GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY is one of my favorite movies in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. I loved the quirky, zany, almost Looney Toons vibe it had along with entertaining characters I could get attached to. The villain was incredibly bland and the third act of the film felt very by-the-numbers, grab the McGuffin so big bad can’t destroy the world, cliche Marvel ending. However it stepped above all the previous ones by having a great emotional moment and a clever undercut of the stand-off trope. Even with all that, it remained my favorite MCU film… until the sequel improved on everything I had problems with in the first film.
I’m not going to say GUARDIANS Vol. 2 is perfect. It’s still got some flaws. But it’s a near perfect sequel. Being a big James Gunn fan it’s great to see him get this big-budget property with a great amount of freedom. It’s kind of incredible with how the entirety of the MCU seems under such tight surveillance from the suits with everything having to fall in place to support the grand scheme. But because Guardians has such a niche following and is so obscure and literally in another galaxy from the rest of the MCU it seems the chains are off allowing Gunn to do what he does best: going completely off the walls.
Vol. 2 brings everything in for a smaller story than the first. This is a much more personal story for the team. And I do mean for the entire team. Trailers would suggest this is Star-Lord’s story. And while the plot certainly rides on Peter Quill’s story, there’s 2 other stories going on as well. All 3 of these storylines focus on family… And Vin Diesel’s in this movie… Family… Vin Diesel… There’s a joke here… Somewhere… eh, maybe I’ll think of it later… anyway…
You’d think with 3 stories going on with so many characters some of them would get lost in the shuffle. So many movies trying to cram this many people to follow tend to favor some at the expense of others… *cough*X-Men 3*cough* Excuse me. But somehow James Gunn pulls off an amazing juggling act having not just 2, 3, or 4, but 6 character arcs. SIX! You could even argue 7. Some were a little more fleshed out than others, but we get 7 characters that have a full arc in this movie. What makes this even more incredible is not a single one of them feels rushed or undeserved.
VOL 2 also improves on one of the biggest issues with the MCU, terrible villains. There are technically 3 villains in this movie and all of them are interesting in their own way. I don’t really want to give too much away, but the big bad of the main storyline, while not too fleshed out, does do enough to pull a lot of investment. Even though Gunn wanted a smaller story in scope than the first film he still manages to raise the stakes even higher making the importance of the victory we’re rooting for that much more important.
I want to take a moment to step back for a moment. Something I feel a lot of actions films today aren’t doing enough of is appreciating the quiet time. I’m also a gamer and this is a problem in action games as well. With these so-called “non-stop action” movies/games we can get exhausted with all the excitement. We get numb to the visceral overload and even though there’s a large quantity of exciting things going on we either don’t care or aren’t impressed by it because there’s so much fat. Gunn seems to know that this is not what you want so we get several scenes or quiet, open space through the film. It’s also a sign of Gunn’s growing confidence as a big-budget filmmaker being able to compose these brilliant shots of maybe just a single character with a lot open space. Taking full advantage of the IMax format, some of the most beautiful shots are these quiet time moments letting us reflect on what’s happened so far alongside these characters. Which also allows us to fully enjoy Gunn’s matured eye for action as well.
I did love the visual style of the first film but the action sequences felt lacking to me. Aside from the prison escape, Gunn seemed a bit too afraid in his ability to frame action. This certainly isn’t a problem anymore. About half of the big set pieces were filmed in the beautiful IMax format which allows Gunn to really wow us. Almost the entirety of the third act is filmed in the IMax format and is used to great effect. Every shot is composed well. Not a single moment was too shaky or too close to see what was going on. No editing was done with the intention to hide mistakes or laziness. You see everything. Not only does it just look great, but the action is derived from the story. Every little bit of action serves the story and moves things forward. But even if you’re not really here for the emotion, the spectacle is enough to stand on its own.
While all of this makes a better movie than the original, what really sold me was the emotion -- the characters. I cared for every single character in this movie. VOL 2 really tugged on my heartstrings a few times. Sure, some moments were kind of cheesy. Some of the dialogue did kind of get a little melodramatic or cliche. But it works for me. I cared about these characters enough to look past those small missteps. These are characters I enjoyed watching and made me laugh. Oh boy, did they make me laugh. Easily the funniest movie of the MCU. And easily the most likeable band of misfits on this side of the galaxy. I love this movie.
If you can, see this movie in IMax. The 3D is great, but there’s several scenes shot in the larger IMax format which are simply amazing. It’s worth the extra $5-10 to see the film in its true form.
Review also available HERE
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