Guardians of the Galaxy: Vol. 2 (2017)

[MrPink]

Just now, Arlborn said:

That's the joke though(she's actually hot but Drax is weird). Is that what you meant when you said to Sam that you weren't sure about the Asian representation? These jokes?

 

No, I was extremely upset that you get Michelle Yeoh for a 2 second appearance.

 

(And yes, I know Mantis is hot)

[Arlborn]

1 minute ago, MrPink said:

 

No, I was extremely upset that you get Michelle Yeoh for a 2 second appearance.

 

(And yes, I know Mantis is hot)

I was actually  pleasantly surprised by her cameo in it as I had no idea she had one. iJack did say they were planning to do more with that team but it's iJack so he might just be shooting stuff out of his ass.

 

I'd definitely like to see more of that team that was teased at the end sometime though.

[jb007]

Excellent movie. Loved the humor. Yondu scene at the end is touching. Even in the first one, you could sense that he loved Peter as a son.

 

A

 

 

[Dan9]

It took me quite a while to get into it, the first 20 minutes felt a little 'try-hard', but I settled down once the actual plot strings started unfolding and Drax and Rocket started to take centre stage. The last third was really great, really loved the development of Rocket and Yondu as characters because it was totally unexpected for those two. 

 

Probably at least a B+, but I'd like to see it again.

[Olive]

2nd best Mcu sequel behind CA2.

8.5/10

[WrathOfHan]

It's fine. The humor works well earlier in the film, but the film starts dragging after the prison breakout when I realize there's no story at all. You could have easily cut a good chunk of this movie and still have the same outcome. The cast still works well off each other, and Kurt Russell does the best of what he can with a generic villain. The third act suffers from the same problem the first had with action in that it's just shit flying all over the image with no rhyme or reason. I'll be seeing it again next weekend in IMAX, so I'm curious to see how much this improves on a rewatch. For now, it's a solid but unspectacular film. 7/10 | B-

[Mango]

Liked it a lot. Best MCU sequel by a mile. For all it's shortcomings at least they know the characters are the strong points. Ego is a close second to Loki as far as villains go. Maybe even better but time will tell for me. 

 

Also that scene with Peter using his planet powers to fight Ego as "The Chain" builds up in the background almost gave me an erection.

 

B+

[Jandrew]

I really enjoyed this. Maybe not as good as the first, but one of the MCU's better efforts, and the ambition sticks. They really make use of the space setting.

 

The good:

- Anything with Yondu. It almost felt like his movie at times. His arc was perfect. Everyone raves about Kurt, but I think Michael Rooker was the real gem here.

- Rocket's sociopathism, douchery, and emotional issues

- The chemistry and charisma of everyone, even characters that are supposed to be void of it like Mantis

- Nebula vs Gamora

- The colors

- Drax

- A seemingly accurate 1980's Missouri

- Many loose ends from the 1st being tied up

- The Youdu and Rocket escape scene

 

The bad:

- No enough of the Guardians physically fighting. Other than the opening scene and the brief fight at the core, it felt like they all stood around or were stuck and/or trapped. Feels like every scene in the first movie they were all kicking ass together.

- The Marvel humor was way too strong. Too many pauses specifically to make jokes. And not snippy, quick quips, but actual conversational jokes. Not saying it wasn't funny - that Mary Poppins joke is gonna go down in lore - but seriously, it gets distracting. Really thought "Taserface" was never going to end.

- The humor felt juvenile at times

- The tone was all over the place

- Not enough Mantis. She was marketed as a new member of the team, so it was disappointing to see her really as just a servant who read emotions. I thought she was gonna kick ass.

- Whatever Ayesha and them were. Debecki was really good, but her workers (?) basically being Galaga-ers was dumb. Them not being there physically really lowered the stakes. I saw enough Guardians vs remote control battles, as I said earlier, I wanted more physical ass kicking.

- And while I don't typically complain about CGI, like ever, Peter going supersonic and the ooze eating up the worlds was very distracting. Especially that ooze, very cheap looking. Looked like it was only halfway through the rendering process.

 

Baby Groot wasn't overdone, but it was close. I also wanted to see him kick more ass. He killed like 1 dude. Also, GOTG is a memorable movie, but I don't remember anything about the Kree. They kept bringing the Kree up, but I stayed lost.

 

I'll give it a whatever is between a B and B+. My high has wore off a bit from the theater, but this is still something that will stick with me for a while.

 

21 hours ago, Jay Hollywood said:

Oh and god I could not fucking care less about Nebula. What a bore, get her out of this movie, she drops the ball on on every single oner liner, it's awkward. 

 

Lemme see you talk shit about my redheaded vanilla swirl Karen Gillan again.

