Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2

Guardians of the Galaxy is a film that grew on me, and it’s kind of a wonder it even needed to (it’s possible I just wasn’t in a great mood when I first saw it). Besides being the most visually sumptuous of the Marvel films, it was also a great showcase of characters, their radically disparate personalities forming a winning comedic blend that’s impossible not to love. 

Vol. 2 knows that’s what the people want, and gives it to them wholesale. The film is one terrific action or effects sequence after another, about half of them brilliant pieces of comedy. Connecting them is the rapid-fire cocky wordplay that made us love these characters, including a few truly hilarious exchanges that keep building, and keep getting funnier, long after the joke would normally seem spent. And in addition to a whole new slew of oldies on the soundtrack, the picture goes a step further with a handful of creative retro pop culture touches, including some surprising cameos (and the Stan Lee cameo game one-ups itself yet again, with arguably the creator’s best one yet).

Admittedly, all this fun comes a bit at the expense of a storyline. What’s there has Star-Lord Peter Quill (Chris Pratt) meeting his long-lost father (Kurt Russell), a being with near-godlike power, and traveling to his paradise-like home planet. Here, half the team spends most of the movie just chilling until the final act, but at least it’s got Dave Batista’s Drax the Destroyer providing comic relief, finding a comedic partner in the doe-eyed newbie Mantis (Pom Klementieff). As much of the movie, however, follows the now-baby Groot (voiced by Vin Diesel), Rocket Racoon (voiced by Bradley Cooper), and the Ravager leader Yondu (Michael Rooker) trapped in a predicament that, in a more complete plot, might have only been a short aside before an escape sequence. That’s not a bad thing, though, as their half turns out to have the most enjoyable stuff in the picture.

So, there’s not nearly as much going on as the first Guardians, and little apparent universe-building for Infinity War or other future films, aside from the mid- and post-credits scenes. But it’s not to much detriment because it’s too much fun spending time with these characters to really notice. And at the very least, it allows enough time for a few subtle moments for the characters to exhibit their humanity, particularly Zoe Saldana’s Gamora.

Marvel Studios, for all their expertise at building a combined film continuity with excellent crossovers, has been a bit hit-or-miss with the second installments in individual series. Iron Man 2 and Age of Ultron were ultimately underwhelming in the long run; the second Captain America, on the other hand, is still the very best single picture the studio has yet made. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 falls somewhere firmly in between, not as fully plotted and soundly structured as the first, but nearly as much fun.