Jasonic's Favorites: Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2
Hello, and good evening, Internet!
An underrated MCU movie nowadays, but a pretty good hit when it came out, I am forever a fan of "The Trilogy" structure and this second act proves why.
Released in 2017, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 continues the MCU from the point of view of the Guardians of the Galaxy, delivering all kinds of fun shenanigans as the group goes on separate journeys. It was a great financial success at the time, surpassing the first film and Avengers: Age of Ultron, with critical reception being slightly lower than the first one, but absolutely nothing abysmal. The MCU had found a consistent audience at this point that regardless of any characters' or team's previous popularity, we as fans and casual moviegoers cared enough to see where previously unknown groups like the Guardians were gonna go and this movie did not disappoint. I distinctly remember seeing the trailer scene of Rocket telling Baby Groot about which button NOT to press on a bomb they set up, which demonstrated the then-upcoming film's level of comedy well all while keeping any spoilers from leaking given that the scene itself happened so late into the movie. MCU trailer and film structures were well-established at this point that fans and critics were usually able to guess what was going on or what would happen based on their formulaic setups. I, thereforse, should have expected the twists of this movie to happen, but was so caught up in what I was seeing that I wasn't even thinking about it when viewing trailers or the movie itself. That said, I and many others would argue that this film is on par with the model sequel of Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back with how well it does the second act of "The Trilogy" its own way and, therefore, I believe it's one of the more underrated MCU movies in general. James Gunn already had quite the reputation at this point that, by the time he was done with his Guardians of the Galaxy trilogy as a whole, many would say he did not disappoint. That said, with this film's standing as a sequel and on its own, does it truly deserve any criticism in the midst of praise it gets? To find out, let's equip or Walkmans, strap on our jetpacks, and boost our way into the visual and character thrillride that is Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2!
*SPOILERS FOR A NINE YEAR OLD MOVIE*
The movie takes place shortly after Vol. 1; in it, the Guardians of the Galaxy led by Peter Quill/Star-Lord (Chris Pratt) are hired by the Sovereign to defend valuable Anulax batteries from the inter-dimensional being known as Abelisk. Upon success of their mission, the High Preistess Ayesha (Elizabeth Debicki) exchanges them Nebula (Karen Gillan), the sister of Gamora (Zoe Saldaña), who was caught trying to steal the batteries. When Rocket (voiced by Bradley Cooper) foolishly steals the batteries for himself, the Sovereign detect this and send a fleet of remote-piloted drones after the Guardians' ship. They are overwhelmed until a mysterious "one inch man" (according to Rocket) manages to eradicate them all, the Guardians crash landing onto the planet Berhert. There they are greeted by Ego (Kurt Russell), Quill's long-lost father and the reason for his half-Celestial heritage granting him the ability to hold onto something as powerful as the Infinity Stones. In disbelief about Ego's proposition to be the father who was never there, Quill and Gamora secretly conspire to kill him if he turns out to be bad, choosing first to go along with him as he takes him to the planet from which his consciousness formed. Meanwhile, Rocket and Baby Groot (voiced by Vin Diesel) keep an eye on Nebula when they are ambushed by a crew of Ravagers led by Yondu Udonta (Michael Rooker) to recapture the Guardians after the High Priestess tasked him to do such. However, the Ravagers undergo a mutiny led by Taserface (Chris Sullivan) as Yondu and Rocket are captured aboard Yondu's own ship; while those two bond in thinking of a way out, Quill, Gamora, and Drax (Dave Bautista), are taken to and toured through Ego's planet, learning of his history as a consciousness that formed like around himself, eventually coming to know life and create it perfectly through Peter's human mother, Meredith Quill (Laura Haddock). Though disdained about his father's absence throughout his childhood, Peter comes to learn how to make his own ideas through his Celestial powers, creating a ball to play catch with his dad for the first time. As Drax bonds with and gets to know Ego's naive, empathic servant, Mantis (Pom Klementieff), the Guardians begin to suspect that Ego is not all as he seems and that he has something sinister brewing beneath the surface. With Quill's proposition to take up his father's will clashing with the family he already has established, Peter will soon find that the family he wanted all along was right in front of him and that Ego may be blood, but he's deinitely not the type of father anyone would want.
