Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2

A fun and witty sequel to Guardians of the Galaxy which attempts to give the characters introduced in the first film more depth by exploring the difficulties of keeping their team together. Though the film falls a little short as it tries a bit too hard to recreate the quirky originality of the first Guardians, it is still an enjoyable and amusing movie with exquisite digital effects, particularly Ego’s spectacular planet, and hilarious one-liners.

Vol. 2 begins on Earth, introducing us to Ego (a digitally enhanced Kurt Russell) wooing Peter Quill’s mother to the sound of the early 70’s tune ‘Brandy (You’re a Fine Girl)’. In-keeping with the retro soundtrack of the first film ‘Mr Blue Sky’ proceeds to blast out as we see the troublesome but adorable baby Groot jiving away as the other Guardians work together in semi-organised chaos to protect some batteries from a tentacled space beast. However, this familial unit is soon split up and the characters must overcome obstacles as well as exploring and reconciling with their own origins and old familial structures before they can reunite.

James Gunn seeks to develop the Guardian’s character arcs as Peter Quill (Chris Pratt) hopes to have found his lost father whilst Rocket (Bradley Cooper) wrestles with his creation and Gamora (Zoe Saldana) and Nebula (Karen Gillian) attempt to rebuild the friendship and love that was ruined by Thanos. In addition to the emotional poignancy of these lessons in identity, kinship and sacrifice, Vol.2 still gives you everything you could want from a superhero spectacle with plenty of laughs as well as some nostalgic songs along the way.