Nerds That Geek Movie Review: ‘Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2’

Written by Mike Cervantes 

Well, here it is: the continuing adventures of Gamora, Rocket, Groot, Space Chris Pratt and Space Dave Bautista.

Let’s be perfectly honest here, my opinion of this movie does not in any way matter. You likely heard that this movie was about to come out, and in that small, simple, gleeful part of your mind, you had already bought tickets. And although it sounds like I’m already setting this review up for a fall, I have to admit, it is positively wonderful to me that you would have that sort of reaction. When the plans for the second phase of the already admired Marvel Cinematic Universe came out, and included this as the first film, to be followed in a year by Ant-Man, a lot of us jaded comic book geeks thought that Marvel Studios was using a dead pigeon inside a salt mine to beat a dead horse. It was to the credit of the studio to ultimately make those two eccentric choices work, and while Ant-Manmerely succeeded as a film that was better than any film based on Ant-Man could be, Guardians completely blew us out of the water.

The reasons why are myriad and worthy of deep film analysis pieces in the immediate future, but I think that the main reason why is fundamental: Director James Gunn is capable of providing a film that works both the intimate character arcs of its multi-talented cast and the forward momentum of its general plot simultaneously. He understands that his characters motivate the story, and the story is intended to reach a conclusion based upon the collaborative realizations of each of its main characters. It’s a dynamic that superhero films have been trying to get right since their inception, and Gunn wades through the marathon provided by the concept in a way that makes it look all so simple.

This brings us to Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, a movie that expresses, even in its title, that it is merely 136 minutes of a film franchise that could potentially plow ever on into infinity without catching a breath. The only attention we need to regard its prequel is the fact that our plucky group of space-rogues has spent their time off screen running from the Kree (you know, the blue guys that tried to murder everyone on an  entire planet in the last movie) and the slightly more deadly band of space rogues known as the Ravagers, still led by Star-Lord’s foster father Yondu (Michael Rooker). While attempting to secure a bounty on another previous villain, Nebula (Karen Gillian), they succeed in honking off yet another alien race, the golden-skinned Sovereign, led by Ayesha (Elizabeth Debicki), and find themselves traveling randomly out of the way in the universe in order to dodge her fleet. In the midst of a firefight, they are randomly saved by a single-manned spacecraft, revealing within an undeniable candidate for Star-Lord’s alien father, who is played by Kurt Russel and goes by the name of Ego.

---

Now, those of us who know our decades of Marvel lore know Ego as a living planet, a relatively minor villain who is only encountered by celestial superheroes passing him in deep space, but, like seemingly, the series as a whole, this movie does the one thing that takes this relatively obscure villain and turns him into a legitimate threat to the Marvel universe as a whole. While his arc is brought to a close by the end of this film, us admirers of Guardians: Volume 1 know that it ultimately isn’t the story, but the journey that takes us there. In the midst of an adventure that can only conclude with Pratt’s Star-Lord eventually confronting Kurt’s Ego about his shattered childhood, we also get the story of how Bradley Cooper’s Rocket learns to better appreciate his teammates. We get the story of how Bautista’s Drax grips with the loss of his family through the eyes of an equally shy and displaced empathic alien named Mantis (Pom Klementieff). We get the the story of Yondu’s crew questioning the softness of his actions, especially when they pertain to his adopted son Star-Lord. We get the story of wayward sisters Nebula and Gamora (Zoe Saldana) and the life they lived under the heel of still-looming villain Thanos. All of these are plot points that I choose to leave generally unspoiled for the movie, so that you’ll be able to appreciate the scope of how they all neatly glide to this film’s ending. The only character that seems left out of the dynamic progression of this film is Vin Deisel’s Groot, who remains a child and is treated like a child by every member of this cast.

Anything else that can be said about this movie exists in the realm of interesting actor-casts and cameo appearances, of which I’ll name just a few: Sylvester Stallone and Chris Sullivan both play ravagers who have a significant amount of rivalry with Yondu. Then there’s another glance at Howard the Duck, as played by Seth Green. Michael Rosenbaum, Ving Rhames, Michelle Yeoh, and Miley Cyrus appear in a group that you’ll be surprised to see in the post-credits….and Stan Lee is in here too, of course.

The legacy of the Guardians of the Galaxy franchise, no matter how many 'volumes' it has, will be looked back as one of pure cinematic fun and excitement. This film, as it was with the predecessor, doesn’t really need to exist. Disney could easily carry the geeky space-adventure bracket with Star Wars, for cryin’ out loud. Still, this movie manages to do far more than achieve its expectations. We can only hope that both Gunn, his excellent cast, and the hearts and minds of its fans, can continue to put their optimism into this promising franchise for years to come. ​

---