As a sequel, most people commend this film for being better plotwise and opening better than most other MCU sequels. Nothing against Captain America: The Winter Soldier, though logically, this feels like a proper, deeper continuation of the first film with all its deeper plot threads and character-driven scenarios. You have Peter Quill discovering his heritage in a pseudo-Star Wars style, Rocket and Yondu in their own separate subplot where they recognize they're more similar than they initially believed, Yondu's own redemption arc with an emotional conclusion, Nebula continuing her rivalry with Gamora, and a smaller, but significant thread of Gamora recognizing the "unspoken thing" that Peter insists they have. It's things like these that expand the sequel by taking the characters to the next logical step as opposed to simply repeating the first film's campaign in different flavor. The separation of the group makes it hugely reminiscent of The Empire Strikes Back as well; whereas in that film, you had Luke and R2 separate from Han, Leia, Chewie, and 3PO reaching for separate objectives, this movie similarly has the group separated into Peter, Gamora, and Drax going with Ego while Rocket, Groot, and Nebula get wrapped up with Yondu and the Ravagers, bringing them along in seperate emotional journeys. Both movies have their own separate convergence points with Guardians 2's being neater the way that the group fully forms for the climax against Ego involving the Sovereign gold people as well. That said, the twist of making Ego the Living Planet Star-Lord's father in this universe (unlike the comics where it's a random alien named J'son) sets up one of my favorite arcs for a trilogy's middle chapter: the protagonist's pride. Star-Lord is already a stuck up dude who takes charge of the team, snarking with them at every turn and creating fights, but the dilemma that he's going to obtain all of his father's power one day really gets to his head that it puts strain on his and Gamora's relationship. My favorite sequels growing up such as Empire as well as Toy Story 2 had this for their protagonists as well and it created the sense that the protagonist thought he could carry the weight of the world on his shoulders in order to become what he thought he was supposed to be. It's all done similarly so well with Star-Lord's arc starting with him thinking he found his family and his place only to realize that his family and his place were in front of him all along in both the Guardians and Yondu. This is all highlighted by Yondu's potent arc of realizing he never did one thing right his whole life, giving his life in the end to make things right with Peter who soon declares that Yondu was the best father figure he never realized he had. Ending on a death so emotional is the perfect ending for Part 2 and I approve.
As with most other MCU movies and the Guardians movies, the actors did an outstanding job of bringing this one to life. Chris Pratt continues to slay it as Star-Lord, be a cocky, clumsy, but effective leader of the team who does what he can to keep the situation under control. The amount of anger he shows in this movie is more than usual, whether to his teammates or to his dad for seemingly abandoning him, this shows that Star-Lord is prone to emotional outbursts, something that broadly affects the MCU if you have seen Infinity War and know what I'm talking about. Zoe Saldaña has been one of my favorite sci-fi actresses in anything and she continues to be the stern, disciplined, sometimes proud Gamora we all know and love; her dynamic with her sister, Nebula, is explored more here with the two having an explosive fight toward the middle before eventually forming an uneasy alliance and reconciling. Karen Gillan as Nebula also gets great moments with her stuck-up, determined personality providing a healthy dose of seriousness on the team and her sharing her backstory of Thanos replacing parts of her with machinery making you sorry for her all the same. Dave Bautista as Drax the Destroyer isn't given as much to do here besides his bond with Mantis, but the man's acting provides an excellent level of comedy with his blunt comments, hearty laugh, and dimwitted understanding of how things work. With that, Pom Klementieff is an excellent new addition as Mantis; even with digital modifications to her face, her naive personality, imperfect smile, and empathic levels of feeling what the characters are feeling make her a fine addition to the cast and team -- her scenes with Drax ranging from fun to emotional depending on the context. Once again, Bradley Cooper's voice acting for Rocket and Vin Diesel's for Groot continue to prove why those two are a great duo; Cooper's performance is one of my favorite voices in the MCU and his snarky jackass personality continues to shine the harder he continues to insult his teammates and act arrogant throughout. Groot is no longer the same Groot he was before now as Baby Groot with Vin Diesel's voice clearly modified to sound more like a child; this makes his animated and voice performances all the more childlike and hilariously cute, allowing for a fresher dynamic between him and the team. As the film's twist villain that many may have seen coming a mile away, Kurt Russell continues to be a fantastic actor in the role of Ego the Living Planet; he appears to be caring and fatherly toward people like Star-Lord and his guests, but unlike most twist villains who appear this way at first glance, the characters don't fall for it and, Star-Lord is, in fact, more mad that his father wasn't around than anything. The seeds of his true egomanical nature are planeted throughout that, by the time of his villainous reveal, he really lives up to his name in demeaning Peter and the Guardians into submission. Michael Rooker also knocked it out of the park here with his distinct voice and demeanor playing well into Yondu's dickish nature and him showing a much more remorseful side the way he reveals his backstory to Rocket throughout. This, along with Yondu's sacrifice in the end, made the movie all the more a character and visual thrillride.
