Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 is a 2017 American superhero film based on the Marvel Comics superhero team Guardians of the Galaxy, produced by Marvel Studios and distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures. It is the sequel to 2014's Guardians of the Galaxy and the fifteenth film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The film is written and directed by James Gunn and stars an ensemble cast featuring Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana, Dave Bautista, Vin Diesel, Bradley Cooper, Michael Rooker, Karen Gillan, Pom Klementieff, Elizabeth Debicki, Chris Sullivan, Sean Gunn, Sylvester Stallone, and Kurt Russell. In Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, the Guardians travel throughout the cosmos as they help Peter Quill learn more about his true parentage.
Cast:
Chris Pratt as Peter Quill / Star-Lord
Dave Bautista as Drax the Destroyer
Vin Diesel as Baby Groot
Bradley Cooper as Rocket
Michael Rooker as Yondu Udonta
Karen Gillan as Nebula
Pom Klementieff as Mantis
Elizabeth Debicki as Ayesha
Chris Sullivan as Taserface
Sean Gunn as Kraglin
Sylvester Stallone as Stakar Ogord
Kurt Russell as Ego
Additionally, reprising their roles from the first film are Laura Haddock as Meredith Quill, Gregg Henry as her father, Seth Green as the voice of Howard the Duck, and canine actor Fred as Cosmo. Members of Yondu's Ravager crew appearing in the film include Evan Jones as Wrench, Jimmy Urine as Half-Nut, Stephen Blackehart as Brahl, Steve Agee as Gef, Mike Escamilla as Scrote, Joe Fria as Oblo, Terence Rosemore as Narblik, and Tommy Flanagan as Tullk, as well as Charred Walls of the Damned drummer and Howard Stern Show personality Richard Christy in a cameo appearance. Many of these actors are close friends with Gunn. The other members of Stakar and Yondu's old team, based on the comic's original incarnation of the Guardians of the Galaxy, include Michael Rosenbaum as Martinex, Ving Rhames as Charlie-27, and Michelle Yeoh as Stakar's female counterpart Aleta Ogord. Also included in the team are the CG characters Krugarr and Mainframe, with the latter voiced, in an uncredited cameo, by Miley Cyrus. Gunn cast Yeoh because of his love of 1990s Hong Kong films, and Cyrus after admiring "the tone of her voice" while watching her as a judge on The Voice. He added that the team would return in future MCU films alongside Stallone's Stakar.
David Hasselhoff makes a cameo appearance as himself, when Ego shape-shifts to his likeness, while Rob Zombie once again has a Ravager voice cameo. Stan Lee appears as an informant to the Watchers, discussing previous adventures that include Lee's cameos in other MCU films. This was a nod to the popular fan theory that Lee may be portraying one of the Watchers himself in his various cameo appearances, with Feige stating, "Stan Lee clearly exists, you know, above and apart from the reality of all the films. So the notion that he could be sitting there on a cosmic pit stop during the jump gate sequence in Guardians was something very fun—James had that idea and ... that really says, so wait a minute, he’s this same character who’s popped up in all these films?" Jeff Goldblum briefly appears during the credits as the Grandmaster, ahead of a much larger role in Thor: Ragnarok. Jim Gunn Sr. and Leota Gunn, parents of James and Sean Gunn, also make cameo appearances in the film.
Plot: (FULL Spoilers)
Meanwhile, Ayesha hires Yondu Udonta and his crew, who have been exiled from the greater Ravager community for child trafficking, to recapture the Guardians. They capture Rocket, but when Yondu shows reluctance to turn over Quill, his lieutenant Taserface leads a mutiny with help from Nebula. Taserface imprisons Rocket and Yondu aboard Yondu's ship and executes his loyalists while Nebula leaves to track down and kill Gamora, whom she blames for all the torture inflicted on her by their father, Thanos. While imprisoned, Rocket and Yondu bond. Groot, together with Yondu's loyalist Kraglin, frees Rocket and Yondu and they destroy the ship and its crew as they escape, though not before Taserface tips off the Sovereign fleet.
