Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 review: Sophomore

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 

Marvel Studios / Disney

Written and directed by the returning James Gunn, Guardians 2 kicks off in
 Missouri in 1980. That was the year, of course, that our beloved Kurt Russell of 
Earth starred in Used Cars and was gearing up to play 
SnakePlissken in Escape 
From New York. But in the Guardians Galaxy, Russell was an alien visiting the 
American Midwest to sing along to Looking Glass’ pop chestnut “Brandy” while 
speeding in a muscle car with the woman who will become Peter Quill’s mom. 
Flash ahead 34 years, and our ragtag Guardians are in the midst of a battle 
against a giant (intentionally?) cheesy squid monster on a mission that 
momentarily
 puts them in the good graces of a race of gold-skinned humanoids ruled by
 Elizabeth Debicki in Shirley Eaton-by-way-of-Goldfingermakeup. She’s not
 someone you want to cross. Which, of course, means the Guardians do just 
that. As a reward, Debicki’s Ayesha frees a prisoner—Gamora’s sister Nebula.








When the original Guardians of the Galaxy hit theaters three years ago,
I was skeptical. A director as idiosyncratic as James Gunn seemed a strange
 fit for Marvel at the time, and taking a largely Earth-tethered superhero
universe all the way into outer space seemed like a risky proposition.
I remember telling a friend that it felt like like a make-or-break moment:
Marvel was either going to prove it could expand beyond the well-known
heroes that had come before, paving the way for subsequent phases of its
cinematic universe, or Guardians of the Galaxy would fall flat.

By the time Chris Pratt finished dancing through Guardians’ opening credits,
 I was in love, and the first installment turned out to be one of my favorite films
the studio has ever produced. Mixing a surprisingly earnest story with its
whackadoo space-opera sensibilities, Guardians felt like a rebooted
Star Wars before Star Wars had even rebooted itself, and I couldn’t
wait to see how the second installment would surprise and delight.

It turns out hitting a home run is really hard.

Gunn knows an audience favorite when he sees one, and he uses the credit
 sequence of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 to focus heavily on the most
 adorable character in his arsenal: Baby Groot (again voiced by Vin Diesel).
The gang is in the midst of a job when they face an interdimensional creature.
 Gamora (Zoe Saldana), Rocket Raccoon (voiced by Bradley Cooper), and
Star-Lord (Pratt) all have brief moments to shine, fight, or crack wise
 but Groot steals the show by firing up a Walkman and dancing throughout 
the entire thing. It’s a strong start, with Gunn calling back to the original’s 
opening while emphasizing that there will be even more silliness
 this time around.

That’s a very broad-strokes look at the film’s setup, but it establishes the most
 important thing: this movie is trying to be about family, whether it’s the ongoing
 battle between Gamora and Karen Gillan’s Nebula — feuding daughters of 
the supervillain Thanos — or the unlikely paternal side of Yondu 
(Michael Rooker), who bonds with Rocket over the course of the film. 
The themes aren’t exactly subtle, particularly given some deception going on, 
but it gives the film a thematic cohesion. Which is welcome, because otherwise, 
the movie feels scattered and rambling.After facing the creature, the Guardians
head back to their current client to cash in. That client is Ayesha
(Elizabeth Debicki), leader of The Sovereign — a genetically perfect and
excessively obnoxious race of beings covered completely in gold.
 And while the Guardians may be heroes, they’re also dumb heroes,
and after they refuse to turn over all of the goods the Sovereign hired
them to find, they’re suddenly on the run in a wild space chase. A bearded
 man named Ego (Kurt Russell) comes to their rescue, and after the threat
has passed, he reveals he’s Star-Lord’s father. Reunited with a parental
figure he’s never known, Star-Lord decides to stay on his dad’s planet and
 learn whatever Ego can teach him, even if it ends up pushing the other
Guardians away.























Marvel Studios / Disney

Multiple storylines interweave in a way that may have looked Empire Strikes 
Back-sharp in an outline, but in practice, it’s painfully awkward.
A major issue is that none of the characters are
particularly endearing this time around. Gamora and Star-Lord’s slow-burn
 chemistry is still there, but it’s sadly dialed back to make room for Gamora’s
 relationship with her sister — and Gillan once again delivers the weakest
performance in the ensemble. Yondu’s storyline fares far better, with Rooker
adding some unexpected depth to the mercenary as he struggles to redeem
himself for past misdeeds, but there’s only so much the ancillary players can
 do when the heart of the movie is so painfully, soul-crushingly inert.

That would be the relationship between Ego and Star-Lord. While Russell is
 a high-five fan-dream of a reveal when Ego first arrives, the entire father-son
 storyline sidelines Star-Lord from the movie almost completely. He simply
 hangs out, utterly passive, and does whatever his dad says, while backstory
 and plot points are doled out around him and other characters try to give the
 movie a sense of momentum. Pratt is still engaging — Star-Lord continues
to be the ultimate distillation of his movie-star persona, and even while
neutered, the character still outshines Pratt’s performances in things like
The Magnificent Seven or Jurassic World. It’s just that the movie lacks the
 combination of heart and spirit that made the original such a wonderful
surprise, leaving the audience uninvested and waiting for the next joke to drop.

COMES TOGETHER IN THE END WITH AN EFFECTIVE EMOTIONAL PAYOFF

Thankfully, Vol. 2 does come together in the end with a powerful emotional
payoff, but that’s only it becomes a computer-generated action-fest with the
 fate of the universe hanging in the balance again. It’s the same kind of
exhausting stakes-raising that nearly all Marvel movies rely on at this point,
 practically pummeling the audience into being wowed. And given the
difference between Vol. 2 and the first installment, it’s hard to not notice
 the change in writing credits this time around.

Marvel Studios / Disney

The first film was written by Nicole Perlman, before Gunn joined the project
and gave the script an extensive rewrite. Given that both writers received
credit, a minor PR war ensued in the wake of the film’s success, with Gunn
 often claiming that he totally reworked Perlman’s script, while she implied
 that his work was perhaps less all-encompassing than he was claiming.
 In Vol. 2, Gunn is the sole credited writer, and all his trademark flourishes
 are there. The script is irreverent, the characters are sarcastic, and Drax
 the Destroyer (Dave Bautista) generates laugh after laugh as the hulking
brute with zero self-awareness. But compared to its predecessor,
 Guardians 2 has a hollow emotional core, and the plotting feels clumsy.
This movie doesn’t have any real purpose, even as a bridge to other
 chapters in the Marvel story 

That clearly isn’t much of a concern for the studio, as last week, Gunn
 announced that he would be returning to write and direct Vol. 3.
 I learned during my visit to Marvel  Studios last week that an assortment
of different personnel are involved in the studio’s creative process, and
 perhaps with the lessons learned from this installment, there will be
a push to make the next Guardians of the Galaxy a little more worthwhile.

Don’t get me wrong. The new Guardians has some great jokes, and
there’s a slow-motion moment set to Fleetwood Mac that almost lets viewers
 pretend they’re watching the original film again. And I’m sure it’s going to be
 the best space-opera you’ll be able to see in theaters until Valerian and the
 City of a Thousand Planets and Star Wars: The Last Jedi roll around.
But given that it’s following a film that was so instantly iconic and
 unforgettable, it’s tragic that so many people are likely to forget Vol. 2
before they’ve even left the theater.