This movie, among many movies of 2017, is also one of the most visually appealing movies of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. CGI and digital effects are some of the best the MCU has ever looked with them maintaining consistent animated looks for characters like Rocket and Groot. Apart from that, the action sequences have so much visual flare; the title sequence of Groot dancing around the battle area to "Mr. Blue Sky" while everyone fights the Abelisk in the background is a fantastic opening sequence of CGI and live action people dropping in and out. The moment the music cuts out and the Abelisk fight becomes front and center is also cool with the monster's animations and rainbow-colored firebreath being just as much of a highlight as it was in the trailers. The quantum asteroid field space battle sequence following their departure from the Sovereign is a very unique sci-fi chase sequence in how it is essentially Star Wars with a different visual and dynamic flare; the asteroids warping in and out of the way of the ships creates for some unexpected twists and turns as the gold people's ships get destroyed one by one puts a new spin on a Star Wars-inspired sequence so that it doesn't simply copy The Empire Strikes Back. Even the movie's poster itself (see above) is one of the best-looking MCU posters with the colorful, flaring lights around the cast, characters like Star-Lord, and Rocket firing projectiles, and the all-around colorful cast of characters make it look like a rainbow of a sci-fi movie and the movie's sequences certainly live up to it. The film continues the rainbow motif with the establishing shots of Ego's planet; from the first shot of his egg-shaped ship approaching the red and teal surface to the floating gondola ride across the surface as Drax plays with and heartily laughs at the rainbow bubbles, it's one of the best establishing shots of the whole MCU and set up a much more colorful direction for the MCU films and posters going forward. Peter's hope to create a statue of Skeletor, Pac-Man, and a few other 80s icons also has a fantastic payoff during the final battle; the way Ego skeletally reforms to face and taunt Peter and the Guardians may as well be the representation of Skeletor -- according to a joke I heard from CinemaWins that is -- and the subsequent battle of the two fighting has, in my opinion, one of the best, most outrageous shots of the entire MCU. As Peter and Ego are fighting, the two charge at each other, forming rocks around each of them until Ego forms a rock giant around himself in a way that honestly makes him look so much like Zeus the Greek god. Meanwhile, Peter forms a series of yellow rocks around himself to create a giant Pac-Man that makes the iconic "waka waka" sound, ultimately eating the giant Kurt Russell. It is an easy shot of the battle to discover compared to most other MCU final battles, making it one of the most distinct and visually appealing things ever to exist in a Marvel movie!
As with Vol. 1 of Guardians of the Galaxy, the soundtrack ends up being the highlight of the movie and its associated scenes. The opening scene with "Mr. Blue Sky" by Electric Light Orchestra creates a great tonal establishment for Baby Groot dancing around the chaos of the opening battle sequence. Even better is that, instead of focusing on the battle, we follow Baby Groot throughout the sequence as the others watch him, look out for him, and then there's that little callback to him freezing in place while Drax watches. The use of George Harrison's "My Sweet Lord" is subtle, but apparently it playing as Ego takes the group through his planet before revealing his status as a "god" is essentially foreshadowing that right before it happens. This was yet another subtle thing that CinemaWins pointed out that I didn't notice because I don't really know the song, but it was neat detail no less. One of the most interesting choices for me is the use of "Bring It On Home to Me" by Sam Cooke; it plays during the Peter and Gamora slow dance scene that was showcased well in the trailers and makes for a good slow dance song for those two as Gamora continues to deny the "unspoken thing" between them. It gets broken up by the tension between them over the possibility that Peter's father could be dangerous and using them, leaving the two at odds. After that scene, Peter and Ego discuss the song "Brandy (You're A Fine Girl)" by Looking Glass; this plays at the beginning of the film when Peter's mom and the de-aged Kurt Russell are riding in the convertible to the spot of Ego's seed with her singing along to the song. After the argument with Gamora, Peter is listening to this song and Ego uses its context to tempt Peter to his side by describing his mother and Gamora as the girl in the song. Ego once again references the song the moment he heartlessly squishes the Walkman, rightfully enraging Peter. Perhaps the most potent use of a song is the use of Fleetwood Mac's "The Chain"; it initially plays as half the group leave with Ego with that scene seemingly attributing it to the tension between Peter and Rocket. Later, it kicks back into gear during the final battle with Ego as Peter lunges himself at his father; at that point, the song becomes about Ego not really loving Peter and Peter deciding to literally break the chain by battling him to the death. These licensed songs alongside Tyler Bates' original score for the film continue to give the Guardians films a unique musical identity that goes beyond simple MCU orchestrations and that's one reason I continue to love the series.
