Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 Review

It is nothing short of remarkable that the first Guardians of the Galaxy introduced us to at least 5 characters and made you care about them in a single movie. I think it is nearly as remarkable how the second movie can develop these characters and their relationships, while making us care about people we had no investment in after the first movie.
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 follows our four original heroes, with their new companion Baby Groot (who apparently isn’t the original Groot, which was not at all clear), about four months after the events of the first movie. We meet a brilliant Kurt Russel, portraying Peter’s larger than life father, Ego. The Guardians steal something from a group of gold perfect people named the Sovereign which leads them to run in with Ego.
I’m kinda assuming most people have seen this movie by now or don’t at all care, so I’m going to leave the summary part at that and will probably spoil some stuff up ahead so BE WARNED.

Personally I love almost everything about this movie, save for a couple jokes. I think the action is super fun and memorable. We start out with “fight generic big weird alien” and right as you go to roll your eyes, it becomes the Baby Groot dancing recital. Rocket has a cool little Home Alone-esque scene. Yondu steals the show with his whistle arrow. The colors really pop in the movie. I believe this was the first Marvel movie filmed with a RED camera or something like that which is allegedly better at capturing those pure colors. There are a lot of really cool shots that you want to go make the background on your computer.

The soundtrack in this sequel is stellar. The first movie’s soundtrack was a series of some classic hits that really drive the movie from point-to-point. This movie’s is a lot more slow songs, with each providing more emotional resonance than any single song from the first movie. Although I don’t find myself jamming out in the car to it from front to back, that wasn’t the intention this time around and I think it was the right move for the franchise.
I love how the movie splits the characters into different groups, with each having a different emphasis on family. Peter with his Dad explore the father/son dynamic, Nebula and Gamora grow as sisters who were once torn apart, and Rocket and Yondu bond as brothers. Of course the Guardians all together are one big family and this movie really expands and plays with those themes and works the characters in different and interesting ways. The first movie some of the most tragic parts where when we learned about a character, i.e. when Rocket goes on his drunken rant; meanwhile, in the sequel it is always when we see how the characters react to how their friends and family’s decisions affected their loved ones.
I’m not really sure what any of that means, if it means anything at all. It’s late and I’m really behind on these reviews, so I’ll leave it at that.