MOVIE REVIEW: GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY VOL. 2 (2017)

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 is the sequel to Guardians of the Galaxy. Based in the Marvel cinematic universe, it picks up where Guardians of the Galaxy left off in following the adventures of Starlord and company through the Galaxy.

This time around, the plot centers around how the Guardians are going to stay together when half the galaxy has a bounty of there head. They don't help matters when they make some new enemies. They get a break when they meet Starlord's dad.

This time around Guardians feels like a very chilled ride. For approximately two and a half hours, we follow along with them as they interact with old and new characters and their various adventures. Although it is pretty obvious who the big bad will end up being, it takes its time getting there and never feels like it needs to get somewhere.

And that is what makes it so great. It never feels like it needs to rush or shove in some action to keep people interested. It is definitely more a character piece, despite being a blockbuster super-hero movie. The opening is also great, looking like it will be a bait-and-switch and then not being.

The only criticism is that it falls into the trap of trying have too much humor in some stages. One or two jokes less in the movie would've gone along way. It feels like the writers saw how much people liked the Guardians humour, so they tried to force humour where it doesn't belong. While Guardians felt a very natural, here it feels a bit forced. 

I do have another criticism. Gamora's acting sometimes comes across as a whiny sitcom teenager. This is a very small issue in a couple of scenes, but it stands out as the rest of the acting is really good.

At the end of the day, this was an awesome time. The small criticisms are just that- small. The action is awesome, the story is chilled and yet ramps up nicely. The new and old characters are well done, even adding some new wrinkles to old characters. Definitely worth checking out.

4 our of 4 Living Waffles

Guardians of the Galaxy

Do you remember pop-rocks- the colorful candy rocks that exploded in your mouth? If you didn’t, you have no childhood. But all you really need to know is that they are awesome. Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy is like eating a bunch of pop-rocks at once while listening to all your dad’s favorite hits. The resulting sugar-high leaves you riding a cotton candy unicorn over a rainbow in a galaxy far, far away. Star Wars 7- You are on notice.

Guardians follows a human named Peter Quill who is abducted by aliens just after his mother dies of cancer.  Quill, or Starlord  as he wants to be known, spends his time giving alien floozies the Captain Kirk treatment while going all Indiana Jones on ancient alien artifacts. Starlord’s archaeology hunting escapades eventually lead him into some serious trouble after he swipes an unlikely doomsday device. Similar to Thor: The Dark World, it’s a mystical orb of great power that every bad guys wants. Also a bunch of other important things are happening in the universe that just gets glazed over.

Guardians requires no previous knowledge of Marvel-cinematic universe events, so you’ll never feel like you're out of the loop. It knows it is just the bastard child of the long forgotten tongue-in-cheek space opera. It mixes all the best things about Star Wars and Firefly by taking a bunch of misfits and turning them into a surrogate family. It then adds all these conflicting personalities into a tiny spaceship, then sits back with a bag of pop-rocks to watch the fireworks.

The brisk plot wastes no time teaming-up Quill his new rag-tag frenemies. The Guardians include Gamora, the assassin with a heart and adopted daughter of the super villain Thanos. She is played by Zoe Saldana,who making a career of playing rainbow coloured aliens. Next is man mountain of muscle Drax (Dave Bautista), who holds a grudge towards Gamora. Drax’s lack of understanding humor becomes its own source of humor throughout the movie, with him having some of the best lines. Rounding out this B-grade super-team are Rocket, the wise-cracking raccoon, voiced with enthusiasm by Bradley Cooper, and Groot,  a sentient tree, who can only say one sentence (“I am Groot”). Huge props have to go to Vin Diesel and the visual effects wizard that live in the computer as to making it look effortless to bring this fearsome creature with a gentle soul and a gift for slapstick to life.

Together, they have to stop another supervillain,Ronan the Accuser, who is only slightly more one note then that dark elf from Thor. This is mostly due to Lee Pace’s performance as he seemed to have fun hamming it up. The villains really seem there to more properly introduce the audience to Thanos, who actually gets a speaking part this time.

Where Guardians soars is in its world building, which fully trusts the audience to either take notice or ignore it depending on their preference. Guardians has you hyper jumping all around this colourful galaxy, with each new world you visit being populated by seedy alien hustlers and weird, swaggering creatures. There a character that has a deadly flute arrow. Let me repeat- a flute arrow. That sounds totally ridiculous, until you see it in action. Now I want one.

I love how director James Gunn’s overlays the film with some great pieces of music. These are mostly snippets of classic rock and golden oldies. Like a Quentin Tarantino movie, this all adds extra layers of coolness to the movie. Of course, now I am addicted to listening to that darn soundtrack, which makes me want to watch the movie again, which will make me want to listen to the soundtrack some more. It is a perpetual loop.

Guardians of the Galaxy is a movie that is just a fun romp through the galaxy. It is a rag-tag team getting together to combat a threat and learning to be a family. Like pop-rocks, the further you get into the movie the more awesome it becomes.

5 out of 5 intergalactic cotton candy waffles. Pew-pew. Laser beams. Pop-rocks. Go watch it.

P.S. DC take note. We don't want dark and gritty disaster porn masquerading as a superhero movie, we want want fun.