Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2

I hope you all are as ridiculously amped up as I am for the opening of Avengers: Endgame this evening! It marks the primary conclusion of all major story points from nearly every Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) film going back to where it started with the original Iron Man from 2008. It is a cinematic event 11 years in the making and is being forecasted to break all kinds of box office records. This week I have been preparing by watching the latest two MCU films in my video backlog to refresh me with the latest story arcs. I will begin by first covering 2017’s Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (trailer).

Marvel Studios and James Gunn wasted no time jumping on a sequel to the surprise breakout success of the first GotG. As I detailed in my entry covering the first GotG, I still recall being blown away by how won over I was by an unorthodox crew of larger-than-life characters that came together to rescue the galaxy. That same gang returns in an awesome opening piece that sees Peter Quill (Chris Pratt), Gamora (Zoe Saldana), Drax (Dave Bautista), Rocket (voiced by Bradley Cooper) take on a mammoth of a gelatinous octopus-esque creature while the now fun-sized ‘Baby’ Groot (voiced by Vin Diesel) dances away in the background to the requisite 1970s pop-rock soundtrack. It is a goofy dumb sequence that I took gleeful joy in jamming out at home to with a pair of surround sound headphones.

The primary hook in GotG2 is that after vanquishing said blobby monster, the Guardians run into a jam when collecting their reward from the golden skinned race of beings known as Sovereign. They high tail it out of there with Sovereign right on their tale when a mysterious being assists the Guardians in escaping. They meet up with this being who introduces himself as Ego (Kurt Russell) along with his servant Mantis (Pom Klementieff). Ego breaks the big news to Peter that he is his dad and invites the Guardians to join them on his home planet to clear his origins up and catch up on the past. Of course there is more than meets the eye to Ego’s claims, and there are periphery matters happening with Yondu (Michael Rooker) and his Ravagers once again meddling with the Guardians throughout and Gamora and her sister Nebula (Karen Gillan) quarreling out decades worth of family disputes too.

There are a ton of lighthearted jokes and gags throughout GotG2 like its predecessor. A lot of them hit and crack me up throughout, but the opening half hour Marvel Studios went overkill with them. I could not help but think that even though I was enjoying the heck out of the opening scenes that Marvel Studios could have dialed it back a smidge or two. I have to struggle with this criticism however because ultimately I am talking about a cast of bombastic figures such as a talking CG tree and raccoon and a whole host of colorful, galactic species waging war to a killer ‘70s soundtrack so in the end it may be wise for me to give GotG2 the benefit of the doubt to get away with double-to-triple the gags of the average MCU film. I also settled on giving this qualm a pass because I convinced myself for all future GotG viewings to go into them two beers in and that will help put that nitpick I have at bay and take in the ride that is GotG. I am also 100% down with any film that gives the Zune some love, being an avid Zune user myself to this day much to the ridicule of several podcast hosts over the years.

There is so much in Vol 2 that I loved. I will highlight a few of my favorite takeaways while doing my best not to go into too much detail. Drax had a few nicely timed dry humor moments originally, and Marvel Studios went all in with Drax’s dry wit being peppered throughout with lots of priceless exchanges with Mantis. Baby Groot is over-the-top adorable in his naiveté and cute facial expressions. The in-house faction wars in the Ravagers between Yondu and the astutely named Tazerface (Chris Sullivan) was a fantastic periphery arc that climaxed with a unforgettable exchange with Rocket and later Yondu going all out with another dazzling display of his arrow skills.

I would be remiss if I were to forget to mention how spectacular the CG is here. It is in a class of its own with the already high bar established by the rest of the MCU films. Aside from the stunning space dogfights, Ego’s planet is a literal marvel and features some breathtaking use of CG to showcase flashbacks. The final act blows away the already-stellar final act of the first GotG with everything coming to a boil between Peter and Ego in a near half-hour long epic battle to get the hell off Ego’s planet and escape his wrath. Props again to James Gunn hand picking another star studded ‘70s pop-rock soundtrack along with an accompanying heroic original score that kicks in at all the right beats and combines for easily the best aural experience of all the MCU films.

The GotG2 BluRay has the ideal amount of extra features I want on a BluRay. It has a five star gag reel like most of the other MCU home video releases. There are a few minutes of deleted scenes with my standout being more extended love for the Zune. There is a 37 minute behind-the-scenes feature split up into four parts highlighting the soundtrack, visual effects and cast and crew love for director James Gunn, which was quite fascinating to see now in hindsight after the whole James Gunn Twitter controversy that temporarily removed him from the upcoming third GotG until the cast and crew fought vehemently to bring him back. Finally, James Gunn has a solo commentary track for the feature. Minus an occasional lull, he was pretty entertaining and a few quick highlights from it was Gunn referencing his work on the Lollipop Chainsaw game for inspiration for special effects in the movie, getting one of Quill’s big speeches mostly from a dream he woke up from in the middle of the night and Gunn justifying the use of five post-credit bonus scenes and how they all came to be.

It is rare for superhero films to meet and surpass expectations, especially sequels. Re-watching Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 only assured me that those expectations were righteously knocked out of the park. I loved the first film, and somehow James Gunn found a way to make the sequel far better. I am intrigued in how Gunn stated in the commentary how he feels the Guardians films are like independent movies with a big budget because of the near-limitless creative freedom Marvel Studios allows him. It is because of that freedom that these films are in a class of their own and find a way to standout amongst themselves in the constantly rising number of unique MCU properties and I cannot wait to see what awaits the Guardians of the Galaxy this weekend in Avengers: Endgame!

Other Random Backlog Movie Blogs

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12 Angry Men (1957)
12 Rounds 3: Lockdown
21 Jump Street
The Accountant
Angry Video Game Nerd: The Movie
Atari: Game Over
The Avengers: Age of Ultron
Batman: The Killing Joke
Batman: Mask of the Phantasm
Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice
Bounty Hunters
Cabin in the Woods
Captain America: Civil War
Captain America: The First Avenger
Captain America: The Winter Soldier
Christmas Eve
Clash of the Titans (1981)
Clint Eastwood 11-pack Special
The Condemned 2
Countdown
Creed
Deck the Halls
Die Hard
Dredd
The Eliminators
The Equalizer
Dirty Work
Faster
Fast and Furious I-VIII
Field of Dreams
Fight Club
The Fighter
For Love of the Game
Good Will Hunting
Gravity
Guardians of the Galaxy
Hercules: Reborn
Hitman
Indiana Jones 1-4
Ink
The Interrogation
Interstellar
Jobs
Joy Ride 1-3
Man of Steel
Man on the Moon
Marine 3-6
Metallica: Some Kind of Monster
Mortal Kombat
National Treasure
National Treasure: Book of Secrets
The Replacements
Reservoir Dogs
Rocky I-VII
Running Films Part 1
Running Films Part 2
San Andreas
ScoobyDoo Wrestlemania Mystery
The Secret Life of Walter Mitty
Shoot em Up
Skyscraper
Small Town Santa
Steve Jobs
Source Code
Star Trek I-XIII
Take Me Home Tonight
TMNT
The Tooth Fairy 1 & 2
UHF
Veronica Mars
Vision Quest
The War
Wild
Wonder Woman
The Wrestler (2008)
X-Men: Days of Future Past