Ego explains that he is a god-like Celestial, a millennia-old consciousness that manipulated the matter around it to form the planet with itself at the core. Ego eventually formed a human guise to travel the universe and interact with other species to escape his loneliness and discover a purpose, eventually meeting and falling in love with Quill's mother Meredith. Ego hired Yondu to collect the young Quill after Meredith's death, but the boy was never delivered and Ego had been searching for his son ever since. He teaches Quill to manipulate their Celestial power. Nebula arrives at Ego's planet and tries to kill Gamora, but fails and the pair reach an uneasy alliance when they discover caverns filled with skeletal remains. Ego reveals to Quill that in his travels he planted seedlings upon thousands of worlds which can terraform them into new extensions of himself, but they can only be activated by the combined power of two Celestials. To that end, he impregnated countless women and hired Yondu to collect the children; Ego killed them all when they failed to access the Celestial power. Ego forcefully uses Quill to activate the seedlings, which begin to consume every world. Quill fights back after Ego reveals that he deliberately caused Meredith's death as his love for her distracted him from his purpose.
Ego's pet empath, Mantis, grows close to Drax and warns him, Gamora, and Nebula of Ego's plan just as Rocket, Yondu, Groot, and Kraglin arrive. The reunited Guardians reach Ego's brain at the planet's core, and fight the Sovereign's arriving drones. Rocket makes a bomb out of the stolen batteries that Groot plants on Ego's brain, while Quill battles Ego with his newfound Celestial powers to allow the other Guardians to escape. The bomb explodes, killing Ego and causing the planet to disintegrate. Yondu sacrifices himself to save Quill, who comes to realize Yondu did not deliver him to Ego in order to spare him from the fate of Ego's other progeny, and that Yondu was Quill's true "daddy". Having reconciled with Gamora, Nebula still chooses to set out and attempt to kill Thanos. The Guardians hold a funeral for Yondu, which is attended by dozens of Ravager ships, acknowledging Yondu's sacrifice and accepting him again as a Ravager.
In a series of mid- and post-credit scenes, Kraglin takes up Yondu's telekinetic arrow and control fin; Ravager leader Stakar Ogord, inspired by Yondu's sacrifice, reunites with his ex-teammates; Groot starts growing back to normal size, exhibiting typical teenage behavior in the process; Ayesha creates a new artificial being with whom she plans to destroy the Guardians, naming him Adam; and a group of uninterested Watchers listen to their informant discuss several experiences on Earth.
The Verdict:
I don't like thinking of this film as a sequel as it honestly felt like Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 1.5 to me. The focus here was mostly on the character development that was missing and desperately lacking in the original film and introducing a wide spectrum of major players that will more likely take the center stage after Infinity War and/or Phase 4.
Baby Groot (voiced by Vin Diesel) is as adorable as he was at the ending of the original film, but the focus isn't on him as much as casual fans are expecting going into this. I was glad too as he stole too much of the spotlight from the other characters in the original film and that the others were allowed the shine more this time around. Michael Rooker reprises his role as Yondu in one of the two redemption character arcs in this film. I thought it was a nice touch to have him identify with Rocket as both were the loose cannons and/or oddman out for their respective affiliations - Yondu with the Ravagers (we'll come back to this later) and Rocket (voiced by Bradley Cooper) with the Guardians.
I'm still not too crazy about Zoe Saldana playing Gamora, but it seems she's dialed it back a bit in terms of being the hardened woman that she was at first glance in the original film. Karen Gillian as Nebula shines once again as she's given more material to work with this time around with the second of this film's two redemption character arcs. As much as I don't care for Star-Lord being a goof in this continuity, it's hard to hate Chris Pratt's natural charm in the role; even though there are times where I feel like he's just coasting on what worked for him back in Parks and Recreation. Pom Klementieff impressed me with her performance as Mantis for the most part, but I'm not too keen on her character being so naive and clueless. I get her innocence as a stranger to customs outside of Ego's planet, but I guess that I'm more used to her later iteration as a bad ass on the West Coast Avengers team. I can't judge too much here on her performance as this was her introduction and first appearance as the character, so I'll give her a pass for now.
