Sometimes sequels are better than the originals, and sometimes they are worse. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 is not a bad movie, it's just not as good as the first one. Even though it has some very good moments in it.
Spoilers ahead for Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 and all of the MCU movies.
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 is again directed and written by James Gunn. The entire original cast is back: Chris Pratt as Star-Lord and the only human member of the team, Zoe Saldana as Gamora, Dave Bautista as Drax, Vin Diesel and Bradley Cooper return as Baby Groot and Rocket Raccoon. A few other old faces return as well, Michael Rooker as Mary Poppins, I mean as Yondu along with Gunn's brother, Sean who plays Kraglin and Karen Gillan as Nebula. Laura Haddock also briefly returns as Meredith Quill. The two most noticeable additions are Pom Klementieff as Mantis, who becomes a member of the team and Kurt Russell as Ego, Peter Quill's father. Also, this movie is full of amazing cameos like that of Michael Rosenbaum (Lex Luther from Smallville), Sylvester Stallone and freaking David Hasselhoff. It is just brilliant and hilarious. It doesn't matter how small or big their role is, the cast does an amazing job. Really, every single one.
The movie again opens with a flashback to the 80s. We see Ego with Meredith on Earth. Just being a regular couple. On the background of a cool song of course, to which Meredith sings along. The de-aging on Kurt Russell is pretty impressive. This technology just keeps getting better and better. She knows that he is an alien, but she doesn't understand his plan. At first neither do we, we just see him putting an alien flower in the ground. But when he says that he wants to cover the entire universe with that, he isn't joking. He wants to take over the entire universe.
Then we switch to the Guardians in present time. They have been hired to kill some inter dimensional space monster which spits fire which looks like fireworks. It may look like a squid, but it fires pretty stuff. First though, the Guardians bicker and argue about everything, which is their thing. But, most importantly, Baby Groot still looks like Baby Groot and hasn't grown older yet. Rocket organizes background music to listen to while fighting. I mean the Guardians fight the monster, and Baby Groot dances. Baby Groot dancing is so adorable that I can watch an entire movie of just that. He is irresistible. Gamora yells at him to get out of the way, but when he waves at her, she just says hi, you can't be mad at something so cute. Baby Groot is just too damn cute.
The Guardians have been hired by the Sovereign to save their batteries. Since they think that they are so special, they don't want to risk their own lives so they hired the Guardians. The payment for their services is Nebula who also tried to steal one of their batteries. They really love their batteries. When the Guardians leave on their ship we see that Quill is totally in love with Gamora. Drax gives him a not so comforting speech about finding a woman, who is pathetic like him. Great talk. Nebula tells Gamora that she will kill her. When will she realize that she is not that great of a warrior? Basically communication is not the Guardians strongest quality, let's not mention talking about their feelings.
Trouble is always around the corner. Apparently Rocket stole one of the Sovereign's batteries and the Sovereign go after the Guardians. Rocket just loves to cause trouble. And Drax knew about it, but instead of stopping Rocket, he went along with it. Star-Lord is furious and Gamora tells them to shut up until after they survive. But they can't stop fighting, even long enough to fight properly. They get hit and almost lose because of it. But unfortunately for them, Quill's father, Ego shows up and destroys all of the Sovereign's ship. The Sovereign did tease him about his father, so obviously now said father shows up. New kind of trouble is in town.
They crash land on a new planet and their ship is destroyed. They just continue fighting. All of them. Then Ego and Mantis land. Ego explains that he is Quill's father and invites him to his own planet. Gamora encourages Quill to go after his father. If he ends up being evil, they can just kill him. Which they will have to do. They split up. Gamora, Quill and Drax go with Ego and Rocket, Groot and Nebula stay to fix the ship. It's not a happy goodbye as Rocket is being an asshole all the way until the last minute. Drax thinks it’s a good idea to part ways and he is right.
Yondu is on a different planet. He meets other Ravagers and it turns out that they don't see him as one of them. He broke their rules when he traded in children. Damn. Ayesha shows up and offers Yondu and his Ravagers a job.
On the spaceship we learn more about Mantis. She is the only living person on Ego's planet and she is an Empath. She can sense the feelings of others and manipulate them. She uses her powers on everyone expect Gamora who will not let anyone know how she feels. She is a tough one.