All that said, I might argue that Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 is the best in the series; for some, it may be less exciting with the way it puts character over action, but, in my honest opinion, it develops its own middle chapter sequel identity the way that Star Wars inspired. It also has continues to have great live and voice acting that the MCU is known for, created a fantastic visual identity for itself and the MCU, and the maintained its musical identity with the licensed music from the 60s and 70s. The MCU continued to be well-received at this time that I didn't see too many haters toward this movie though, without the third installment rounding things out yet, I could understand why people may not have liked this one as much as the first movie. As a movie buff who is forever a fan of "The Trilogy", I believe it makes for the fantastic middle chapter and the third one does so in a way that's done well, but we'll get to that later. Anything that involves the iconic characters of the MCU is enought to make me have fun, laugh, cry, or be moved in whatever ways this movie does and more. This also perfectly sets up the Guardians for Infinity War, Endgame, and other stuff to a point where I hardly complain about its place and function in the overall MCU. And with that, I give the film a solid A and recommend it to James Gunn fans, fans of the MCU, fans of the Guardians, and all the other sort of fans this movie may attract.
Thank you all for reading and I will see you in the next review!
An underrated MCU movie nowadays, but a pretty good hit when it came out, I am forever a fan of "The Trilogy" structure and this second act proves why.
Released in 2017, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 continues the MCU from the point of view of the Guardians of the Galaxy, delivering all kinds of fun shenanigans as the group goes on separate journeys. It was a great financial success at the time, surpassing the first film and Avengers: Age of Ultron, with critical reception being slightly lower than the first one, but absolutely nothing abysmal. The MCU had found a consistent audience at this point that regardless of any characters' or team's previous popularity, we as fans and casual moviegoers cared enough to see where previously unknown groups like the Guardians were gonna go and this movie did not disappoint. I distinctly remember seeing the trailer scene of Rocket telling Baby Groot about which button NOT to press on a bomb they set up, which demonstrated the then-upcoming film's level of comedy well all while keeping any spoilers from leaking given that the scene itself happened so late into the movie. MCU trailer and film structures were well-established at this point that fans and critics were usually able to guess what was going on or what would happen based on their formulaic setups. I, thereforse, should have expected the twists of this movie to happen, but was so caught up in what I was seeing that I wasn't even thinking about it when viewing trailers or the movie itself. That said, I and many others would argue that this film is on par with the model sequel of Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back with how well it does the second act of "The Trilogy" its own way and, therefore, I believe it's one of the more underrated MCU movies in general. James Gunn already had quite the reputation at this point that, by the time he was done with his Guardians of the Galaxy trilogy as a whole, many would say he did not disappoint. That said, with this film's standing as a sequel and on its own, does it truly deserve any criticism in the midst of praise it gets? To find out, let's equip or Walkmans, strap on our jetpacks, and boost our way into the visual and character thrillride that is Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2!
