The Worst
Too Many Post-Credit Scenes
Post-credit scenes have become very much of the Marvel brand since Nick Fury turned up at the end of “Iron Man,” but outside of the first appearance of Thanos, and the shawarma scene, we’re not sure all that many of them have been very memorable. The first ‘Guardians’ had two of the better ones — dancing Groot, and an appearance by Howard The Duck (who briefly reprises his role early in the film here), but Gunn and/or Marvel seem to have responded to the enthusiasm by putting way, way too many of them in the sequel. None are particularly painful, but they’re either a bit pointless (the Drax one), reprise stuff that happened in the movie itself (Sylvester Stallone assembling his team of Ving Rhames, Michelle Yeoh and Miley Cyrus’ voice, Stan Lee’s cameo), or feature a sequel set-up that’s only likely to leave 95% of the audience baffled (Ayesha and the Adam Warlock tease), with teenage Groot the only real winner of the five. Maybe let’s just try to have a couple next time and make ‘em really good?
Weirdly Maudlin Tone In Places
It often feels as if ‘Vol. 2’ has been engineered to replicate as far as possible the things that people loved about the first film. And one of the things that undoubtedly made the first movie arguably the most beloved of any Marvel movie was its big, unashamed heart: from Star-Lord’s emotional journey, and even his big hero moment, involving his relationship with his late mother, to Groot’s self-sacrifice, it was the first MCU picture that went for the tear-ducts as well as the pleasure centre of your brain. Gunn & co are fully aware that that’s why people loved it so much, but the emotional element doesn’t work nearly as well this time out. Perhaps it’s partly because Peter’s relationship with his father proves to be darker and sourer, but even before that, scenes like him playing catch with Ego feel maudlin and sentimental in a way that nothing in the first movie did. And the constant beating over the head with the message of ‘family’ just feels too blunt and “Fast & Furious”-ish to really move you. It also proves to be a fairly disappointing use of Chris Pratt, who’s less space-rogue and more sad-eyed Golden Retriever this time, never particularly playing to his strengths. We have problems with the sacrificial death here, too, but we’ll come back to that.
Kraglin
Family loyalty is important, and good for James Gunn for moving his brother Sean to a fairly pivotal part here — as well as performing Rocket on the set, the younger Gunn plays Ravager Kraglin, who looks to become the token Ravager of the crew moving forward after helping save the team. But he ultimately feels like one character too many in the mix here. Gunn’s perfectly enjoyable in the part, but there’s not much to him beyond ‘vaguely redneck-y space pirate,’ and his betrayal of Yondu followed by changing his mind isn’t that well drawn in the end. If Kraglin’s going to be part of the team from here on out, we’re going to need a little more reason to care about him.
The Action
Vol. 1 of “Guardians Of The Galaxy” didn’t just do the character stuff well, it also had some cracking action sequences — the prison break-out and the mining-ship space-fight were among the best such scenes in the MCU. That opening sequence aside, though, the sequences here mostly prove a bit same-y, particularly the end sequence, which falls victim to a certain kind of CGI overload. There are some good ideas — the Nebula/Gamora fight was clearly conceived as a sort of spaceship version of the cropduster scene from “North By Northwest,” but doesn’t sustain tension in the same way. We’d rather the film did the characters stuff well, but this time out, it feels like spectacle was prized over the actual sequences.
Gamora Is Still Underused
As you might imagine by the fact that it’ll take 21 movies until a woman gets her own solo vehicle with 2019’s “Captain Marvel,” the MCU hasn’t always been great with its female characters. And while “Guardians Vol. 2” adds Mantis and Ayesha to the mix for the best, Gunn’s still never quite worked out what to do with his only female Guardian, Gamora. Still mostly not allowed to get involved with the comedy for the most part, Gamora’s role here is to not-quite-get-together with Peter, and to continue her family squabble with adopted sister Nebula (Karen Gillan — giving a very good performance, but somewhat surplus to requirements). There’s something interesting in what the film brushes against, about the legacy of their abuse growing up, and the way that it ties into the general theme of fathers and children. But with Thanos absent, and the two too often removed from the other characters, it ends up feeling like a missed opportunity to pull off an interesting idea rather than something more fully-realized.
