Skip to main content

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2: Average Guy Movie Review


The adventures of Groot and co. continue in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, and lets face it, everyone is desperate to see Baby Groot in action. After saving the galaxy from Ronan the Accuser the Guardians are working as mercenaries, offering their services to the highest bidder. When one of the team (shall we say) liberates a precious item from one of their clients it triggers a chain of events that not only lead to Peter Quill (Chris Pratt) meeting his father, Ego (Kurt Russell) but to the Guardians having to save the galaxy once again.



Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 has been described as a continuation of the team's story rather than a sequel and that's pretty accurate. As with all sequels, James Gunn is able to expand the universe, he stated in an interview that most of the unanswered questions from the first movie would be answered in Vol. 2. The story picks up three months after the first Guardians movie with one of the most entertaining opening credits sequences ever seen, featuring Baby Groot dancing around and playing while the rest of the team battle an inter-dimensional creature. What follows is another brilliantly fun-filled adventure in which the galaxy's most dysfunctional family will keep you grinning from ear to ear throughout. 



Vol. 2 is definitely one of the most colourful movies in the MCU; it could even give Doctor Strange a run for his money! According to IMDb, this is the first movie to be shot in 8k and Gunn has said it contains what is considered to be "the biggest visual effect ever made"; "Ego's planet VFX is comprised of a trillion polygons". Watch out for yet another cameo from Howard the Duck, voiced once again by Seth Green and Rocket piloting a ship through 600 hyperspace jumps. 



If you thought the cast of the first movie was brilliant, well the casting department have excelled themselves with Vol. 2. All of the returning cast are on top form. Unfortunately scheduling conflicts prevented John C. Reilly from reprising his role of Corpsman Dey. Yondu (Michael Rooker) gets much more involved in the story this time, moving from supporting to a main role and sporting a new mohawk like fin. We also get to see multiple new factions of the Ravagers. Kurt Russell was an inspired choice to play Ego; he's easily believable as the father of Star-Lord and Pom Klementieff delivers a hilariously quirky performance as Mantis, an empath and associate of Ego. But there's no prizes for guessing who steals the show; yep it's Baby Groot. The little tree alien will captivate you from start to finish, so much so you'll never want him to grow up!



After the success of the first movie, the cast and crew were under a lot of pressure to deliver another knock out hit, a challenge they certainly rose to. The Guardians have set the bar very high for 2017, and that's not just for MCU! Vol. 2 could easily be one of, if not 'the' most entertaining movie of the year. I know it doesn't need to be said, but it is well worth staying until the end of the movie, there are five mid and post credits scenes ranging from setups for potential sequels (not Avengers: Infinity War) to some very random moments.  If Spider-Man: Homecoming and Thor: Ragnarok are even half as good as Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, it's going to be a good year for Marvel.

9/10



What did you think of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2? Let us know by leaving a comment below or find us on Facebook and Twitter.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

The Suicide Squad | Average Guy Movie Review

A new batch of convicts - as well as a few originals - are under the thumb of Amanda Waller (Viola Davis), who's once again offering years off their prison sentences in return for completing a few jobs for Uncle Sam. This time she's sending them to the island nation of Corto Maltese. There they must infiltrate the capital and destroy a top secret research facility. Sounds easy enough. Task Force X is back, and with James Gunn at the helm things are madder than ever! The Guardians of the Galaxy  director has taken what David Ayer started and blown the roof off of it. But he has done so in a way that is respectful of what has gone before. Fans of the original (of which there are apparently few) will have no trouble going from  Suicide Squad  to The Suicide Squad . And yet, the new movie stands quite happily on it's own two feet. Rather than making them drastically different, the returning characters simply feel like they have grown a bit. Well, maybe not grown, but adapted, t

Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings | Average Guy Movie Review

For ten years Shang-Chi (Simu Liu) - the son of The Mandarin (Tony Leung), keeper of the Ten Rings - has been running from his past, trying to escape the life his father intended for him. Unfortunately that past has now caught up with him, endangering the lives of those he cares about. Now he must return home, face his father and learn the secrets of his family. If there's one thing that Marvel is good at, it's taking lesser known comic book characters and turning them into major players. Clearly they haven't lost their touch because Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings  is everything fans love about the MCU and so much more. Whilst keeping things very much rooted in this world, Destin Daniel Cretton has carved out a new piece of the epic film franchise - one steeped in asian culture and mythology - to bring us Marvel's first Asian superhero.  It seems insane to think that just a few years ago Simu Liu tweeted Marvel about Shang-Chi, and now he's playing the ne

Operation Market Garden Anniversary 2016

The John Frost Bridge at Arnhem (from my visit in 2013) 72 years ago today, Allied troops set off on what could be one of the boldest missions of World War 2, Operation Market Garden. Developed by Field Marshall Montgomery, the plan was to advance into Nazi occupied Holland and develop a bridgehead over the River Rhine into Germany. There were two parts to the operation: Market (Airborne) Garden (Ground Forces) In what was the largest airborne operation of the war, paratroopers and glider troops had the job of securing bridges at Eindhoven (US 101st Airborne), Nijmegen (US 82nd Airborne) and Arnhem (British 1st Airborne). The ground forces, made up of the British XXX Corp had to advance up a single highway through Holland, linking up with the airborne forces as they went. In honour of the anniversary of Operation Market Garden we look back at some of the movies and TV Shows that tell the story of the Allies ill-fated attempt to end the war by Christmas 1944. A Bridge Too Far