They're expensive, rarely challenging, and formulaic, and their more unique entries are usually only weird by the franchise's own standards, as was the case with the first Guardians of the Galaxy in 2014. However, as it's become more and more reliably successful, the franchise has begun experimenting with its formula: Captain America: Civil War revolved its sprawling spectacle around a thoughtful storyline which bordered on autocritique, whereas Doctor Strange spruced up its familiar origin story with a pinch of psychedelia.
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 doesn't have the first film's consistency of humour or momentum, but it retains much of what made its predecessor so charming, and adopts the strengths of both of its "phase 3" bretheren. If its character drama doesn't reach the heights of Civil War, it's still one of the thornier entries in the MCU, and its visuals even surpass the benchmark of Doctor Strange to set a new high point for the series. If sequels are expected to be bigger and bolder, Guardians 2 also takes the much more admirable route of being weirder.
Now working for hire, the titular Guardians have just received Nebula (Karen Gillan), the estranged sister of Gamora (Zoe Saldana) as a reward from a race called the Sovereign when Rocket (voiced by Bradley Cooper) is caught having stolen some of the Sovereign's precious batteries. Once shot down by Sovereign pursuers, the Guardians crash land on a mysterious planet, where they meet a man named Ego who introduces himself as Peter Quill's absentee father. Following this, Peter (Chris Pratt), Gamora, and Drax (Dave Bautista) board his ship and are taken to Ego's home planet. Meanwhile, Nebula escapes and runs into a group of bounty hunters led by Peter's old boss Yondu (Michael Rooker), who are working for the Sovereign to get those batteries back.
That comprises the majority of the plot, but whereas the first Guardians of the Galaxy excelled on a traditional comic book-style narrative, the sequel trades narrative momentum for time spent on character dynamics. Every character arc in Guardians 2 revolves around a singular question of who one's family is, and each character's backstory influences this. Peter, while resenting Ego for leaving his mother, is excited to gain a relationship he never had growing up, while Gamora, who was raised by the sinister Thanos, is suspicious of the whole situation. Similarly, Nebula resents Gamora for being Thanos's favoured child and seeks to kill her as vengeance for her own mistreatment. The sheer quantity of characters with daddy issues in Vol. 2 becomes slightly comical once you factor in Yondu and Rocket, but a few genuinely powerful scenes are derived from the film's commitment to theme, and the contrast between the ways these characters regard family is genuinely fascinating.
That subtextual fascination is important, because the main plot of Vol. 2 doesn't actually kick in until the final third of the movie, and there are stretches where the humour which the Guardians films thrive on is largely absent. Because the characters are so well-drawn, however, and because its thematic core is so compelling, the film doesn't drag even with the narrative lull of the middle part. Unfortunately, the character details are much more interesting than the broader strokes of the theme, and the film's thesis ultimately amounts to little more than a trite acknowledgment that family is not strictly biological. Nonetheless, those thorny details add a lot of depth to most of the characters, although Peter, Gamora, Nebula and Yondu gain a disproportionate amount of it whereas Rocket falls a little short.
When Guardians 2 isn't darkening the mood, it's nearly as funny as the first. A handful of scatological jokes fall flat, and some jokes go on for far too long, but everyone is just as funny as they were the first time around, even if the novelty of these characters has worn off. Drax in particular has become the comedic highlight of the film, constantly spewing hilarious one-liners left and right. He has an interesting relationship with new character Mantis (Pom Klementieff), a naive empath in Ego's employ who is often charming but whose innocence leads to some discomforting subtext. Groot, who has now become the film's resident cute mascot character, is consistently charming, and his endearing relationship with Rocket is one of Vol. 2's high points.
The real highlight of the film, however, is the visuals, which are easily the most distinctive of the Marvel universe. In contrast to the slickness of the Captain America and Avengers films, Guardians 2 has something visually interesting going in nearly every single scene, be it the gold-painted Sovereign and their remote-controlled spaceships, Yondu's telekenetically-controlled weapon, or the horrific distortion which comes from Rocket performing an absurd number of hyperspace jumps. The scenery of Ego's planet is genuinely beautiful, and although some effects aren't perfectly convincing, like one in the third act which is little more than blue CGI sludge, most of the visuals are stunning even by conventional standards, let alone by those of the MCU.
For a summer tentpole, Guardians 2 places relatively little emphasis on action, and what action is there tends to play second fiddle to character interactions, jokes, and trippy visuals. The actual fights are a mixed bag, with the few which are genuinely inspired sharing space with more which are less than memorable and a muddled climactic battle. The humour and emotional context of the climax, alongside its sheer momentum, is enough to make it exciting, as the film still doesn't have the clearest handle over its own fistfights and excels most when it's able to step back a bit more.
Overall, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 is every bit as fun as is to be expected of these films, and stands apart as weirder and more visually interesting than any Marvel film before it. Each film of the MCU's third phase has been great fun in its own unique way, and if their continued success allows them to become even more idiosyncratic and thematically ambitious, that can only be seen as a good thing. Guardians 2 isn't necessarliy the most typically exciting of the Marvel blockbusters, but it's funny, weird, and stands out as one of the franchise's most peculiar entries, and it even manages to accumulate a surprising amount of emotional power. It's not the best of the Marvel films, but it's certainly one of the most interesting.
8/10
+ Packed with hilarious moments.
+ Features a surprising amount of character depth.
+ Consistently visually interesting.
- Some jokes fall flat.
- Middle lacks narrative momentum.
- Doesn't have the most memorable action scenes.
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