In the meantime the Ravagers try to execute their plan. They try to get Rocket and the battery. Not a great plan. It's like Home Alone, Rocket has so many traps laid for them. But Yondu has his magic arrow so he captures him and Groot anyway. I mean after Nebula tricks Groot to set her free. Poor baby Groot. Poor Rocket also, Nebula just shoots him. The Ravagers win.
Back with Quill we learn that Ego's planet is extremely beautiful. I mean it's just a magical, beautiful place. Ego explains that he is a Celestial, a minor deity, god with a small "g" when he is feeling humble. But he is not humble at all. He gives them his back story that he wants them to know. A very edited version of his life and his search for meaning.
On the Ravagers ship a mutiny occurs. Yondu gets stripped of his arrow power and most of his supporters are killed. Nebula reminds the Ravagers that there is a bounty on the heads of Rocket and Yondu and temporarily stops their death, which is all they need. She wants 10% of the cuts and a ship. Kraglin asks her what she will do with her part of the money and the ship, which causes her to reveal some of her back story. Thanos made her and Gamora fight and after each time she lost a fight he replaced a part of her with a machine. So she wants to kill Gamora and catch Thanos and tear him to pieces slowly so he will suffer some of the pain she feels every day. We knew she was partly a machine, but we never knew how much she physically suffers or why she hates her sister so much. Now we do. It's hard not to feel Nebula's pain. Kraglin tries to dismiss it, but he looks super uncomfortable. There are no words of comfort for such pain.
Back on planet perfect, Ego and Quill have a heart to heart conversation. Quill says that his mother said that his father is from the stars, but because of her brain cancer, no one took her seriously. Apparently Ego and Quill have something in common, they can't step foot on Earth because Quill's mother is no longer alive there. But yeah, Quill is pissed off no matter what Ego tells him. And his excuses are almost passable. In the end, Quill falls for it and believes that Ego just wants to be his father and to teach him about himself. Ego is super excited when Quill manages to use his power, but we know it is not because he is proud of him or anything. Ego has his own unfatherly plans for Quill.
Then we have the most awkward and hilarious exchange between Drax and Mantis. Drax tells her that she is hideous, but it's not a bad thing. If someone loves someone ugly, you know that they love them for who they are. In a way it's true, but his comedic delivery and Mantis reaction makes it funny. Drax tells her that she reminds him of his daughter, innocent. She feels his pain by touching him. She is moved to tell Drax the truth, but then Gamora shows up breaks the moment. The truth shall set you free.
Then we switch to the ship where Yondu and Rocket are held prisoners. Taserface is now the new captain. He tells his people that Groot is too adorable to kill, which is totally true. They keep him. And abuse our poor little cute tree. Also, Yondu and Rocket have a heart to heart conversation. Yondu explains about his past, about how his own stupidity and greed lead him to breaking the Ravagers code and to exile from the only family he had. It's funny that he calls Rocket a professional asshole. Groot is free to move around so they use him to steal Yondu's headpiece which controls his arrow. I mean it takes Groot a long funny sequence of getting everything wrong, before he does, but in the end he succeeds with Kraglin's help. Kraglin is always loyal. Then Yondu, Rocket and Groot go on a killing spree and kill all of the crew which rebelled against Yondu. To the sound of lovely music at Rocket's request. After their victory they fly off to Ego, in a very trippy sequence. They look like rubber characters.
Back on Ego Gamora and Quill bond. They dance together. Something which Gamora tells Quill to keep a secret. Gamora breaks the moment by telling Quill that she doesn't trust Ego. They get into an argument about it, as Quill has begun accepting his father. Gamora is hurt by Quill, he thinks Ego is his family, while she thinks that she and the Guardians are his family. She is right. The Guardians are Quill's real family.
But Gamora has family trouble of her own. Nebula arrives on Ego to kill her. This turns into a pretty over the top fight with big guns and explosions. Gamora saves Nebula from the burning ship, but then Nebula starts a new fight immediately. She almost strangles Gamora to death, but then she stops and claims that she has won. They bicker, but then Nebula spills her true feelings, when they were fighting as children she wanted Gamora to be her sister, but Gamora wanted to win. She's the reason that Nebula is like this.