*SPOILERS FOR A NINE YEAR OLD MOVIE*
The movie takes place shortly after Vol. 1; in it, the Guardians of the Galaxy led by Peter Quill/Star-Lord (Chris Pratt) are hired by the Sovereign to defend valuable Anulax batteries from the inter-dimensional being known as Abelisk. Upon success of their mission, the High Preistess Ayesha (Elizabeth Debicki) exchanges them Nebula (Karen Gillan), the sister of Gamora (Zoe Saldaña), who was caught trying to steal the batteries. When Rocket (voiced by Bradley Cooper) foolishly steals the batteries for himself, the Sovereign detect this and send a fleet of remote-piloted drones after the Guardians' ship. They are overwhelmed until a mysterious "one inch man" (according to Rocket) manages to eradicate them all, the Guardians crash landing onto the planet Berhert. There they are greeted by Ego (Kurt Russell), Quill's long-lost father and the reason for his half-Celestial heritage granting him the ability to hold onto something as powerful as the Infinity Stones. In disbelief about Ego's proposition to be the father who was never there, Quill and Gamora secretly conspire to kill him if he turns out to be bad, choosing first to go along with him as he takes him to the planet from which his consciousness formed. Meanwhile, Rocket and Baby Groot (voiced by Vin Diesel) keep an eye on Nebula when they are ambushed by a crew of Ravagers led by Yondu Udonta (Michael Rooker) to recapture the Guardians after the High Priestess tasked him to do such. However, the Ravagers undergo a mutiny led by Taserface (Chris Sullivan) as Yondu and Rocket are captured aboard Yondu's own ship; while those two bond in thinking of a way out, Quill, Gamora, and Drax (Dave Bautista), are taken to and toured through Ego's planet, learning of his history as a consciousness that formed like around himself, eventually coming to know life and create it perfectly through Peter's human mother, Meredith Quill (Laura Haddock). Though disdained about his father's absence throughout his childhood, Peter comes to learn how to make his own ideas through his Celestial powers, creating a ball to play catch with his dad for the first time. As Drax bonds with and gets to know Ego's naive, empathic servant, Mantis (Pom Klementieff), the Guardians begin to suspect that Ego is not all as he seems and that he has something sinister brewing beneath the surface. With Quill's proposition to take up his father's will clashing with the family he already has established, Peter will soon find that the family he wanted all along was right in front of him and that Ego may be blood, but he's deinitely not the type of father anyone would want.
As a sequel, most people commend this film for being better plotwise and opening better than most other MCU sequels. Nothing against Captain America: The Winter Soldier, though logically, this feels like a proper, deeper continuation of the first film with all its deeper plot threads and character-driven scenarios. You have Peter Quill discovering his heritage in a pseudo-Star Wars style, Rocket and Yondu in their own separate subplot where they recognize they're more similar than they initially believed, Yondu's own redemption arc with an emotional conclusion, Nebula continuing her rivalry with Gamora, and a smaller, but significant thread of Gamora recognizing the "unspoken thing" that Peter insists they have. It's things like these that expand the sequel by taking the characters to the next logical step as opposed to simply repeating the first film's campaign in different flavor. The separation of the group makes it hugely reminiscent of The Empire Strikes Back as well; whereas in that film, you had Luke and R2 separate from Han, Leia, Chewie, and 3PO reaching for separate objectives, this movie similarly has the group separated into Peter, Gamora, and Drax going with Ego while Rocket, Groot, and Nebula get wrapped up with Yondu and the Ravagers, bringing them along in seperate emotional journeys. Both movies have their own separate convergence points with Guardians 2's being neater the way that the group fully forms for the climax against Ego involving the Sovereign gold people as well. That said, the twist of making Ego the Living Planet Star-Lord's father in this universe (unlike the comics where it's a random alien named J'son) sets up one of my favorite arcs for a trilogy's middle chapter: the protagonist's pride. Star-Lord is already a stuck up dude who takes charge of the team, snarking with them at every turn and creating fights, but the dilemma that he's going to obtain all of his father's power one day really gets to his head that it puts strain on his and Gamora's relationship. My favorite sequels growing up such as Empire as well as Toy Story 2 had this for their protagonists as well and it created the sense that the protagonist thought he could carry the weight of the world on his shoulders in order to become what he thought he was supposed to be. It's all done similarly so well with Star-Lord's arc starting with him thinking he found his family and his place only to realize that his family and his place were in front of him all along in both the Guardians and Yondu. This is all highlighted by Yondu's potent arc of realizing he never did one thing right his whole life, giving his life in the end to make things right with Peter who soon declares that Yondu was the best father figure he never realized he had. Ending on a death so emotional is the perfect ending for Part 2 and I approve.
