Friday, May 5, 2017

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 Review


Three years ago, a lesser known property of the Marvel Universe graced the screens, with many wondering if it would catch the attention of the world. Not only did it catch the attention of the world, but became one of the favorites in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. This was one of the first movies that showed that Marvel could be successful outside of Iron Man, Thor, and Captain America, and that the Marvel Cinematic Universe could truly expand beyond what was initially anticipated. This property caught my attention way before it’s release, and no I am not talking about comic book form, I found out that they were doing it, I believe sometime in early 2012, and that’s when it first caught my attention, and then it stood out more when I saw some concept art in 2013, and just how cool this movie could look. It was a nice little surprise when it came out in 2014, and just proved what the Marvel Cinematic Universe was capable of.

Needless to say, anticipation for a sequel was high. Probably just as high as the sequel to The Avengers back in 2015. I am happy to say that the sequel is totally worth your time in seeing. While I am going to admit this right off the back, I think the first one is just a little better. Now keep in mind, I said a little, because the first one was a surprise. The first one had a bunch of us laughing so hard throughout the movie, even moments to the point that I thought I was turning blue, like Yondu. The second had plenty of laughs, and even some moments where I was laughing really hard, but I don’t think I was laughing as much as the first one. Now before you say to yourself, “that’s it, I am not seeing this anymore,” I was totally fine with the idea that they turned the humor notch down just a little bit, because that paved the way for some really good emotion from the characters. I honestly felt that this movie explored a lot of the characters from the first one in ways that I was left just as surprised as the first one. The first one, I enjoyed watching the characters work off one another, but this one, I felt more connected to the characters, and they were more than fun characters to be around, you really cared more about them, even characters like Yondu and Nebula, who I didn’t think much of in the first one, I really cared about their characters this time around.

 
Now let’s get into the spectacle of the movie. There was plenty of action, and lots of eye candy to go around. This movie took us to a lot of awesome places to explore, including Ego’s planet, which was probably one of the most colorful places I have ever seen, seriously it was just incredible to look at. I saw this on IMAX, and it was really awesome to see it this way, as it made all the places feel more massive. I missed out on seeing the first one in IMAX, but it was great to see this one that way. Let’s get into the music for a bit, does it beat out Awesome Mix Volume 1? That’s hard to say at this time. The soundtrack for the first one was a big surprise, I was not anticipating them to using music from the 70s/80s during the first one in such an amazing way. The music is used very good here as well. It’s hard to say if I like this soundtrack more or not, I may need to rethink this in a few months before giving an official answer, but there are great songs on Awesome Mix Volume 2.

 
How does Baby Groot turn out? He was adorable, simply no other way to put it. The opening credits with him dancing was one of the most fun opening credit sequences that I have seen in a long time. I will personally admit this, I think I like that sequence more than the opening credits to the first movie. Many can disagree, but that’s how I felt. There were other moments that were fun when they used him, including when two of main characters are in prison and they need to get out, and they have Baby Groot grab something that will help them escape, and being little, obviously didn’t know what was needed exactly, so he kept coming back with many different things, one of them that really shocked and surprised me, I didn’t know how to process it, but it was really funny, while I kind of spoiled this sequence, I won’t spoil what that thing is here.

 
The characters is really what made this movie a blast to watch, and seeing the characters develop even further made this movie so much more worth it. I felt all of the main heroes got a really good amount of screen time, no one felt  overshadowed by another, especially Baby Groot didn’t take over the whole show, while I would have been alright with it, the movie wouldn’t have had the same impact that it does here. That idea of family really sticks out here. There is a line that Nebula says “You aren’t friends. All you do is fight and yell at each other.” And Drax responds back, “You’re right, we aren’t friends. We’re family.” While they drove each other nuts, they still cared for one another, and that can be seen throughout the movie, and it works great.

This movie was a blast from start to finish with an emotional core that makes the journey more worth it. I strongly recommend that you check this one out.

No comments: