Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2

34 Replies

Guardians-of-the-Galaxy-Vol-2-wallpaperI have avoided writing this review since Thursday.  Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 left me entirely uninspired. Was it the mediocre 70s music? The laughable indestructibility of the heroes and villains that only disappeared when convenient to a plot point? That we have seen this movie before, a thousand times? Or that these heroes, who seemed so fresh the first time around, had nothing new to offer?  Whatever the reason, this movie was missing the spark that made the first Guardians of the Galaxy so much fun.

“More of the same” is generally something that necessarily is tied to a sequel; after all, the reason the sequel exists is because we liked the first one and asked for more. But the sequels I most enjoy are those that could stand alone if the first one was somehow wiped from memory. I don’t think Guardians Vol. 2 passes that test. It starts strongly (as Jay said to me afterward, she would have preferred it if Groot had danced his way through the whole movie) but loses its way, sacrificing action scenes and momentum to rehash the first movie’s tale of outcasts forced together to save the galaxy.

Strangely, for a movie that I don’t think could stand on its own, Guardians Vol. 2 also does not really do anything to advance things in the Marvel Cinematic Universe as a whole. If it had, I might have felt better about the movie as then it would have had a purpose. Without that, and without any real progress from the first film, Guardians Vol. 2 felt like a throwaway franchise episode, another The Fate of the Furious, another blockbuster that will have been forgotten in six months. In other words, the polar opposite of how I felt after seeing Guardians Vol. 1.

As always, my hopes were definitely too high for this sequel but I think the main reason I was so underwhelmed by this movie is because what I liked so much about the first film was its originality, and this is a carbon copy of #1 in practically every way.

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 gets a score of five dancing Groots out of ten.

 

34 thoughts on “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2”

  4. thatfilmgeeksite

    I think just because of its setting it’s difficult for GOTG to have any impact on the wider MCU until they get to Earth for Infinity War, and I was disappointed that none of the credits scenes fed into that instead of Guardians 3. But I thought it did a good job of exploring and deepening the relationships within the established cast, particularly Gamora and Nebula, and Starlord and Yondu.

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  10. Tom

    Dude. These are my thoughts verbatim. IN fact I’m just going to copy and paste this on to my site and call it my own.

    Just kidding of course. But seriously. I underestimated how much that feeling of familiarity would impact this movie. But it really did. I got bored of this movie about halfway through.

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  11. Birgit

    From the trailers I see, I figured it is more of the same and that doesn’t bother me too much. I’m not expecting much so I should be pleased…I guess it doesn’t tKe much:)

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  12. Liz A.

    I didn’t really enjoy the first one. I heard such great things about it. It wasn’t awful or anything, but I came away from it with more of a meh. I know I’m in the minority. I’m sorry this one didn’t live up to your expectations.

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  13. Natasha

    I liked this, but they certainly hide the fact that there isn’t a plot behind the considerable charm of Chris Pratt and the amazing laugh of Dave Bautista.

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  15. Paul. Writer and Filmmaker

    Great review as usual. I’d say a 7.5 out of 10 though.

    Definitely more of a “Age of Ultron” vibe than “Winter Soldier” I’d say but I really enjoyed it for the knockabout space fun it’s meant to be. I think even thematically it was pretty strong; even though the “dysfunctional” family over blood-family-thing has been done load of times. My one criticism is there was actually TOO MUCH in there and while loads of elements worked brilliantly certain moments should have been allowed to breathe. But great value for the admission fee in terms of excitement, laughs and explosions.

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  16. Often Off Topic

    I really liked this one but I wonder how many more they can make in the Guardians series before it just gets old. The original is still my favourite but mainly because I loved the story of the gang getting together!

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  17. J.

    Argh! This is unfortunate. I was really looking forward to seeing this and had high hopes. Guess I’ll catch it on Netflix.

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  18. Christopher

    It’s a shame that sequels are all too often the victims of their own success, and the original Guardians Of The Galaxy seemed like such a lightning-in-a-bottle event that it’s not surprising they couldn’t match it.

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    1. Jeff the Chef

      Well, I saw it. Your review was spot-on. Somewhere during the first half of the movie, I found myself instinctively reaching for the remote to fast forward. The second-half redeemed itself to some degree. You neglected to mention that Chris Pratt still looks fucking fantastic with his shirt off. In the end, it was the credits that saved the whole experience. Kind of sad that that’s what I had to say about the movie, but yes the credits were awesome.

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  20. badblokebob

    Thinking on it more, I feel like this was a movie of two halves that occur simultaneously. Or, rather, of four quarters — as in, half the repeated stuff works (e.g. Drax is still funny) and half of it doesn’t (e.g. the slapdash use of music), and half the new stuff works (e.g. I like the way they developed Nebula and Yondu) and half of it doesn’t (e.g. the ‘plot’ that puts Peter somewhere at the start then leaves him doing fundamentally nothing until all is revealed at the climax).

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  25. sportsattitudes

    I enjoyed the film but definitely can see where you’re coming from. They played this super-safe and held on tight to the original feel of the first film…which by default made this follow-up quite unoriginal. Movie got better for me as it went along but it certainly didn’t advance the Universe…just saved it. Baby Groot won’t be a baby next time around so we’ll see if Vol. 3 (also) branches out.

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  26. Jay

    I liked this more than the first. I felt like I understood the mythology behind the characters better, I liked the sentimentality of it, and I really liked the strong female presence (Gamora, her sister, Mantis, the gold lady – lots of women movie the plot forward).

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  27. Georgia

    I agree with that I don’t think it will really advance the marvel cinematic universe but I did actually really enjoy this film, I think it had more emotion than the last film but kept the humour.

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