As with most other MCU movies and the Guardians movies, the actors did an outstanding job of bringing this one to life. Chris Pratt continues to slay it as Star-Lord, be a cocky, clumsy, but effective leader of the team who does what he can to keep the situation under control. The amount of anger he shows in this movie is more than usual, whether to his teammates or to his dad for seemingly abandoning him, this shows that Star-Lord is prone to emotional outbursts, something that broadly affects the MCU if you have seen Infinity War and know what I'm talking about. Zoe Saldaña has been one of my favorite sci-fi actresses in anything and she continues to be the stern, disciplined, sometimes proud Gamora we all know and love; her dynamic with her sister, Nebula, is explored more here with the two having an explosive fight toward the middle before eventually forming an uneasy alliance and reconciling. Karen Gillan as Nebula also gets great moments with her stuck-up, determined personality providing a healthy dose of seriousness on the team and her sharing her backstory of Thanos replacing parts of her with machinery making you sorry for her all the same. Dave Bautista as Drax the Destroyer isn't given as much to do here besides his bond with Mantis, but the man's acting provides an excellent level of comedy with his blunt comments, hearty laugh, and dimwitted understanding of how things work. With that, Pom Klementieff is an excellent new addition as Mantis; even with digital modifications to her face, her naive personality, imperfect smile, and empathic levels of feeling what the characters are feeling make her a fine addition to the cast and team -- her scenes with Drax ranging from fun to emotional depending on the context. Once again, Bradley Cooper's voice acting for Rocket and Vin Diesel's for Groot continue to prove why those two are a great duo; Cooper's performance is one of my favorite voices in the MCU and his snarky jackass personality continues to shine the harder he continues to insult his teammates and act arrogant throughout. Groot is no longer the same Groot he was before now as Baby Groot with Vin Diesel's voice clearly modified to sound more like a child; this makes his animated and voice performances all the more childlike and hilariously cute, allowing for a fresher dynamic between him and the team. As the film's twist villain that many may have seen coming a mile away, Kurt Russell continues to be a fantastic actor in the role of Ego the Living Planet; he appears to be caring and fatherly toward people like Star-Lord and his guests, but unlike most twist villains who appear this way at first glance, the characters don't fall for it and, Star-Lord is, in fact, more mad that his father wasn't around than anything. The seeds of his true egomanical nature are planeted throughout that, by the time of his villainous reveal, he really lives up to his name in demeaning Peter and the Guardians into submission. Michael Rooker also knocked it out of the park here with his distinct voice and demeanor playing well into Yondu's dickish nature and him showing a much more remorseful side the way he reveals his backstory to Rocket throughout. This, along with Yondu's sacrifice in the end, made the movie all the more a character and visual thrillride.
This movie, among many movies of 2017, is also one of the most visually appealing movies of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. CGI and digital effects are some of the best the MCU has ever looked with them maintaining consistent animated looks for characters like Rocket and Groot. Apart from that, the action sequences have so much visual flare; the title sequence of Groot dancing around the battle area to "Mr. Blue Sky" while everyone fights the Abelisk in the background is a fantastic opening sequence of CGI and live action people dropping in and out. The moment the music cuts out and the Abelisk fight becomes front and center is also cool with the monster's animations and rainbow-colored firebreath being just as much of a highlight as it was in the trailers. The quantum asteroid field space battle sequence following their departure from the Sovereign is a very unique sci-fi chase sequence in how it is essentially Star Wars with a different visual and dynamic flare; the asteroids warping in and out of the way of the ships creates for some unexpected twists and turns as the gold people's ships get destroyed one by one puts a new spin on a Star Wars-inspired sequence so that it doesn't simply copy The Empire Strikes Back. Even the movie's poster itself (see above) is one of the best-looking MCU posters with the colorful, flaring lights around the cast, characters like Star-Lord, and Rocket firing projectiles, and the all-around colorful cast of characters make it look like a rainbow of a sci-fi movie and the movie's sequences certainly live up to it. The film continues the rainbow motif with the establishing shots of Ego's planet; from the first shot of his egg-shaped ship approaching the red and teal surface to the floating gondola ride across the surface as Drax plays with and heartily laughs at the rainbow bubbles, it's one of the best establishing shots of the whole MCU and set up a much more colorful direction for the MCU films and posters going forward. Peter's hope to create a statue of Skeletor, Pac-Man, and a few other 80s icons also has a fantastic payoff during the final battle; the way Ego skeletally reforms to face and taunt Peter and the Guardians may as well be the representation of Skeletor -- according to a joke I heard from CinemaWins that is -- and the subsequent battle of the two fighting has, in my opinion, one of the best, most outrageous shots of the entire MCU. As Peter and Ego are fighting, the two charge at each other, forming rocks around each of them until Ego forms a rock giant around himself in a way that honestly makes him look so much like Zeus the Greek god. Meanwhile, Peter forms a series of yellow rocks around himself to create a giant Pac-Man that makes the iconic "waka waka" sound, ultimately eating the giant Kurt Russell. It is an easy shot of the battle to discover compared to most other MCU final battles, making it one of the most distinct and visually appealing things ever to exist in a Marvel movie!
