Les Gardiens de la Galaxie Vol. 2

I actually lost a lot of brain cells today. I should have trusted my instinct which told me after 10 minutes of atrociously written, poorly shot and nauseatingly acted nonsense that I should leave. But I said to myself, lets stick, maybe it will redeem itself.

Oh, but no, it just got worse and worse till it crossed all lines of idiocy. The characters were like disposable stick figures with no concept of personality at all. Jokes were bad, really really bad and you could feel how pathetically they were inserted into the movie just to give it some redeeming value in form of comic reliefs which also failed.

I left in the mid-movie as I could just easily sit and stare at a blank wall and pay money for it. I still lose the money but at-least get to keep my neurons alive.

If you love the first chapter, then you'll definitely like Volume 2. The relations between every character evolve and every one of them got a special moment in the movie. Now, we all knew that Baby Groot is adorable and predictably he'll stole the show, but man...Drax, Rocket, Gamora, Nebula, Yondu even Mantis they're all awesome in their way. Of course, Star Lord makes what he can do best, leading the group of a**holes.

The cinematography, the stable and funny story, the brilliant colors, that James Gunn added to this movie are just fabulous! The comedy is totally on point. Action scenes are great. The music? Well you can listen the GOTG Vol.2 songs over and over again and they all works perfectly in the context of the movie.

Phase 3 of MCU is very strong first with Civil War, then Doctor Strange and now Guardians doesn't disappoint at all. This is truly one hell of a movie and you must watch it! It's not better than its predecessor, but it is solid one for sure.

Don't leave the theaters till the very end of the final text of the credits, there're a few surprises.

Quill finds his real father.

This is an enjoyable adventure with great humour and character moments.

The story is pretty threadbare outside of the development of characters like Quill, Yondu, Ego, and Nebula but this provides enough entertainment on its own. Written into most scenes are strong themes about family and friendship. What it means to be a parent. Surrogate parents and families. Estranged children searching for parental figures and family.

Of course it's all done with a great sense of humour, as characters like Drax, Mantis, Rocket, and Groot light up the screen with strong verbal and visual comedy.

Quill doesn't massively develop as a character, but we do learn more about his origins and powers. Alongside this the Guardians are portrayed as developing a family dynamic. This is great idea given they are all depicted as coming from traumatic beginnings.

Ego is an interesting character and fantastic visualisation of an outlandish graphic-novel concept. It is not particularly subtle, but the character epitomises an extreme version of the in-built selfish drives present in everyone. Kurt Russell is on great form.

The contrasting father figure of Yondu is written particularly well. He has been portrayed as having egotistical characteristics too, but here is given a huge redemption arc with with moments of great altruism. It is great to see Michael Rooker playing this type of character. He is as stereotypically violent and generally aggressive as in his previous roles, but for once he gets to show some heart.

Nebula and Gamora have solid moments of relationship development. These scenes all tie in well to the movie's main themes and are important to the overarching narrative of the MCU, particularly when watching The Avengers: Infinity War and Endgame. Karen Gillan and Zoe Zaldana both give strong performances, especially Gillan who is a consistently strong performer in the MCU.

Visually it is a colourful feast for the eyes and full of exciting spectacle as you would expect from a space adventure. For me the CGI action is a little too much on occasions and distracts from the story, but doesn't spoil my enjoyment of the movie. It generally tells the story through its cinematography and editing. Being a Guardians movie it has a great soundtrack of course with many a well placed song.

I had my doubts about this one while going to the cinema, because I am a big fan of the first one and was genuinely worried that this one wouldn't live up to it's predecessor. While I do believe that the first one was a better movie, this one is what I would consider a perfect sequel.

Guardians of the Galaxy vol. 2 does the right thing by letting us get to know the characters a bit better. What I was most surprised by, however, was the choice to focus more on the character of Yondu than that of Chris Pratt's Star Lord. I thought it was a brilliant choice; Michael Rooker really shines in this role and is by far the best character in the movie. There are also some really cool action scenes with his arrow. Star Lord gets thrown to the side a bit, which is good since we already know pretty much everything about him except for who his dad is, which we do find out in this movie. All in all, the action was fun, the characters were great, the colors were great, it was much funnier than the first one (this movie is very much a comedy with some absolutely hilarious one-liners, mostly from Drax) and just overall a delightful experience. It definitely exceeded my expectations.

That being said, I do have just a few problems with this movie. They don't ruin the movie for me and they're not that bothersome, but still. We all know about the recent trend in big superhero movies such as this one, which is bad villains. And, honestly, all of my problems start with the villains. The Guardians are being followed throughout the movie by these golden people, which ultimately serve no purpose in the movie other than being "villains", I guess. I say "villains" because it's very much debatable what their motivations are and even who they are, and we just don't know enough about them to care. Everything they do is pretty ridiculous and over the top. The other problem I have is with Kurt Russel's character. Now, I love Kurt Russel and I was excited to see him play Peter Quill's dad, but his character just feels like a big exposition machine and, not to get too spoilery, goes the typical cliché route. His motivations are clear, but very much overused and he's basically in the movie as a plot device. These two things, though, aren't that big of a problem to me because they were just devices for the movie to give Star Lord something to do (of course, a movie needs conflict), and they were background things working around the jokes, fun, and the adventure the characters we love were on. And the ending does get quite emotional.

Ultimately, I think fans of the first movie will have no problems enjoying this one as well and I believe it has done everything right as a sequel. Let's just hope Marvel continues down this path of movies that know what they are and are just plain fun.

*SPOILER FREE REVIEW*

As a huge fan of the first film, I went to watch the movie as soon as it came out. And I have to say I wasn't disappointed at all.

Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol.2 Offers so much thrills and an awesome cinematic experience, The action starts right from the opening scene and it doesn't end until the last 2 seconds of the film. The people behind the movie just knew how to not make the audience bored, and they succeeded at that.

I have to say that 3D ticket here is worth the additional price, because honestly, if any movie deserved to be really watched in 3D it's this one,It adds so much depth to the scenes and makes the movie alive.

The plot is interesting enough to keep you engaged and the pacing never really drags even with the movie's long duration.

The soundtrack just fits right into its place and it really helped the background quality, providing the best classic songs. The movie is also really humorous and I found it as funny as the first.

Due to the movie's high budget, the scenery is Amazing! The movie feels like a very entertaining roller coaster, it was a joy and all the crowd were very pleased.

In the end, Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol.2 Is a MUST-SEE for fans of the first one and a VERY ENJOYABLE ride for everyone else. It's simply one of these movies that are always fun to watch.