Yondu
Don’t get us wrong, Michael Rooker is great as mohawk-haired honorary Guardian, who’s initially intent on revenge on Peter before being betrayed, switching sides, and ultimately giving his life for his former employee. But the film slightly oversteps, to our mind, in making the character the emotional crux of the movie. For him to be a mirror of Rocket’s self-destructive self-loathing absolutely makes sense, and works well in the film. But as the sort of rival father figure to Ego, the Willem Dafoe to Kurt Russell’s Tom Berenger in “Platoon,” the kinder, cuddlier Yondu seen here doesn’t really gel with the savage, if grudgingly admiring antagonist of the last movie. And the message — love and appreciate your abusive, emotionally withholding step-dad because maybe your real dad turns out to be a genocidal planet — is a bit… questionable. Yondu’s Ravager funeral is a touching moment, but it doesn’t really feel entirely earned in the end.
Sylvester Stallone And The Ravagers Aren’t That Interesting
Maybe it was just us, but really all the Ravager sub-plot in the movie kind of bored us, up to and including Sylvester Stallone’s extended cameo as Stakar Ogord. In some ways, it’s the moment when Troma veteran Gunn feels like he’s mostly indulging his B-movie origins: the Ravagers feel like relics from some 90s cheapo sci-fi movie like “Space Truckers.” The power struggles and mutinies on the crew feel like one subplot too many, and Chris Sullivan’s Taserface feels like a waste of a great actor (he was Cleary on “The Knick”) under a gruesome make-up job and a bunch of pirate noises. Ravager culture doesn’t feel like it’s been properly set up enough to play the central role it does here. And Stallone is kind of a wash: a bit stiff, and with a role not substantial enough to make it feel anything but a glancing cameo (we have a theory that the role was probably intended for Al Pacino, who was public about his love for the first movie and teased that he might take a Marvel role, but if we’re right, likely passed on this when he saw the side of the role). Plus the whole thing loses points for having the opportunity for a “Tango & Cash” reunion but then falling short…
The Story Is Pretty Disposable
The Marvel Cinematic Universe has, so far, three kinds of story. Origin stories, game-changers (which “The Avengers,” “Winter Soldier” and “Civil War” all qualify as), and fillers — movies that exist because a sequel was scheduled in between other films, but don’t necessarily have any larger role in the MCU. That isn’t necessarily a bad thing — “Iron Man 3” was a well-done version of that story, for instance, and not being tied to the ongoing macro-plot could theoretically be quite freeing. But “Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 2” feels closer to a “Thor: The Dark World” in a story sense than to that, a one-off special issue that’s perfectly enjoyable, but doesn’t really leave you with that much a greater understanding of the characters, or the story moving forward. It has its benefits — in many ways we’d swap a stuffed, twisting plot for the kind of looseness and humor that Gunn pulls off here — but even the first movie felt like it had a little more narrative drive to it, and that involved stopping a MacGuffin from falling into the hands of a Smurf with a hammer.
Giant Glowing Faces
We might have been spared the Giant Glowing Portals that were a fixture of the Marvel universe of late (there was one in “Doctor Strange,” but it was at least nicely subverted), but we worry that the trope might have been replaced by Giant Glowing Faces. After Dormamu in “Doctor Strange,” the form Ego takes at one point in the final battle marks the second time we’ve seen one of these things in two MCU movies, and we worry that as Thanos enters the fray and the cosmic side of the franchises become more important, this won’t be the last time (though we imagine “Spider-Man: Homecoming” won’t get one at least). It’s a nitpick, admittedly, but the trope-recycling has been a problem throughout the Marvel movies, and it would be nice to try and avoid this sort of thing where possible.