Written And Directed by James Gunn
Ego: "Listen to me! You are a god. If you kill me, you'll be just like everybody else!"
Peter: "What's so wrong with that?"
Ah, the middle part in a trilogy. Where everyone has gotten to know one another and their respective flaws and yet, there's a deep love there. That's exactly where the Guardians are with each as a team. They have a reputation to uphold and have made a name for themselves. Saying that, there's still some teething problems.
Anyways our group consisting of Star Lord/Peter Quill (Chris Pratt), Gamora (Zoe Saldana), Rocket (Bradley Cooper), Baby Groot (Vin Diesel) and Drax the Destroyer (Dave Bautista) open the movie by getting some batteries for a golden species named the Sovereign as led by Ayesha (Elizabeth Debicki). A simple transaction that went pear shaped due to Rocket stealing back the batteries in question, incurring Ayesha's wrath in the process.
Stealing from the Sovereign turns out to be a galactic no no and pretty soon, Ayesha enlisted the Ravagers led by Yondu (Michael Rooker) but pretty soon the latter's softening resolve for Quill had right hand man Kraglin (Sean Gunn) accidentally leading to a revolt against Yondu. This led to the rather unfortunately named Taserface (Chris Sullivan) taking control and Roxket largely taking the piss out of his name. Taserface didn't make it out of the first half alive either.
As for the majority of the players themselves, there was the problem of a returning and initially captured Nebula (Karen Gillan), who was still determined to get the better of Gamora but the biggest obstacle was of course the arrival of Peter's father, a Celestial named Ego (Kurt Russell), who somewhat lived up to his name and then some. He's also a living planet.
On top of answering the mystery of Peter's daddy and Quill getting to know his father, there was also the motive of destroying the universe. It turned out that Ego lacked the paternal instinct and was more determined to use Peter to fulfill his agenda, forcing all of the team together along with Nebula and Yondu with the latter making something of a poignant sacrifice. Thus proving that for all of his flaws, Yondu really did see himself as a father to Peter after all.
Along with the Ego of a baddie, we were introduced to empath Mantis (Pom Klementieff), who largely sparked off with Drax, in spite of his insistence that he found her physically unattractive. Not to mention the growing attraction between both Peter and Gamora who definitely acted like a married couple throughout the movie. Of course, their love remained unspoken, in spite of Peter trying to speak it into reality quite a team.
As a team up movie, there was definitely growth among the characters. We saw both Gamora and Nebula reach an impasse in their sibling rivalry while Rocket might have spent the movie being a jerk but Yondu was quick to point out how much Rocket really cared about everyone, including Peter and that's not forgetting how much Rocket loved arguing with Peter.
- Laura Haddock briefly appeared in flashbacks as part of Ego's backstory. Peter was understandably furious when he learned that Ego caused Meredith's tumour.
- We had appearances from both Sylvester Stallone and Michelle Yeoh as rival Ravagers, both of whom showed respect for Yondu, following the latter's sacrifice. Howard the Duck also popped upmas did Stan Lee.
- Peter was a fan of Knight Rider and idolised David Hasselhoff. Guess which form Ego took at one point in the movie to mess with Peter?
- The mid and post credits scenes had Kraglin testing Yondu's arrow fin, teenage Groot, Stakar Ogord (Sylvester Stallone), Ayesha creating Adam and a group of Watchers ditching their informant.
- Standout music: Fleetwood Mac's The Chain, ELO's Mr Blue Sky and Cat Stevens Father And Son.
- Chronology: Still 2014 funnily enough and mostly on Ego the Living Planet. Also 1980s flashbacks too.
Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 2 was a pretty wild second ride for this group and I largely enjoyed the hell out of it. Fantastic storyline, great character moments, strong action sequences , a killer soundtrack and a lovely commentary on family to boot. Great stuff.
Rating: 8 out of 10
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