Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 – Dir: James Gunn

Starring: Chris Pratt, Vin Diesel, Bradley Cooper, Zoe Saldana

The first Guardians film was yet another example of how plucking a talented passionate filmmaker from indie obscurity (James Gunn) and giving him a shot can be a big pay off for a major Hollywood studio.

The first film made a lot of money, and was a surprise to put it lightly. But we can’t forget it was a huge gamble for the studio. Definitely a bigger gamble than Thor, which sees the guy from Home and Away wielding a magical space hammer. It’s safe to stay Marvel know what they’re doing right now. They hired Taika after all. Good choice Disney, good choice. Chur to that.

Taking a virtually unknown property (to a mainstream audience), giving an independent filmmaker a shot and taking such a big risk is something we should all applaud Marvel for. Our lord and saviour Kevin Feige (President of Marvel) got it right.

When you look at on paper and you see “a talking Raccoon” “the tubby guy from Parks and Rec” and a “green warrior lady” you may get nervous (let’s not forget the walking tree that can only say a “I am Groot”). But as we all know the first film became a juggernaut hit and well… now the element of surprise is out of the bag, could they do it again?

They did!

Guardians 2 is awesome. It’s a great film about an eccentric group of individuals, who are internally flawed, emotionally engaging and yet funny. I liked this film a lot!

The film’s first hour is nothing short of terrific, and early on we find the Guardians working together against some inter-dimensional space beast. We quickly also learn that things are a little more complicated than first thought. There’s a target on their backs from saving the Galaxy, and they’re also hired by some golden Aliens called the ‘Sovereign’ to protect ‘something’ that leads to some stuff that I won’t spoil because I don’t want to give anything away.

Although they are working together, Star-Lord/Peter Quill (Chris Pratt) and Rocket (Bradley Cooper) are feuding over who is the real leader of the Guardians, and this causes chaos for our lovely band of misfit space warriors.

After the chaos puts the team in an awkward position, Peter’s father Ego “The Living Planet” (Kurt Russell) shows up and informs us he’s been tracking Peter all over the galaxy to find him. He’s desperate to connect with him, and from here a long list of unfortunate events take place which results in members of the Guardians stuck in complicated situations.

Due to Ego taking off with Peter, Peter remains stuck on the ‘Living Planet’ and learns more about himself and his heritage through his father. Peter’s relationship with Ego is certainly explored as well as Gamora (Zoe Saldana) and Nebula’s (Karen Gillan) relationship, but the former is the only one that is fully developed. But hey, I’m okay with that. Gunn decided to take a different tact and make this more of a Peter Quill film, rather than a team film. In saying that, all the characters do get their time to shine. And yep, Drax (David Bautista) is hilarious. Very very funny.

On the surface, this film is about family, but if you dig a little deeper, this movie to me is about redemption and acceptance. Yondu (Michael Rooker) wants acceptance and wants back into the Ravagers, Rocket needs to drop his “I’m the man” facade, wants acceptance and Nebula, well all she ever really needed was family. Lets not forget Ego wants Peter to accept him, and it works the other way around. There’s also a romantic subplot that carries over into this film, but I won’t spoil…

There’s emotion in this film, there’s heart, but there’s also a lot of ‘talking’. When I say that, I mean just lots of banter, and this banter is often used as a catalyst for comedy which ultimately comes at a price. That price is plot and story. It slows down around the same time Peter is stuck on his father’s planet, and it took me out of the film a little. I felt like I needed more than awesome visuals at this point.

But as far as superhero films go? It’s pretty damn good. The film is pure fun, and yep, it does follow the Marvel formula of ‘big bad guy’ ‘world ending events’ ‘giant threat’ and ‘together we can do this’…

Is it getting repetitive? A little, but I’m okay with it. For now.

Although it does contain some of the formulaic elements of past Marvel films, Gunn really does bring originality and a unique filmmaking voice to this film. And I honestly believe this is because when you give a talented director like James Gunn a chance to be creative, and give him some room rather than interfering, you can get amazing creative original content. This is where that thing I said earlier about ‘indie obscurity’ comes into play.

I won’t go on about the visuals, because they are amazing and they are epic, but Gunn’s strength is in his ability to work with actors. It’s a strength seen with many independent directors because when you have no money, you need strong characters. And Gunn certainly creates a compelling film through character.

To be honest, this film peaks when it’s about the individuals in the team and what that really means to them. What’s their purpose? What do they think or feel?  He truly mines the characters, finds emotional depth within them and plucks at our heart strings at the right moments and makes us laugh to ease things up when they get too emotionally taxing. Personal stories about flawed characters are more interesting to me personally, and this film touches on that. And he found the perfect balance of comedy and heart in this blockbuster of a film.

Ultimately if you loved the first one, this is a must watch. There’s heart, comedy, explosions and a cute tiny walking tree. What more could you ask for? There’s even a Sylvester Stallone cameo…

All in all, it’s worth the ticket price. Go see it.

Allan George