Film of the Week: Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2

This was a huge amount of fun, with plenty of laughs, and of course, incredible music that’s a mix between ingeniously picked songs to the original booming score; this sequel goes above and beyond that of the first.

Most of the questions we from the first movie are mostly answered here. The biggest one of them all, however, was the main focus of the movie: The identity of Peter’s dad. During production, seeing a few behind the scenes pictures and pieces of news here and there, we learned that a huge character was going to appear. Ego, the living planet. An entire planet with a conscious was going to be a part of the movie, and I did have my doubts, I will admit. I wondered if they were going too big too soon, but I shouldn’t have worried at all. With all the origin story out of the way, they can focus solely on the big stuff without getting too bogged down in exposition. MARVEL was able to go straight into the action.

The nerd in me was able to flourish and be in awe during the climactic battle between the Guardians and Ego. I was amazed with how well they were able to adapt a living planet onto the big screen. There was a part of me that believed it could only ever be on the pages of the comic book, but seeing Ego’s true form and face on the planet’s surface, I had a huge grin on my face.

The first movie set the bar quite high with its comedy, but that was no challenge for the writers. They knocked it out of the park, and that was purely because they used baby Groot to their advantage. He was so cute throughout, and I think everyone in the cinema adored him and laughed the hardest whenever he did practically anything. The funniest scene has to be when he was tasked to grab the prototype horn from the drawer in the captain’s quarters, and he kept coming back with everything but.

Even though the actors had to do most of their acting in front or behind a green screen, whilst that isn’t exactly the most ideal of scenarios as it can make acting harder if you can’t see what you’re supposed to be reacting to, but you could see that everyone was just enjoying themselves. I want to say that Groot stole the film, but whilst he was a huge amount of fun, everyone’s performance was on the same level as the rest, creating that perfect dynamic and doesn’t make any of the scenes clunky or as if one character was slightly or completely out of the place. Everyone was included, had a purpose, and played an important role in the film.

Whilst the foreground was overflowing with awesomeness, the background was, too. I’m not too good with spotting the Easter eggs, but I did spot a few cameos here and there, especially Howard the Duck, and of course, the obligatory Stan Lee, although if you did miss his cameo your only excuse can be that your eyes were closed or you weren’t looking at the screen, and I doubt you could even try and pull yourself away once you’ve started watching.

It may have plenty of comedic moments, but it doesn’t shy away from the heart-wrenching ones. Whilst they aren’t aimed at making you tear up or be broken for days afterwards, they do tug when necessary and in the right place, keeping the comedy cleverly separate but also interweaved, creating so many layers.

I cannot write a review about the film without mentioning the soundtrack. Every song carefully picked for maximum effect. The original score in between songs was also powerful and fitted the scene brilliantly. But, unfortunately, if I were to compare to the first film, I have to say that it doesn’t blend the music as good as the first. However, I do admire it doing something different to keep it fresh, and if this was the first in the series, then it would have been perfect without a doubt, with no problems. The fact that this is the sequel keeps that annoying niggly sensation at the back of my mind. Maybe, upon re-watching it a couple more times it’ll go away. Yeah, I’ll use that as my excuse to why I’ve watched it seventeen times in a month.

I know it’s a long way off, but Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 have been announced, which isn’t too surprising as most films in the cinematic universe comes in threes, and director James Gunn has expressed interest in making a spin-off film solely following Nebula’s story. I’m not going to give an opinion because it’s too early and therefore would be pointless, but there was one scene at the very end during the credits that already made me unable to wait for the third. Teenage Groot. That’s all I’m going to say. Teenage Groot.

I do very highly recommend Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2. It’s a huge amount of fun.

Thanks for reading

Antony Hudson

(TonyHadNouns)