Just like Guardians, Guardians Vol. 2 opens with a flashback, this one in 1980, and it serves as our introduction to Ego, who is later revealed to be the film's villain. First up, Kurt Russell looks really young in this flashback, just something I thought was worth noting. But I do take issue with this flashback, the flashback in the first Guardians of the Galaxy was outstanding; as a very young Peter watches his terminally ill mum die of cancer, before being abducted by aliens, it's a really emotional scene, and it gives a superb setup for Quill, who becomes a really emotionally weighted character because of this scene. This scene does an alright job with Ego, a super charming space man with some mysterious ulterior motives, but obviously that's a bit less hard hitting than a kid watching his mum die. Another problem I take with the scene is how it effectively ruins Ego; what this scene shows us is him planting weird, alien looking plants on Earth, which is suspicious as shit, ever more so when he talks about it covering the whole universe or something like that. If it was a more normal looking plant, like a flower, it might have been less obvious, but as it stands, that's a really suspicious alien plant. Like I said in my review though, the film immediately picks up with the Guardians killing what the Lego set calls the Abilisk, and in a brilliant subversion of expectations, rather than showing the fight, we are treated to an adorable dance sequence with Groot, I'm sure there's people out there that might hate that lack of a big fight, but I think most people, myself included will be too oblivious, just like tiny little Groot. Something else this intro sets up very nicely is the relationship between the Guardians, as Rocket mocks Drax for having sensitive nipples; it's clear that the relationship still has a few kinks, as their teamwork skills still aren't great, and some egos are still clashing with others. There is a great moment however where Groot tries to eat a bug, and Rocket stops fighting the Abilisk to tell him to spit it out, quite metaphorical of what I said in my review, that despite always killing baddies and getting rich, they're all still trying to be good parents for Groot, it's adorable. The film's fantastic sense of humour remains strong as the Gold people chase them through an asteroid field, and the crew bicker and lob snark and sarcasm constantly, meanwhile the ship battle itself is pretty cool, with the Milano avoiding teleporting boulders while being shot at by a pack of Sovereign drones, before they leave the field, and some unknown force decimates the remains of the Sovereign fleet, which was cool. I said in my review that here's where the film slows down, and that's true; the humour's still there, but the film is completely lacking in any sort of action for a good while past this point. I get that the film needs time to set things up, setting up Ego, Mantis, Yondu, Sylvester Stallone, all before the film picks up speed again. That, as you'd expect, takes a bit of time, and while I usually wouldn't see such down time in the first act as a negative, coming off the first film; which had fantastic, almost seamlessly fast pacing, this extended period of just character development is really jarring.
That's easily the film's biggest flaw, in a complete reversal of what the first film managed to do, this film really takes it slow in setting up its characters and story. This huge amount of character development pays off massively in the final act, but until that pay off, you're just left confused that a sequel to such a fun film could be so slow, it's good character development, but it can, and does, drag on. Some of that great character development does however include a few great character scenes; the scene were Quill makes a light ball is really good, since it's pretty daft to watch, but it's also really sweet, given that earlier he talked about seeing the other kids playing catch with their dads, in that scene he realises that he now has that, which, again, is really sweet. The scene with him and Gamora dancing is also really good, as Gamora lets her guard down a bit, and the scene from the trailer where Mantis outs Quill wanting to bang Gamora is every bit as funny in the film as it was in the trailer. One of my favourite scenes in this stretch of the film, and in fact one of my favourite scenes in the film, is a scene with Drax and Mantis; it starts off funny, as ever, with the dreadfully honest Drax calling Mantis hideous, before Drax mentions beauty being internal as well as external, and bringing up his daughter. Drax says that mantis reminds him of her, since she is, as Drax says, innocent. It's here that this scene becomes really emotional, as a stone faced Drax sits there, and Mantis feels his feelings, and suddenly breaks down and starts crying; it's a beautiful way of conveying that Drax is a really emotionally damaged character, and it was such a pleasant surprise, it actually brought a tear to my eye. I mentioned that Nebula is also more important here, and it's here that we learn why she's so bad shit nuts and why she hates Gamora, as we learn how Thanos would force her and Gamora to fight, and how he would mutilate her when she lost, what I didn't mention in my review was that this film does get a bit morbid, and by a bit, I mean really, viscerally morbid, and it adds a lot to a character I never cared much for in the first film. And seeing Gamora and Nebula reconcile their hatred for each other is some good shit. One of my favourite elements of the film was what Rocket and Yondu were up to; the scene in the forest with Rocket taking on the Ravagers was your familiar cocktail of comedy and action, as he completely humiliates them singlehandedly. It's when him and Yondu are thrown into a cell together that things get more complex, and where one of the most emotional elements of the film starts to build up. As Rocket and Yondu talk, it become obvious that Yondu's actually had a pretty rough past, and that the reason he gives for not delivering Quill to Ego might not be entirely true. Later it's revealed that Yondu knew what Ego was doing, and that he couldn't let Quill suffer the fate Ego had in mind for him, which puts Yondu in a very unusual, and very emotional place as a character. During the final battle, we see a time where Yondu was teaching young Quill how to fire a blaster, which is such a subtle touch that some people might not even think it a big deal, which it is; in that one second, every time Yondu's ever been lenient or forgiving to Quill is given a whole new context, and Quill realises just what he and Yondu meant to each other, that despite being a douchebag space pirate who kidnapped him as a kid, Yondu was the closest thing to a dad Quill ever had. It's such a fantastic piece of character development, and it makes Yondu's fate even more heart destroying.
