The first Guardians of the Galaxy took us by surprise with a mix of great humour, a fun story, great characters with good chemistry, and some badly needed originality. Unfortunately it isn't far into this sequel that we start to see that very little of that is here. The film is no where near as funny as the first. The jokes fall into a far more predictable pattern, as does the paint by numbers story which is as predictable as they come. It's like we're watching someone do a bad job of copying the first film.
My biggest disappointment in the film is the characters. What made the first one work so well was the mix of personalities and here it just felt that the mix was off. There were perhaps too many characters meaning that most didn't have enough time. Gamora is the most ripped off as she is juggling two plot lines that have little to nothing to do with her. There is the forced romance plot line which has absolutely no chemestry. Yes I get that Chris Pratt and Zoe Saldana are both gorgeous but other than that the film gives us no reason to believe they have any spark of romance what so ever. And then there is the story arc of her sister, Nebula who is a far more interesting character and gets far more good stuff to do. But even Baby Groot is given far less screen time than he deserves (but I do give points for the only post credit scene of the 5 in this film which I enjoyed, the teenage Groot scene). The film keeps getting forced back into its boring daddy issues plot which takes away from any of the fun the film could be having. It takes away from any real character develeopment that could be going on.
Let's be honest, that plot itself is a big weakness of the film. It's not just that it is so boiler plate. It is how the film just hits the main beats of it. Peter's journey doesn't eel organic or realistic. SPOILERS He finds his dad, he gets sentimental about it (even with a cheesy game of catch moment), discovers his dad is evil, has his realization about what family really means, and turns on his father on a dime, overcoming the god like power in an unreasonably ridiculous manner. END OF SPOILERS A silly movie still needs a good plot and this one just doesn't have it. The first one did. This one does not.
Vol. 2 is one of those films where pretty much all the funny bits are in the trailer. For a film series which made it mark by being funny, this one is startlingly less funny. The audience I was with chuckled a bit but there weren't hearty guffaws. And there is a truly yucky vibe about Drax verbally abusing Mantis throughout which just leaves a bad taste in ones mouth.
I loved the film's message about what the true nature of a family is. But after watching this creative team and cast knock it out of the park the first time, seeing them fumble it here was disconcerting. Don't get me wrong. The movie isn't bad. It's fine. But it's got enough flaws to make it not great. Good is even stretching it. It appears, once again, like the first time is the charm when it comes to Marvel films and it's down hill from there.
Perhaps Ragnarok will change that.
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2
Starring: Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana, Dave Bautista, Vin Diesel, Bradley Cooper, Karen Gillian, Pom Klementieff, Michael Rooker, Sylvester Stallone, Kurt Russell
Writer/Director: James Gunn
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