Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 2 - A Popcorn for One Review

Let's get the most often asked question out of the away at the beginning. No, this film is not as good as the first movie, but not all sequels are.  Of course, you do have some where the second film in the franchise is better.  Sadly, this is not the case here, but I did enjoy the film, only glancing at my watch once.

The Guardians are doing what they do best. Taking on some big bad for a reward.  The opening scenes of the film are a lot of fun and show that the movie is going to go even more for laughs than the first.  Maybe there is even a little too much humor, as setting up some jokes really does take away from the main story.  Which happens to be the discovery of Peter (Star-Lord's) true father and where he has been for all these years.  Kurt Russel is wonderful, as usual, playing the human appearing projection of Ego, the Living Planet. An entity millions of years old, who had been seeking his true purpose.  Having fallen in love with an Earth woman, who was to give birth to his son, Ego moved on for a while.  I'll not give anything else away at this point, but there were some wonderful scenes between Russel and Chris Pratt throughout the movie.

While this is going on we have the "B" plot, involving the race called The Sovereign, who believe themselves the ultimate in evolution. A golden skinned (and eyed) race who consider themselves superior in every way.  Feeling that some of there property has been stolen (and you can guess by whom) they set out to destroy the Guardians.  When one attempt fails they turn to Yondu and his band of cutthroats, who may have their own reasons for wanting to meet again with the Guardians. While Yondu (played with obvious glee by Michael Rooker) was fun in the first film, his role here is much larger and very central to both story lines as they merge.

I think I can give this movie a solid "B" without much effort.  The jokes mostly hit, the acting was good by everyone, with Dave Bautista just great as Drax.  It was nice seeing some new Marvel characters appear, some fun cameos and two actors that I was surprised to see, but enjoyed. One of them I hope to see reappearing in some future movies.

Of course, Marvel fans know they need to stick around for some post-credit fun, but here we even get some cuteness during the credits.  One of the later bits sets up a character who will probably be introduced in the third Guardians film.  I'm a long-time fan and immediately realized who this was going to be even before the name was revealed.  If you read the Kirby issues of Fantastic Four, you'll be just as excited.

The trailers preceding the feature were mostly for comics related films coming up later this year, with only Christopher Nolan's DUNKIRK standing out as not fitting into the SF or comics genre.  It was a fun few hours and even with the movie being in its second weekend the 11:40 AM showing on Sunday was still half full.