This film starts off in an awkward few months after the end of the first film, picking up with the Guardians taking up a job to protect Anulax batteries. I thought this was a rather interesting way to start the film, not for the excitement that ensued, but for director James Gunn to kick off with a significant reference to Marvel lore right off the bat. Well, it was a small throwback to the "power pack" that the Fantastic Four used to defeat Ego in their short-lived animated series in the mid-90's. That device didn't have a name, but when Rocket explained what those batteries were capable of, I immediately thought of that.
I thought the film did a bad job at explaining the significance of the Sovereign and Ayeshia's race in the cosmos of the MCU and just shoehorned them as the constant threat/minor inconvenience for the Guardians over the course of this film. Why would they even bother going after the Guardians themselves when they put out the bounty on their group? That really didn't make much sense, unless they were just bored and were looking for sport as their pursuit crafts were literally Galaga for their race not even piloting the ships as they controlled them remotely like a video game. Then again, Ayeshia served her purpose as she revealed that she created Adam (Warlock) in the mid-credits teaser. FYI Marvel and Kevin Feige already confirmed that they aren't going to use him in the same role that he had in the comics during the fight with Thanos, but Adam is going to be around for Phase 4.
I feel sorry for anyone who didn't know who Stakar Ogord (portrayed by Sylvester Stallone) was going into this film and had to wait until they got home or whenever someone explained it for them online who he is and why he was significant here. Director James Gunn kept it simple for the most part and limited Ogord to being part of the Ravagers mercenary group that Yondu was affiliated with previously before being paid off by Ego to do his dirty work. Savvy and long-time Marvel Comics fans would immediately know him to be the leader of the original comics iteration of the Guardians of the Galaxy (or rather Guardians 3000 as they are referred to nowadays) who went by the codename Starhawk. Between his inclusion here and in the mid-credits teaser, I'm anxious to see what Marvel has in store for that group of Guardians, or rather Ravagers in this continuity. I'm hoping that Marvel Studios pulls back the curtain and explores a lot more of the cosmic realm of things in the Marvel Cinematic Universe as they have barely scratched the surface of what they could do with that corner of Marvel's comic book lore. Between Adam Warlock and these new Ravagers, they are definitely setting up some cool things for Phase 4, maybe an old school and current Guardians team-up for Vol. 3 or 4? I'd definitely enjoy that myself.
Characters and Casting
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| I'm Mary Poppins, y'all! |
Baby Groot (voiced by Vin Diesel) is as adorable as he was at the ending of the original film, but the focus isn't on him as much as casual fans are expecting going into this. I was glad too as he stole too much of the spotlight from the other characters in the original film and that the others were allowed the shine more this time around. Michael Rooker reprises his role as Yondu in one of the two redemption character arcs in this film. I thought it was a nice touch to have him identify with Rocket as both were the loose cannons and/or oddman out for their respective affiliations - Yondu with the Ravagers (we'll come back to this later) and Rocket (voiced by Bradley Cooper) with the Guardians.
I'm still not too crazy about Zoe Saldana playing Gamora, but it seems she's dialed it back a bit in terms of being the hardened woman that she was at first glance in the original film. Karen Gillian as Nebula shines once again as she's given more material to work with this time around with the second of this film's two redemption character arcs. As much as I don't care for Star-Lord being a goof in this continuity, it's hard to hate Chris Pratt's natural charm in the role; even though there are times where I feel like he's just coasting on what worked for him back in Parks and Recreation. Pom Klementieff impressed me with her performance as Mantis for the most part, but I'm not too keen on her character being so naive and clueless. I get her innocence as a stranger to customs outside of Ego's planet, but I guess that I'm more used to her later iteration as a bad ass on the West Coast Avengers team. I can't judge too much here on her performance as this was her introduction and first appearance as the character, so I'll give her a pass for now.