Then we switch to Quill and his father. Ego uses his knowledge of earth's music from the time Quill was there to get close to him. To bond. Ego tells him that he will live forever and eventually create a planet of his own. Yeah. Not. Ego wants to show Quill something that we know it's not going to be pretty. Mantis wakes up Drax to warn him while Gamora and Nebula walk into a terrible graveyard with thousands of skeletons of Ego's children. Yeah, Ego doesn't have a good plan for Quill, just for himself. Living for too long drives you crazy.
According to Sigmund Freud there are three constructs to the human mind. Id – our subconscious desires and impulses, Super-Ego – the rules set by society and Ego – us, living in an endless compromise between the two. But this Ego has no compromise. He is all Id – full of dark desires and destruction, the need to destroy everything and return to the state of pre-birth or existence in his case. Because turning the entire universe into just him, is the ultimate act of destruction and also in a way, self-destruction as there will be nothing to do after the expansion. Plus, he needs to kill his own child, an extension of himself to accomplish his mission. He killed thousands of his children to try and accomplish his mission. At first, he even convinces Quill that it is a perfect plan. That it is true meaning, but we know it is the ultimate act of destruction.
Then we switch to very emotional Yondu and Rocket. Yondu confronts Rocket about his true self. He tells him that he pushes everyone away because expectance and love simply remind him of his of big that hole in his chest is, the emotional emptiness. Just like in Yondu's case. Once, a little child sold into slavery by his parents. He too is afraid of positive emotions. He didn't keep Quill because he was good for thieving, but to save a little boy he loved and he saved him from a terrible fate.
Gamora and Nebula find Drax and Mantis. Gamora tries to strangle Mantis, but Mantiss reads her true emotions, causing her to let go. They need to get off the planet. Gamora insists that they need to get Quill and leave, but Nebula doesn't get it. All the Guardians ever do is fight with each other, so why would they go into so much trouble to save Quill. They are not friends, they are family and sometimes family members don’t always get along, but they are connected to each other regardless. They leave no one behind.
In the meantime Ego makes one big giant mistake. Quill maybe willing to gloss over the death of his friends, his Guardians, but hearing that Ego is the reason for his mother's death, that just makes him loss it. That breaks his emotional connection to Ego and makes him turn on him. He shoots Ego, but that doesn't do much damage. Ego tried to find a physical form that will appeal to Quill, which means Ego does actually look like Kurt freaking Russell, because to make a point he also turns himself into David Hasselhoff who is David Hasselhoff, which is hilarious. Then Ego attacks Quill and basically turn him into a battery. Father of the year, really.
But the Guardians of the Galaxy are here to save the Galaxy and their family once again. The expansion, which has really terrible terrible CGI starts and consumes terrible CGI buildings. But the Guardians break into the temple and distract Ego. I mean Yondu literally lands with a spaceship on Ego's physical form. Also, Quill calls Nebula Smurfette. I laughed my ass off at that. Ego attacks their ship and they figure out that they need to take out the center of him, his brain, in order to kill him.
While trying to extrapolate themselves from Ego's grip, Yondu and Quill have a heart to heart and reconcile. Yondu explains that once he figured out what happened to the other children he wasn't just going to hand Quill over to Ego. He was just making a joke when he said he wanted to eat him. They fly inside of Ego to get to the center. Rocket comments that then now they can charge more money after saving the Galaxy twice. He does care about the planet and stuff as well, just less so about the people. I can sometimes relate. And so does Mantis who thinks he is so cute. To makes things even more interesting and complicated the Sovereign army shows up.
The Sovereign screws up the plan, but these are the Guardians of the Galaxy, they come up with a new plan pretty fast. And you already know, it freaking works. We know from Avengers: Infinity War that Quill is really good with plans. They build a bomb to put in Ego's core to destroy him and the planet. All while trying to stay alive. Mantis manages to put Ego to sleep, this is the first time, but not last time she puts a superbeing into sleep. It is Groot's turn to get inside of the shell around Ego's core, put the bomb and blow it up, even though he barley understand the difference between both buttons. Plus, they need to escape before the timer sets off the bomb. Not an easy plan to pull off, especially not during an attack.
