Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 is a 2017 production from Marvel Studios. The movie is directed and written by James Gunn. It’s the second movie about the Guardians, featuring a lot of familiar actors. The cast includes Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana, Dave Bautista, Karen Gillan, Kurt Russell and Pom Klementieff. We also hear Vin Diesel and Bradley Cooper as voice actors. The screenplay scores a 7.6/10 on IMDb as well as a 67 Metascore.
A Summary
The Guardians’ reputation has grown with them being hired by the Sovereigns to protect their Anulax Batteries. After this assignment, the Guardians crash land and get separated after Ego (Kurt Russell), Peter’s dad, shows up to save the day. Things go south though as both groups get into some deep trouble.
After the Guardians protected the batteries, they got their payment: Nebula (Karen Gillan). Rocket (voiced by Bradley Cooper) though is not satisfied as he decides to take some of the highly valuable Anulax Batteries. For that reason, the Sovereigns attack the Guardians as they leave the system. They barely manage to get to safety, but their ship is heavily damaged when they land.
At that point, Ego shows up alongside Mantis (Pom Klementieff). He takes Peter Quill (Chris Pratt), Gamora (Zoe Saldana) and Drax (Dave Bautista) with him to his planet. Meantime, Rocket will stay and repair the ship together with Groot (voiced by Vin Diesel) and Nebula as their captive.
On a whole other planet, Yondu runs into some former Ravagers friends who exiled him from the Ravager team because of child trafficking. After this encounter, Ayesha, the leader of the Sovereigns, shows up with a task for Yondu and his team: Capture the Guardians of the Galaxy.
While everybody is getting familiar with Ego, the group at ship get attacked by Yondu and his team, but Rocket puts up a fair fight. Even though he managed to take out lots of guys, Yondu himself is a bit too strong. Yondu wants to defy the Sovereigns and take the Guardians themselves, instead of turning them in. This causes Yondu’s Ravagers to take over leadership and take Yondu captive as well.
With some help of Groot and Kraglin, a Ravagers still on Yondu’s side, they escape the ship. Leaving with a part of it, while the larger part of the ship gets blown to pieces. Taking out every Ravager aboard, but one still managed to notify the Sovereigns of the location of the four as they head to Ego.
On Ego, Nebula has fought with Gamora but stopped when they found a large cave filled with skeletons, notifying them something is off with Ego. Meantime, Mantis has already told everything to Drax. Ego is planning to take over the universe in something called the ‘The Expansion’ but he needs Peter’s celestial genes to do it.
During this time, Ego has been telling Peter everything about his plans. While it did appeal to Peter at first, it all turned around when Ego told him that he killed his mother. Peter, unwilling to comply, now gets forced by Ego to help him succeed. At that point, all the Guardians show up to help him out as a big fight against the celestial Ego starts.
They need to destroy his brain at the core of the planet, but run into trouble when the Sovereign fleet shows up. Mantis can keep Ego asleep while they take on the Sovereign fleet and Rocket makes a bomb to blow up Ego’s core. Groot is the only one who can place the bomb near his core but his lack of understanding proves to be difficult. Meantime, the fleet has been destroyed but Ego awoken. Peter uses his Celestial powers to fight his father and save his friends.
Almost all the Guardians manage to leave the planet during this fight, only Yondu and Peter are still on the planet with one spacesuit. When the bomb explodes and the planet starts to implode, Yondu takes Peter up into space and puts the spacesuit on his boy, sacrificing himself for Peter. In the end, Yondu gets the funeral he deserves. A true Ravager funeral as all the Ravagers show up knowing what he did on Ego.
The Story
James Gunn decided to split our Guardians for the majority of this movie. We see Peter, Gamora and Drax head off to Ego, alongside Ego and Mantis. While Rocket remains on the planet their stranded on with Nebula and Groot. I’m not particularly a fan of this setup. I feel the Guardians are at their peak when they’re all together, that would mean the characters, but also the story.
However, I found another problem. I think the whole, what would be considered the main storyline, is worse than the storyline on the side. Ego being Peter’s father just didn’t cut it for me. I found it hard to be invested in that story and therefore caused less joy, but the Mantis and Drax combination alongside the Gamora-Nebula fight made times better on Ego.
Meantime I was heavily invested in the other adventure. To me, Yondu being thrown out by his gang proved to be way more interesting. We also meet some of Yondu’s Ravagers friends, who give us more insight into his backstory. All of this alongside Groot’s performance made me more interested in seeing that than the main quest.
When they all come back together on Ego to fight the planet, to movie regains its former strength: All the Guardians fighting together, with some added power now with Mantis, Yondu and Nebula added to the squad. Peter using his celestial powers against his dad to save his friends instead of giving in to the power makes for a beautiful and powerful moment.
And because I was so invested in Yondu’s storyline during this movie, his Mary Poppins reference provided a great laugh. While his sacrifice proved to be an emotional moment. But when we see all the Ravagers come together for his funeral, while they previously were unwilling to talk with him. That is the best moment of the movie and caused me a little tear.
The Characters
Peter Quill / Star Lord & Gamora
They go on where they left off during the first instalment of Guardians of the Galaxy. They seem to have grown fond of each other and Peter is willing to show that, but Gamora keeps her guard up and doesn’t flinch. Mantis even straight out tells everybody that Peter is in love with Gamora. As the film progresses and Peter comes in some dangerous situations, you see Gamora worry for him. And in the end, she seems to admit her love for him as well, even though she was a bit ambiguous.
Yondu
As I said before, I feel like Yondu’s story is one of the better ones during this movie. He made mistakes during his life, some mistakes he got huge consequences for. And now he is willing to pay for these mistakes and give back to his friends. It completes a beautiful arc for a beautiful character.
Ego
Ego’s character didn’t speak to me. His goal to take over the universe doesn’t make much sense to me. He is an immortal planet, who can make a human form and go to any planet he desires. I’m sure he can do lots of stuff all around the universe to keep himself entertained. And when he founds who would become Peter’s mom, why would he not stay on Earth and live out her life? Why would he kill her? I feel like his character was lacking for these reasons.
The Production
This was one of the strong suits of the first Guardians of the Galaxy movie and the second volume continues this trend. I love the type of comedy used in these movies and I have to give props to James Gunn for coming up with these jokes. Alongside the jokes, we get a nice beat and some great scenes, like the opening fight scene and the scene where Yondu leaves Ego with Peter, but dies in space.