Narrative
This film starts off in an awkward few months after the end of the first film, picking up with the Guardians taking up a job to protect Anulax batteries. I thought this was a rather interesting way to start the film, not for the excitement that ensued, but for director James Gunn to kick off with a significant reference to Marvel lore right off the bat. Well, it was a small throwback to the "power pack" that the Fantastic Four used to defeat Ego in their short-lived animated series in the mid-90's. That device didn't have a name, but when Rocket explained what those batteries were capable of, I immediately thought of that.
I thought the film did a bad job at explaining the significance of the Sovereign and Ayeshia's race in the cosmos of the MCU and just shoehorned them as the constant threat/minor inconvenience for the Guardians over the course of this film. Why would they even bother going after the Guardians themselves when they put out the bounty on their group? That really didn't make much sense, unless they were just bored and were looking for sport as their pursuit crafts were literally Galaga for their race not even piloting the ships as they controlled them remotely like a video game. Then again, Ayeshia served her purpose as she revealed that she created Adam (Warlock) in the mid-credits teaser. FYI Marvel and Kevin Feige already confirmed that they aren't going to use him in the same role that he had in the comics during the fight with Thanos, but Adam is going to be around for Phase 4.
I feel sorry for anyone who didn't know who Stakar Ogord (portrayed by Sylvester Stallone) was going into this film and had to wait until they got home or whenever someone explained it for them online who he is and why he was significant here. Director James Gunn kept it simple for the most part and limited Ogord to being part of the Ravagers mercenary group that Yondu was affiliated with previously before being paid off by Ego to do his dirty work. Savvy and long-time Marvel Comics fans would immediately know him to be the leader of the original comics iteration of the Guardians of the Galaxy (or rather Guardians 3000 as they are referred to nowadays) who went by the codename Starhawk. Between his inclusion here and in the mid-credits teaser, I'm anxious to see what Marvel has in store for that group of Guardians, or rather Ravagers in this continuity. I'm hoping that Marvel Studios pulls back the curtain and explores a lot more of the cosmic realm of things in the Marvel Cinematic Universe as they have barely scratched the surface of what they could do with that corner of Marvel's comic book lore. Between Adam Warlock and these new Ravagers, they are definitely setting up some cool things for Phase 4, maybe an old school and current Guardians team-up for Vol. 3 or 4? I'd definitely enjoy that myself.
I was skeptical at first about the plot conveniently branching off to split up the Guardians into two groups that would have to reunite by the end of the film, but it sold me on this narrative presentation by the film's climax. Rocket (along with Baby Groot in the passenger seat) were allowed to connect on a personal level as part of Yondu's redemption character arc here while Nebula was struggling to understand how these "strangers" connect with each other as part of her own inner conflict that was explored in her own character arc after confronting Gamora in combat once again.
Peter/Star-Lord was allowed to connect with Ego for some humorous moments, but ultimately felt like we were watching the first film all over again with how Peter interacts with everyone, including his own father. The whole final encounter with Ego screams the same amount of absurdity as the final battle with Ronan at the end of the original film, but at least it wasn't as cheesy here. I'll give them that much. In the original film, I was rolling my eyes at the final battle against Ronan more than anything.