But they don't need to worry about the Sovereign for long. Yondu and Nebula manage to destroy all of their ships, while using Nebula as a power source. Nebula's sarcasm is hilarious. There is some explosion. Nebula lands on her feet, Yondu flies slowly down with his arrow and Quill has his jetpack. Quill laughs at Yondu when he sees him. He says Yondu looks like Mary Poppins, which he does, he looks like her flying with her umbrella. Yondu asks if he is cool, to which Quill replies hell yeah he is cool. So Yondu says "I'm Mary Poppins ya'll". One of the best lines ever. I still can't believe he didn't a cameo in new Mary Poppins movie after such epicenes. Now all of the Guardians are together, with a few extras.
But nothing good can last for too long. Ego wakes up and knocks out Mantis. They have to survive for six minutes until the bomb goes off. Quill gives Drax and Mantis his jetpack so they'll fly to the ship. Nebula actually saves Gamora. Yondu fights against Ego with his arrow and Rocket fights with his little bombs. No one is really successful, but they are alive. Until Ego traps them all and turns Quill into an expansion battery again. Yondu them gives him a great piece of advice telling Quill that he uses his heart to fly his arrow. We get a flashback to Quill's happiest moments which he uses a fuel. He releases himself and puts on a real fight against Ego. Then Groot finally turns on the timer on the bomb which should kill Ego.
They need to get off the planet. Rocket has Groot and he tells Yondu that they have to leave and that he will get Quill. Yondu says that he has done nothing right in his entire life, he needs to do this. We can see that Yondu and Rocket have been bonding, Rocket is sad to see him go. But he only has one spacesuit and aero-rig, only one can live. And Yondu intends to sacrifice himself for Quill. Rocket and Groot say their goodbyes to Yondu, by saying welcome to the freaking Guardians of the Galaxy.
The fight between Ego and Quill is hilarious. Yes, Quill actually created a giant living Packman. Gamora wants to go after Quill, but Rocket stops her. There will be only one death. Ego tries for the finale time to convince Quill to join him, but Quill has no problem with being like everybody else after Ego will die. The bomb goes off and Ego is at last is dead. He is probably not the last Celestial we will meet in the MCU. Quill just stands there while his father, the entire planet, explodes. Then Yondu comes to the rescue with the most heart touching statement: "he may have been your father boy, but he wasn't your daddy". Yondu was his daddy and he is lucky to have a son like Quill. Now he is giving his life to save his own son. I'm not crying you're crying. And Quill is crying as Yondu dies in his arms in outer space as Yondu holds Quill's face.
They hold a funeral for Yondu. They burn his body along with all of his cute little toys. You might recognize the blue little thing the stole from the beginning of Guardians of the Galaxy and the troll he found inside of the box they used to store the power stone at the end of Guardians of the Galaxy. There are also flowers and candles. But no weapons surprisingly. Quill gives a touching eulogy to Yondu, acknowledging him as a father.
Nebula seems very touched by Quill's speech. Gamora goes to her and explains herself for the first time. She too was scared under Thanos' rule. Gamora wants Nebula to stay and help the Guardians save other little girls in danger. Nebula wants to kill Thanos to help them. Gamora says she doesn't know if it is possible, but we know the truth. It is very much possible, just super hard. They end their conversation uncharacteristically hug, you can tells by Nebula's reaction that Gamora never hugged her before. Now, they are sisters for the first time.
Then they burn Yondu in a colorful fire. Kraglin give Quill a Zune device which holds more songs from Earth. 300, wow so much, or not. Quill give the arrow in return to Kraglin. Quill listens to new music with Baby Groot. Groot notices the Ravagers coming. All of them. Rocket told them what Yondu did, that he made things right. In return he gets a wonderful fireworks funeral. A Ravagers funeral. Rocket sort of apologizes to Quill who accepts his strange apology. Gamora acknowledges that there is something going on between her and Quill. Lots of ending development. It is a beautiful way to end the movie, all of the tension resolved and a lot of fireworks.
There are a gazillion post credit scenes. Too many. Kraglin learning to use the arrow. A new team of Ravagers coming together with Sylvester Stallone, Michael Rosenbaum and Michelle Yeoh. High Priestess Ayesha creating Adam Warlock. Baby Groot turning into teenager Groot. And R.I.P. Stan Lee with the Watchers.
The Guardians deal with a lot of family issues in this movie. There is a lot of pain. But they are a family. It's too bad that in the end, this movie just isn't as good as the first one. At some moments it drags. Their fighting seems silly at some point. The CGI looks bad at some points. But that ending with Yondu makes you forget that it's not a great movie. The feels always win.
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