[somebody85]

Good kickoff to summer movie season. Definitely not as fun or as memorable as the original but still an enjoyable chapter in this space opera. I thought some parts really worked but some parts felt like filler and really dragged...so I'm kind of in the middle on it.

Main issues:
Way too much CGI that wasn't seamless (especially in the third act).
Non stop jokes (that didn't always land) when it felt like things should be more serious. 
Sometimes it felt like there were stakes and other times...yeah not so much. The main characters are pretty much invincible when the plot needs them to be. 

But I really appreciated how much marketing kept out of the main trailers so it felt like I hadn't seen much of this film (unlike The Fate Of The Furious). Perfect song choices in the closing credits too. - B

Edited May 6, 2017 by somebody85

[filmlover]

This isn't quite as good as the first movie but a lot of fun nonetheless. James Gunn has crafted a bigger (if not necessarily better) sequel that doesn't feel at all like a rehash of its surprisingly winning predecessor. The special effects and soundtrack are still highlights, but the characters are what really makes this franchise work as well as it has (appreciated the extra dimensions they gave to Michael Rooker's Yondu, in particular). The cast is good all around again, but the MVP is the always great Kurt Russell as one of the better villains the MCU has served to date. B+

[4815162342]

8 hours ago, jandrew said:

 

Baby Groot wasn't overdone, but it was close. I also wanted to see him kick more ass. He killed like 1 dude. 

 

You gotta remember that Baby Groot is literally a little kid in both size and mentality, so he's not gonna go around murdering dudes.

 

Teen Emo Groot tho

[ddddeeee]

Nebula needs to just stop being in movies and the humour is still way too try-hard (the pacman gag made me squirm) but, overall, I think I liked this better than the first. I liked the score a lot (!) and enjoyed all of the characters.

 

P.S. Chris Pratt still cannot do drama.

[Webslinger]

In crafting a sequel to a film whose level of creative and financial success felt so accidental, the team behind Guardians of the Galaxy: Vol. 2 had their work cut out for them. Luckily, this second installment is a success more or less on par with that of its predecessor. While this film hits many of the same beats as the previous one, it hasn't lost the solid humor, big heart, or chemistry between its ever-expanding cast. Even though the characterizations of the three most prominent title characters - Star-Lord, Gamora, and Drax - don't go much further than they did the first time around, the script very successfully adds greater depth to Michael Rooker's Yondu and Bradley Cooper's Rocket, while also getting plenty of comedic mileage out of the antics of Vin Diesel's Baby Groot. I saw the twist surrounding Kurt Russell's Ego coming from a mile away, but at least he's somewhat more intriguing than the stock villains that have populated the Marvel universe thus far. As large-spectacle popcorn entertainment goes, this Guardians sequel delivers enough in the way of well-constructed action sequences, well-timed humor, and genuine commitment to the development and interactions of its characters that it doesn't feel nearly as canned as it should as a corporate sequel meant to move the characters from point A to point B.

 

B+

[Jandrew]

2 hours ago, 4815162342 said:

 

You gotta remember that Baby Groot is literally a little kid in both size and mentality, so he's not gonna go around murdering dudes.

 

True. I think the problem was the marketing, like Mantis. He was marketed as "cute but deadly", but that turned out to be a little misleading I felt.

[dashrendar44]

This movie doesn't go from point A to point B. It goes from A to A prime stopping dead in its tracks to take two full acts to explain a 15 seconds throwaway line at the end of GOTG in which Chris Pratt's character was told by Glenn Close (who has totally vanished from the galaxy, it seems) he's half-human, half-Chosen One. It's pretty telling we don't really care where point B was supposed to be past prologue (Xandar?). The protagonists just literally hang out there passively in Kurt Russell's basement listening to tunnels of exposition until the end and all secondary characters just want to go there.

Edited May 6, 2017 by dashrendar44

[Sam]

On the one hand, I do appreciate that Marvel let James Gunn loose on this sequel (which makes me even more excited and looking forward to Waititi's Thor: Ragnarok)

 

But on the other hand, too James Gunn-y is exactly why I found it quite tedious and tiring to watch for the most of the movie. 

 

All in all though, there are some things I did enjoy.

- Michael Rooker's Yondu continues to be the MVP of this series. From the character to the acting, for me, it was great. He's one of the very few whose arcs and characterization were show rather than tell. And that's why I find myself caring for him since GOTG 1. Can't say the same for many others

- Dig the Gamora/Nebula dynamics, giving Zoe more meaty stuff to bite into, make her a bit more rounded. However, would have been better if they get rid of those terribly awkward and cringy romantic advancements Quill keeps on throwing at her.

- Love all the colorful and pretty set designs, something that I also enjoyed in the original. 