Mantis' innocence stole the show more than Baby Groot here for me. Despite the fact that she was a newcomer to the cast, Mantis manages to connect with Drax on a level that no one else has been able to relate with him to this point in these films as she was able to reflect his inner pain that he bottles up into herself using her empathetic abilities. That alone gave Drax's character more depth than his blunt, literal demeanor and sometimes deadpan humor. I was hoping to see Mantis do more in combat than just stand around helpless, or rather being carried to the ship like a ragdoll by Drax. I guess there there was only so much action they could squeeze in for Star-Lord, Yondu, Rocket, Gamorra, Drax, and Nebula. Hopefully, we'll get more Mantis action in Vol. 3, along with maybe Moondragon joining the team by that point. Fingers crossed!
To say that people complains about female characters in Marvel films having a huge lack of character development, they definitely knocked it out of the park with expanding upon Nebula and Gamora's upbringing. Nebula revealed the details of how she got her cybernetics as part of being raised as a daughter of Thanos (FYI her and Gamora aren't Thanos' children by blood, he just "adopts" these girls after massacring their worlds. So they have no choice but to call him their "father" or face death. If you missed the point by now, but that's the sole reason that Nebula exists is to kill him for all of the pain that Thanos has caused her), along with her feelings about being raised alongside Gamora. Nebula showed more depth and layers to her character than Gamora to this point, who was uncharacteristically too kind for my taste in this film outside of maybe two scenes. I had to frown on that, especially to say that she's supposed to be a hardened warrior. I supposed many will argue that her budding relationship with Peter Quill/Starlord has softened her up. A part of me was rather skeptical on how Nebula comes around to being one of the impromptu members of the Guardians and helping them save the day as she wanted nothing but Gamora's death while working for Ronan in the first film. Remember she left Gamora out in space to die until Quill decided to be heroic for once and saved her.
Peter/Star-Lord was allowed to connect with Ego for some humorous moments, but ultimately felt like we were watching the first film all over again with how Peter interacts with everyone, including his own father. The whole final encounter with Ego screams the same amount of absurdity as the final battle with Ronan at the end of the original film, but at least it wasn't as cheesy here. I'll give them that much. In the original film, I was rolling my eyes at the final battle against Ronan more than anything.
Mantis' innocence stole the show more than Baby Groot here for me. Despite the fact that she was a newcomer to the cast, Mantis manages to connect with Drax on a level that no one else has been able to relate with him to this point in these films as she was able to reflect his inner pain that he bottles up into herself using her empathetic abilities. That alone gave Drax's character more depth than his blunt, literal demeanor and sometimes deadpan humor. I was hoping to see Mantis do more in combat than just stand around helpless, or rather being carried to the ship like a ragdoll by Drax. I guess there there was only so much action they could squeeze in for Star-Lord, Yondu, Rocket, Gamorra, Drax, and Nebula. Hopefully, we'll get more Mantis action in Vol. 3, along with maybe Moondragon joining the team by that point. Fingers crossed!
To say that people complains about female characters in Marvel films having a huge lack of character development, they definitely knocked it out of the park with expanding upon Nebula and Gamora's upbringing. Nebula revealed the details of how she got her cybernetics as part of being raised as a daughter of Thanos (FYI her and Gamora aren't Thanos' children by blood, he just "adopts" these girls after massacring their worlds. So they have no choice but to call him their "father" or face death. If you missed the point by now, but that's the sole reason that Nebula exists is to kill him for all of the pain that Thanos has caused her), along with her feelings about being raised alongside Gamora. Nebula showed more depth and layers to her character than Gamora to this point, who was uncharacteristically too kind for my taste in this film outside of maybe two scenes. I had to frown on that, especially to say that she's supposed to be a hardened warrior. I supposed many will argue that her budding relationship with Peter Quill/Starlord has softened her up. A part of me was rather skeptical on how Nebula comes around to being one of the impromptu members of the Guardians and helping them save the day as she wanted nothing but Gamora's death while working for Ronan in the first film. Remember she left Gamora out in space to die until Quill decided to be heroic for once and saved her.
Watch It or Don't Bother?
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Besides, why are you reading this review looking for me to tell you to go see this? We all know you wanted to see this the second you saw Baby Groot in the trailers.
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