Movie Reviews

If you had told me about Guardians of the Galaxy a couple of years ago, I would have thought it was a really bad band name. Like, German power metal bad. But writer/director James Gunn managed to turn a rather generic story around these lesser known heroes (we use this term loosely when it comes to Guardians of the Galaxy) of the Marvel galaxy into a fun-filled adventure that was a comedy first and a superhero flick second.

Gunn is back now with the sequel that is every bit as fun as the first installment. Maybe even more so. Because whereas the first movie was mostly a campy version of Star Wars, Gunn pulls out all the stops this time. Just have a look at the opening credits… the Guardians are fighting for their lives in this incredibly big battle scene that looks impressive. But all the action is taking place in the background. Meanwhile Gunn focuses his camera on Baby Groot, being cute and dancing to ELO’s “Mr. Blue Sky”. That’s the best thing about this flick… it refuses to take itself seriously.

There are so many snappy one-liners, hilarious dialogues and dumb jokes that work every single time, you would almost forget there is a story as well. That story centers around Peter Quill (Chris Pratt) trying to figure out who his dad is. Turns out it’s Kurt Russell. Who knew? Meanwhile, Gamora (Zoe Saldana) and her sister (Karen Gillan) are trying to resolve their issues/kill each other and even the foul-mouthed raccoon that is Rocket (Bradley Cooper) gets a bit more depth. Just a little bit.

And sure, the movie’s climax comes with a lot of big, cliché explosions and maybe one speech too many, but by that point you will have already had such a good time with this movie that you don’t really care.