Peter Jason Quill aka. Star-Lord (Chris Pratt), Gamora (Zoe Saldana), Drax the Destroyer (Dave Bautista), Rocket Raccoon (Bradley Cooper) and Baby Groot (Vin Diesel) are back in the hero business with Guardians of the Galaxy Vol.2. The much-anticipated sequel to the 2014 surprise hit, Guardians of the Galaxy.
The film opens with our heroes; hired by a genetically engineered race of super beings known as the Sovereigns, led by Ayesha (Elizabeth Debicki), to protect extremely valuable batteries from an interdimensional beast. In exchange for protecting these batteries, the Sovereigns will release Gamora’s sister, Nebula (Karen Gillan) to them. But of course, things don’t go as planned and our heroes end up on the run from the Sovereigns. Just as the Guardians are about to be destroyed by the Soveriegns’ attack fleet, they get rescued by a mysterious being, named Ego (Kurt Russel) and we find out that Ego claims to be Quill’s long lost farther.
When Peter, Gamora and Drax agree to return to with Ego and his associate, the empath Mantis (Pom Klementieff), to his planet, Rocket and baby Groot remain behind to repair their ship. Because the Sovereigns are hellbent to on capturing our heroes, they hire Peter’s old gang the Ravagers led by his old boss and mentor,Yondu (Michael Rooker)
In my opinion, Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy Vol.2, is a worthy sequel. It provides great effects, lots of laughs and great character interaction all bound together with awesome music. Each character receives their moment to shine and develop and honestly, there isn’t a weal link in the entire cast. They say, “lightning doesn’t strike twice” but Vol.2 is almost as entertaining as its predecessor.
There are two minor things that slightly hurt the film. First, the film is crammed full of “Easter- eggs”, such as important secondary character’s (i.e.: Sylvester Stallone’s character), and locations that only Marvel die-hard fans will know and/or appreciate. Second, separating Rocket and baby Groot took away from developing the story arc that the Guardians are a family. I thought that if the entire team stayed together, the underlying theme of “family” would have been reinforced. Although these may be very minor missteps in the film, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol.2, is still a hell of joy ride and I cannot wait for Vol.3. I highly recommend seeing the film in IMAX, but not necessary in 3D, because it looked fuzzy at times.
