Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 Review
Skyler Powers
In recent years, Marvel Studios has been pumping out new superhero movies faster than ever. Due to the sheer volume of new movies, some moviegoers have grown weary, claiming that they have become redundant. These critics, however, have always gotten a breath of fresh air in the Marvel’s ensemble movies like The Avengers franchise and Guardians of the Galaxy. Guardians of the Galaxy, in particular, turned a lot of heads because of its sheer uniqueness. The film was very well received and it has received a sequel, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2.
I am going to start this review off by saying that this installment in the franchise is not as good as the original. Much of this is due to the fact that it does not seem as unique. Since we have already seen most of the oddball characters that appear in the sequel, it loses some of its bite due to familiarity. The plot of this movie is also simpler than that of its predecessor and it does not have the same level of emotional depth.
That being said, it is still a very good movie. It benefits from the same original characters including Star Lord, Gamora, Drax, Rocket, and Nebula, while also having some great new characters like Ego, Mantis, and Baby Groot. All of these characters can be serious or hilarious, and that brings me to the humor. This is probably the funniest Marvel movie yet. Marvel movies are known for their rather constant humor, but this movie took it to a whole new level. There were so many one liners and the situational humor was relentless. The humor honestly caught me off-guard because I was not expecting so much of it, but it definitely benefited the movie. It certainly helped counteract the slightly less intricate plot and dramatic depth. The only issue I had with the humor was that it did not allow the serious parts to resonate with the audience as much as they could have.
As with most Marvel films, the acting was great; the action was frequent and very entertaining. Also, the movie’s ending was probably a bit more engrossing than the ending of the first film. It is a very close call though.
At the end of the day, this movie is not perfect. The story could have had more depth, and it lacks the out-of-this-world uniqueness of its predecessor. It is very funny, however, and it was overall a very entertaining movie. I would not say that it is one of the best Marvel movies, but I would argue that it is slightly above average. This is impressive because Marvel has not produced a bad movie yet.