- Appreciate the focusing on characters and theme of "family". Though that theme was presented quite heavy-handed at times. And characters were hit and miss. 

- Kurt Russell brought great presence and charisma to the screen.

 

As for the rest, I don't care much for. Humors were spotty, some landed big time, but many were just straight up too juvenile for me. Story was unfocused. Acting were here and there. Soundtrack were a big step down from Vol.1 

 

Overall, I'd probably give it a C+/B- 

 

Maybe leaning more toward B- because of Rooker. Sad to see we won't get more of him, but that was a good send off. 

 

[somebody85]

1 hour ago, Sam said:

the very few whose arcs and characterization were show rather than tell.

Yeah had an issue with this too. Unlike a lot here, I liked Nebula and felt bad for her but would have much rather seen those fighting scenes she was forced into with Gamora (instead of her telling us about them). I think more people would like her if we actually saw how she had to put herself back together after each of those forced encounters to really understand what she went through. It would have made us hate Thanos more too....think it was a missed opportunity.

Same goes with Peter - the father/David Hasselhoff thing, Peter growing up with Yondu, Rockets past, Drax talking about his family, etc. It's all exposition and it doesn't land as well as it could have if we had actually seen these moments. It seemed like we were being told what to feel.

Edited May 6, 2017 by somebody85

[rukaio101]

1 hour ago, somebody85 said:

Yeah had an issue with this too. Unlike a lot here, I liked Nebula and felt bad for her but would have much rather seen those fighting scenes she was forced into with Gamora (instead of her telling us about them). I think more people would like her if we actually saw how she had to put herself back together after each of those forced encounters to really understand what she went through. It would have made us hate Thanos more too....think it was a missed opportunity.

Same goes with Peter - the father/David Hasselhoff thing, Peter growing up with Yondu, Rockets past, Drax talking about his family, etc. It's all exposition and it doesn't land as well as it could have if we had actually seen these moments. It seemed like we were being told what to feel.

Imma disagree on a lot of that. While I agree it is best to 'Show, don't tell' in most circumstances, you're missing the fact that the act of telling itself can be used to show a lot of things. Take Nebula's speech, for example. The way she delivers it, cold but intense, in one long uninterrupted monologue, works to show her current character, her repressed and precise fury towards Gamora, as well as forcing the audience to focus on the story harder by removing all other distractions. It creates much more emotional intensity in that scene than a random flashback would. Plus there's the whole 'what you don't see is more effective than what you do.' What we, the audience, are made to imagine Nebula would've gone through is significantly more effective than just outright showing it. 

 

As for the other examples, they're either scenes that, frankly, aren't important enough to justify dedicating an entire flashback to (Peter's father/David Hasselhoff stuff), would require significantly far too much time to set up to actually work emotionally (Rocket's past/Drax's family) or is already fairly well-established from what we've been shown in character dynamics in previous scenes/movies (Yondu + Peter).

 

And even then, pretty much all those scenes work great on their own regardless. The David Hasselhoff story works because it establishes both current-day Quill/Gamora's opinions towards the matter (Gamora finds it sweet (showing her support towards Quill finding his father), Quill finds it embarrassing (showing his hesistance, skepticism and hurt for not having a dad)). It's subtle, subdued character work and makes it more meaningful when the two switch positions partway through the film. Rocket's past isn't just about his character being explained to us, it's about making sense of his previous actions and shedding a new light on them. We were already shown plenty of examples of him being an ass and pushing people away. The scene with Yondu forces Rocket to directly confront his issues and serves to make us look at those established moments in a different way. Drax's story about his daughter is made to create a mood of deep, peaceful melancholy and his relatively subdued tone in the scene (along with Mantis's reaction) works great to establish that. (Honestly I was more convinced/affected by his mood there than his revenge rampages in the first movie)

 

Don't get me wrong, the movie isn't perfect and stuff like Nebula's speech could've been worked into a little better, but I'm still of the opinion that some of those scenes were among the best in the movie, despite not directly 'showing' things.

[Lordmandeep]

This movie could have been a lot better and it seems it suffer from what happened during Iron man 2, they wanted to recreate the fun wacky nature of the first film and sort of forgot about a story.

 

 

However unlike IM2 this is a lot of fun but the film really lacks focus and imo its quite a step down from Civil War .

[baumer]

Liked it way more than I thought I would.

 

-Terrific humour.  Mary Poppins y'all was just epic

-Loved seeing Stallone and Rooker (Tucker and Walker) share one brief scene together

-Russell knocks it out of the park

Groot wasn't annoying this time

Rooker is just awesome...loved him since Mississippi Burning

Loved all the cameos....especially Ving and Hass

The first third wasn't as good as the last two but the last third was ridiculously awesome

 

Just a lot of fun.

 

8/10