As the sun rose upon Free Comic Book Day, people would be setting out to both select a handful of Marvel Studios printed media and its new silver screen blockbuster. With a measured enthusiasm, I plopped into my chair ready to embark on an adventure with the Guardians of the Galaxy for the second time. It turns out my metered zeal was probably for the best, because this film had way more to say than it did blowing things up.

First, the whole cast did a great job picking up where they left off. The chemistry is ever present, playing each characters strengths off one another. In fact, almost all jokes flow through Dave Bautista’s Drax, a role he gets to grow deeper into and is truly the comedy highlight. Chris Pratt still has his fun lines, but his real role this film is that of a frustrated son who is finally reunited with his father Ego, played by Kurt Russell, an immortal being known as a Celestial. Bradley Cooper’s Rocket has his own emotional rollercoaster to deal with as the self-inflicted outcast of the crew. Karen Gillan and Zoe Saldana have their sister drama to attend to which begins and ends with the age old “siblings-fighting-for-their-parents-attention” trope with a sci-fi twist. Finally, and a huge surprise to me, Michael Rooker’s Yondu was by far the most interesting and nuanced character in the film, transforming from gruff outlaw to a father figure. I could gush further because there are so many characters in this film, each connected to one another for various reasons.

This film had way more debt to pay from its first volume than most sequels dare to try. The Guardians first volume not only leaves you finding out that our Star Lord is half alien of some ancient nature, but also a newly formed team, each with their still to be explored depths, a fugitive sister, and vexed outlaw whose bounty was stolen by his former charge. All of these subjects are much more emotional in nature and translating this into action came off a bit staggered. There is an abundance of exposition and emotional conversations that, while admittedly fluid and natural, slowed down the film from its quick action and light fun nature to a dense character drama similar to a Marvel television series. By the end I felt as if I had binged Netflix’s Daredevil. It was packed incredibly full from beginning to end.

My favorite standout feature was the hyper-colored worlds, especially the opening world, planet of the people of Sovereign, which is a blue and gold 70’s sci-fi daydream akin to Flash Gordon. Most of the film is built exactly like its modern Marvel comic counterpart, with vibrant colors splashed on matted metal set pieces printed on glossy pages. Obviously James Gunn continued curating an excellent soundtrack that bleeds through every scene, whether you like it or not. And this isn’t to say it doesn’t fit, it just feels like an overused gimmick at this point. A gimmick I can appreciate, but it almost feels like the scenes are written around the songs and not selected for the scene. It’s far too aware.

After the five post credit sequences (yes this is famously true) I was actually glad the film was over. While the father and son story rang genuine, after four other equally genuine character arcs, all with their own level of depth, I was happy for a breather. I also felt strangely disconnected with the action pieces, mostly driven by CG instead of practical effects. This film wasn’t as fresh or visually entertaining as Doctor Strange, but that had the benefit of being completely new. While Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2 will hold up in the Marvel Universe for years to come, it’s not an out of the park home-run, but a good base runner never the less.

~* 7.5/10 *~

P.S. I hated Baby Groot. I always thought it was an awful idea and it was about as distracting and as bad as I thought it would be. He sucks up way too much screen time and always with the same joke; playing up the small, weak but surprisingly useful trope. I think way less would have gone a long way in this film. But I get it, it just wasn’t for me.