“Guardians of Music Playlists”
(8.5/10)
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 is a delightful sequel and continuation of the space gang. We just want to start out by saying Baby Groot is the cutest freaking thing ever. He’s one of our favorite parts of this movie. Baby Groot is a defiant “child” that dances straight into our hearts and he brings the whole movie right along with him. This movie is so fun to watch and definitely makes us want more of all of the characters. It brings an interesting story and answers questions we had at the end of the first volume. This movie is full of the same hijinks as the last film, but it just had a little bit more goofiness than we could handle.
This sequel, like it’s predecessor, has one of the best backing tracks filled with old classics that remind most older fans of their younger years. That was one the best things about the first film and they definitely didn’t disappoint in this regard the second time around. On the other hand, one thing that did disappoint, and we took some points off for this, was Drax’s character development. We didn’t really feel like, from what we got in the first movie, his character would do some of the things he did in this installment. We just didn’t believe that his character would change so drastically from not getting jokes at all to cracking some of the dumbest jokes in the movie. It just seemed out of character and like they were trying to force the comedy rather than keeping with the personality of the different characters.
One of the best things about this movie is the story. It builds upon the lore and history of, for lack of a better word, the galaxy. James Gunn, the director of the film, changed some things for the better in that regard. In the comics there are two versions of Quill and his father:
King/Emperor J'son of Spartax is one iteration, appearing in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 3 0.1 (Earth-616).
Emperor Jason of Spartax, who appeared in Marvel Preview #11 is Marvel Preview #4 Quill’s father and this iteration is said now to be set in Earth-791 according to the incomparable Wikipedia.
Of course we had to look all of that up and we also learned that there is a Prince Jason of Spartax who appears in Inhumans Vol. 3 in Earth-616, but he isn’t Quill’s father, he’s just another character. Anyway, the director apparently doesn’t like this character at all and planned from the start for Star-Lord’s father to be a being like Ego and chose the Living Planet because he fit the story he wanted to create. We didn’t mind the change of lineage. Peter Quill is still half alien and there is a similar story of how his father met his mother. The change just created a father who doesn’t actually care about his son and that gave Quill more depth and emotion. It made us care about him more.
This movie is one of the best sequels Marvel has done. It’s done, for the most part, really well and we loved the story. We were left with questions at the end of Vol 1 and we were left with questions at the end of Vol 2. The first time it made us want answers and more of the story, and this time it does the same. We want to see how celestial powers come into play in the future of the series and throughout the whole Marvel universe, and how several other things play out. We look forward to more of these character and their stories.