MCU Retrospective: Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2
The first Guardians movie was great. It was funny. The characters were charming. And the story felt like a fun space-faring adventure. It’s because of all of this that Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2 felt so flat and meaningless.
That opening aside, this isn’t a bad movie by any measure. It still has the humor and the fun characters that the original did. But I did feel like some of that charm that made the first one so special had faded by the sequel. Pair that with a rather slow and at times boring plot and it just makes for a less than stellar follow-up movie.
Hands down the best thing about this movie is the interaction that Drax has with Mantis. Mantis’ innocence combined with Drax’s new-found sense of “humor” and tactlessness add so much levity to a movie that, despite the original being nothing but levity, is rather lacking.
I’m also glad that they chose to give so much more depth and development to Nebula. They could easily have just thrown her off to the side after the first movie but they stuck with her and the additional motivation and change of heart that they explore in this movie really adds weight to future MCU movies, specifically Endgame.
This was the third time I had seen this movie and I have to say that every time I watched this movie I was just bored through most of it. The plot is just so much slower than most other MCU movies. I’m still curious to see where James Gunn goes for Vol 3, but this movie just makes me a little more hesitant for it.