As with Vol. 1 of Guardians of the Galaxy, the soundtrack ends up being the highlight of the movie and its associated scenes. The opening scene with "Mr. Blue Sky" by Electric Light Orchestra creates a great tonal establishment for Baby Groot dancing around the chaos of the opening battle sequence. Even better is that, instead of focusing on the battle, we follow Baby Groot throughout the sequence as the others watch him, look out for him, and then there's that little callback to him freezing in place while Drax watches. The use of George Harrison's "My Sweet Lord" is subtle, but apparently it playing as Ego takes the group through his planet before revealing his status as a "god" is essentially foreshadowing that right before it happens. This was yet another subtle thing that CinemaWins pointed out that I didn't notice because I don't really know the song, but it was neat detail no less. One of the most interesting choices for me is the use of "Bring It On Home to Me" by Sam Cooke; it plays during the Peter and Gamora slow dance scene that was showcased well in the trailers and makes for a good slow dance song for those two as Gamora continues to deny the "unspoken thing" between them. It gets broken up by the tension between them over the possibility that Peter's father could be dangerous and using them, leaving the two at odds. After that scene, Peter and Ego discuss the song "Brandy (You're A Fine Girl)" by Looking Glass; this plays at the beginning of the film when Peter's mom and the de-aged Kurt Russell are riding in the convertible to the spot of Ego's seed with her singing along to the song. After the argument with Gamora, Peter is listening to this song and Ego uses its context to tempt Peter to his side by describing his mother and Gamora as the girl in the song. Ego once again references the song the moment he heartlessly squishes the Walkman, rightfully enraging Peter. Perhaps the most potent use of a song is the use of Fleetwood Mac's "The Chain"; it initially plays as half the group leave with Ego with that scene seemingly attributing it to the tension between Peter and Rocket. Later, it kicks back into gear during the final battle with Ego as Peter lunges himself at his father; at that point, the song becomes about Ego not really loving Peter and Peter deciding to literally break the chain by battling him to the death. These licensed songs alongside Tyler Bates' original score for the film continue to give the Guardians films a unique musical identity that goes beyond simple MCU orchestrations and that's one reason I continue to love the series.
All that said, I might argue that Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 is the best in the series; for some, it may be less exciting with the way it puts character over action, but, in my honest opinion, it develops its own middle chapter sequel identity the way that Star Wars inspired. It also has continues to have great live and voice acting that the MCU is known for, created a fantastic visual identity for itself and the MCU, and the maintained its musical identity with the licensed music from the 60s and 70s. The MCU continued to be well-received at this time that I didn't see too many haters toward this movie though, without the third installment rounding things out yet, I could understand why people may not have liked this one as much as the first movie. As a movie buff who is forever a fan of "The Trilogy", I believe it makes for the fantastic middle chapter and the third one does so in a way that's done well, but we'll get to that later. Anything that involves the iconic characters of the MCU is enought to make me have fun, laugh, cry, or be moved in whatever ways this movie does and more. This also perfectly sets up the Guardians for Infinity War, Endgame, and other stuff to a point where I hardly complain about its place and function in the overall MCU. And with that, I give the film a solid A and recommend it to James Gunn fans, fans of the MCU, fans of the Guardians, and all the other sort of fans this movie may attract.
Thank you all for reading and I will see you in the next review!
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