The scene with Yondu and Rocket slaughtering the Ravagers was also really awesome; we see that magic arrow like we've never seen it before, fucking annihilating what's probably hundreds of pirates, flying all over the place and completely shredding them, while Rocket blasters the stragglers and Groot gets some really satisfying revenge. The music is perfect for this scene, as it's all just so daft and entertaining, seeing a pair of complete badasses hard at work. The moment in particular when the arrow kills the lights, before shredding the Ravagers in the dark is some beautiful imagery, and I absolutely adore it. What follows is a really bizarre sequence with wibbly wobbly space time, which is so fucking funny, I just love it, it's so funny, and a really good piece of character development as Yondu confronts Rocket, and the two realise they're not all that different. What this blossoms into is a pair of scenes, and they're that kind of scene; a kind of scene that just puts whatever film they're in on a new level, first up is the Rocket scene. When Rocket couldn't tell Gamora where Quill was, the pain was real, and when Rocket shoots Gamora to stop her leaving, that seals the deal; it's such an amazing scene, in fact, after watching Guardians 2, Rocket is my favourite character by a mile, because of this scene, because the tears were brought, the image of a completely emotionally defeated Rocket watching as the Ship's door closes in front of him is something I can't get out of my head. Then of course is the moment Yondu dies, which holy shit, that's morbid, like really morbid, Quill has to watch that, just imagine how horrible that is, Quill now realises how much Yondu cared for him, and now he is powerless while he suffocates and freezes in the vacuum of space, fucking hell, that's rough. The Ravager funeral at the end is amazing, Kraglin finally breaks, which is a really powerful thing, as is seeing the Ravager fleets come to see off their fellow captain, even after they exiled him for breaking the code, it's a visually stunning, and completely soul crushing send off for one of this film's biggest surprises, and I love it. Quill's speech was good, still having a pinch of humour, but clearly prioritising the feels, as he says goodbye to his space pirate dad. And I obviously couldn't say what it was, but in my review I said something about the last shot of the film; it's a close up of Rocket's face at Yondu's funeral, does it not blow anyone's mind that CG can now convey such subtle emotions, like the look in Rocket's eyes, seeing that tear roll down his face killed me, I adore it so so much, but it's painful to look at, seeing my new favourite character so broken.
And then, there's Ego. I may have alluded to him being the film's villain in my review, but yes, Ego is the villain, with an evil scheme to destroy the universe and literally rebuild it in his image. Ego's a likable guy at first, cranking up the charm to try and win Quill, while keeping a secret that all he needs him for is more light to begin his 'expansion,' remember that plant from earlier? well it turns out he wasn't kidding about it covering everything, he wants to terraform every planet in existence, and he's using those plants to do it. It gets grim when you learn that he's actually had thousands of children, and that he's killed every single one of them, because none of them carried his genes, his 'light'. Ego's a pretty awesome villain, like I said in my Rogue One redux, Krennic can justify genocide for his perceived greater good, in that sense, Ego is exactly the same, the Expansion must happen, and how many of his own children are murdered in the process is irrelevant, how fucking evil is that. But then he goes and ruins everything for himself, by letting slip that he put the cancer in Quill's mum's head, Guardians 2 went there, and Quill's response is very bit a violent and rage fuelled as you'd expect, he snaps out of Ego's trance, and immediately draws his blasters and just starts ripping shit into Ego, firing probably dozens of times, and tearing him to pieces. Ego's a god however, so that doesn't kill him, we get a pretty clever cameo, and then Ego goes full dick, forcibly taking Quill and beginning the Expansion. The fight against Ego is now on, and eventually they're in Ego's core, trying to destroy his heavily protected consciousness, before the gold people show up and make things even more difficult. There's a brief throw down with the gold people that's wrapped up with the Shin Godzilla laser back attack, and there's a really funny Mary Poppins joke. I said this battle was more epic, I said that because unlike the ship battle from the first one, with thousands of ships in combat above the city, Guardians 2's final battle is a small group verses a planet; a living, intelligent, super duper evil planet. a very cool looking evil planet too, and the scene where his Kurt Russell putty thing walks out, and slowly forms from a humanoid shaped mass of light back into Kurt Russell is a really cool effect, one of the coolest this film has to offer, up there with Rocket and Yondu's magic arrow. The fight does actually kind of lose me however when it becomes the Superman Zod fight from Man Of Steel, as Kurt Russell and Quill and is new god powers start throwing each other around and pummelling each other. It makes sense from a story perspective, as Quill realises the truth about himself, and embraces the light in order to destroy Ego. But it looks daft, and not in a good way like all the other daft things in this film, it actually feels a bit out of place, and I very much get a less is more vibe from it. The fight's end however is badass, as an effectively crippled Ego pleads with Quill to spare his life, and Quill, in a more meaningful and family friendly manner, basically tells him to go fuck himself. In that moment Ego reminds you how good a villain he was, as the reality finally dawns on him, that his Expansion has failed, and that after millions of years of being immortal and alone, his own precious progeny is now going to kill him, it's ironic, and it makes Ego seem kind of pathetic, which is fine, he's a dick.
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 is definitely harder to get your head around than the first one, the film suffers from a much less seamless pace, failing to be as consistently fun as that first film. But when the film's character development finally pays off after that wonky pacing, I'd actually argue it's better than the first one, as it brings the feels harder than the first one ever could. I'd still say it's not as good, Guardians of the Galaxy is more fun, but after a third viewing and a few days of thinking, I've realised that Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 offers something different, something more meaningful. Now I have no doubt in my mind that if this film's pacing was as seamless as the first one's, it would have left that first one in the dust, but really, I guess to expect that is to expect perfection, and that's just not fair. I enjoyed this film more than I thought I did, and I'd still very much recommend it.
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