Movie Review: Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 2

I had lowered my expectations for the second offering in the Guardians of the Galaxy franchise for the reason that most sequels fail to live up to the original movie in the series, especially when the first movie is exceptional. As it turns out, there was no need to lower expectations, since this movie knocked it out of the park.

The best Marvel movies are the ones that mix in humor, great action and effects, along with a compelling story line. This movie had all three of those elements, most notably humor. Ninety percent of the comedies I watch don’t have me laughing the way this movie did. The star of the show was Baby Groot. He had me cracking up in almost every scene that he was in. The opening sequence was terrific where the Guardians were battling this interdimensional monster while Groot was dancing to Star Lord’s mix sequence. The scene where he is helping Yondu and Rocket escape from a jail cell is absolutely classic.

The plot was strong as well featuring Star Lord finally encountering his dad—a Marvel character that doesn’t have anything to do with Star Lord. He goes to Ego, his father’s planet, which is an extension of his father. Drax was terrific in this movie. I also like how they expanded Yondu’s character, and really gave him some depth to his character. He was more of a generic bad guy in the previous movie. There were some awesome cameos in this movie, including a return of Stan Lee, who was absent from Logan. I’m not ready to say that this was better than the first movie, but it is clearly worth watching.