In Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 2, The Cosmic Weirdness, Fun And Interesting Characters Are In Full Supply!

The Marvel Cinematic Universe has done a lot of things right, but man, it took 'em a while to get a handle on doing their second movies in individual franchises right. Their first one of these specific type of features, Iron Man 2, is still by far the weakest and most narratively messy MCU film while their next effort in this area was Thor: The Dark World, a heavily flawed fantasy movie with some elements of fun scattered throughout. Right after Thor: The Dark World, they finally got one of these movies right with Captain America: The Winter Soldier and continued that trend with the gonzo yet thoughtful Avengers: Age Of Ultron. Now, you may be pondering to yourself right now, is Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 2 more on the order of Iron Man 2 or Captain America 2?

Happily, James Gunn's newest foray into the world of these cosmic band of misfits is actually a super duper great time. The dude's gone full-tilt space opera, complete with elaborate sets, nifty alien make-up effects and all kinds of gloriously weird sci-fi concepts that show when the Guardians Of The Galaxy are around, they'll be taking full advantage of being a science-fiction based property, you can bet the bank on that! Interestingly, mixed in with all of those high-concept sci-fi elements is a pervasive sense of pathos that unlocks new facets of the well-realized characters from the original. There's also a baby tree that dances to music, so that's worth the price of admission alone, right?

The plot itself concerns the various Guardians, Peter Quill A.K.A. Star-Lord (Chris Pratt), Gamora (Zoe Saldana), Drax (Dave Bautista), Rocket (Bradley Cooper) and Baby Groot (Vin Diesel) being on the run from a group of golden and angered aliens The Sovereign when they discover Peter's long lost father, Ego (Kurt Russell), as well as an alien Ego looks after, Mantis (Pom Klementieff). Ego's a super powerful being whose very existence astounds Peter since he's spent decades wondering who his real father was. Meanwhile, who do The Sovereign hire to retrieve those Guardians but Peter's adoptive father himself Yondu (Michael Rooker), whose looking to use this job as a chance to get himself back in the good graces of The Ravagers, the company of space pirates he's belonged to for decades.

Let me say right upfront that Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 2 is pretty much the biggest evidence that the geekiest stuff on the planet now runs pop culture. A movie where Sylvester Stallone talks to a blue-skinned Michael Rooker about "the code of The Ravager" on an icy planet while a crystallized alien played by Michael Rosenbaum looks on. We are through the looking glass here people, to the point where the second of this movies five (yes, five) post-credits scene left even I the big o'l Marvel geek bamboozled as to what specific comic book property it was referencing. That's a neat sight on its own, but only for a moment. As I said in my Captain America: Civil War review last year, you need substance to accompany those comic book homages or they're just really pointless fanservice at the expense of actual storytelling.

Luckily, though James Gunn's screenplay makes plenty of room to create plenty of time for characterization in addition to brazenly confident spectacle-driven sequence.  This go-around is actually interestingly constructed from a plot perspective compared to the other Marvel Cinematic Universe movies since it's all about exploring the uber-cosmic world the Guardians inhabit as well as the characters on a thematic level. There are plenty of explosions, rapid-fire humorous dialogue and heightened slapstick antics that get really stylized (a trip through warp speed has various characters taking on visual appearances reminiscent of the most over-the-top stuff seen in Tex Avery cartoons), but instead of having a rehash of the Infinity Stone-fueled apocalyptic threat of the first movie drive the plot this time around, it's all about just getting to know the old and new characters and letting them bounce off each other.

This means you have a lot of scenes where the dialogue is just flowing as naturally as running water, including maybe the funniest scene of the movie wherein Baby Groot tries to be helpful in an escape situation for Yondu and Rocket that has the dialogue between the three characters carry this improvisational quality that's pulled off super well. I love that the movie just feels so confident in how well-written these individual characters are that they can just let them monologue about their past or bounce off each other for extended periods of time and the best part is that confidence is well-placed. All of the players in this story have a purpose, have distinctive goals and personalities and are played by actors who honestly seem thrilled to be inhabiting this heightened world. Even when the script stumbles (like in how Peter Quill does go from having a "Why'd you leave me?" to "Yay! I love my Dad!" attitude change too quickly), it can't detract from the many engrossing qualities found in Gunn's writing.

As I said on social media last night, the best part about the movie is that you could have ten different people going into see this movie and they could totally each come away with a different favorite character. Personally, Rocket and Yondu may have been my favorites, I just love that they not only paired these two off in such an entertaining fashion but that they probe the tortured depths of both of these individuals who could easily have been just one-note curmudgeon archetypes. Newbie Mantis provides plenty of laughs, especially when she's bouncing off of Drax (though they go to the well of Drax making unintentionally rude comments about her one too many times), Kurt Russell (God do I love that this guy has started appearing in more movies again in recent years) makes for a fantastic Ego, Chris Pratt proves why he became a big deal as a leading man after the first Guardians with his strong performance here and yes, Baby Groot is adorable, and no, they did not give away all of his best moments in the trailers.

It isn't just in the script where Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 2 manages to impress though. This may actually be (and pardon me if this sounds like hyperbole you'd fine on some DVD cover) have the best cinematography of any of the Marvel Cinematic Universe movies, there's a ton of beautiful shots

while all the action scenes are filmed cohesively. It's so fun how the movie takes full advantage of its science-fiction surroundings to create some memorable and unique action sequences, such as a big Yondu-centric set piece that dishes out arrow-delivered violence with aplomb. It's a giddily constructed sequence that shows real craftsmanship and fun, what a combo! Plenty of other similarly thrilling and wonderfully constructed action scenes can be found throughout the movie! While we're talking about visuals, I must offer massive kudos to the people behind the sets of this movie, which are gloriously realized and help make this world seem all the more real. The Guardians seem to inhabit whole other planets, not phony overly obvious green-screen soundstages, that's so neat! The make-up effects (particularly the prosthetics used to bring a nasty Ravager named Taserface to life) and costumes are similarly of top-caliber quality!

The way Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 2 manages to merge all of those super duper fun action scenes with loads of introspective character scenes (the latter element really makes some of the more pathos-laced moments in the third hit like a gut-punch) is all kinds of awesome, resulting in a sequel that actually manages to be a more than worthy follow-up to the wonderful first Guardians Of The Galaxy movie. The characters are enthralling, the cinematography and direction are outstanding, the actions loads of fun and the soundtrack of 20th-century tunes are popping, man, Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 2 totally delivers as an incredibly memorable and entertaining feature!