Film Review: Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2

It's finally here! Guardians of the Galaxy is one of my favourite Marvel movies ever, so I have been so excited to see the second installment since it was confirmed to be in pre-production. So, in my usual style, I booked tickets for opening night and have been (not so) patiently waiting for this moment when I can tell you all about it.

Just to be clear, this will be a spoiler free review. I hate spoilers in reviews without a warning so I tend to never put any in my film reviews. A quick shout out though to the muppet who wrote about an end-of-credits scene on Twitter which gave away a moment in the film. He has since been blocked and angry words have been uttered.

Anyway, let's get on with the review...

Let's start with the opening sequence. It was amazing! In the first film we had Star-Lord dancing in the opening credits and this time we got Baby Groot. Groot is my favourite character, both adult and baby sized, so it was lovely to get a good look at him before the film had properly started.

Then we have the soundtrack, which was a massive part of the first film. I tried not to compare this film to the previous one but with the soundtrack it's hard not to judge. I didn't think that this one was a good as the first movie but that's not to say I didn't like it because I did. There just wasn't any songs that really stood out like they did, except for "Mr Blue Sky" in the opening credits. It was still great music to accompany the film though.

Let's move on to the plot of the movie. I think that the storyline was brilliant because the majority of the plot was kept simple and easy to follow and only had one more complex, key part to it. I was constantly hooked in by the story and not once did I have that "how much longer is left?" feeling.

The cast were definitely the highlight of the whole film though. We get to see all of the original Guardians return, plus a few new characters as well. I was worried that Star-Lord was going to end up being the main star and focus of the whole film, but he wasn't. The key part of the storyline revolves around Peter Quill's character but it doesn't make him the only person of importance.

We get to see more of Gamora and Nebula and find out more about their relationship and how they've ended up in their current situation with such tension and hate between them. We also get a bit more heart and feeling from Rocket and Yondu, who also have some incredible action scenes, but also we get more feeling from Drax with the help of Mantis, whose emotions help to show what Drax has been through without actually verbally telling us. However, the star of the show for me - and a lot of other people I've spoken to - is baby Groot.

Groot has some fantastic scenes, such as the opening credits scene that I've already mentioned, but that is just one of many. He has the most amazing scene when he's trying to find something for Rocket and Yondu, so look out for that, plus there's a few adorable moments where's just being the cutest thing ever or when he's picking a fight and becomes the most adorable angry little thing. There were also a couple of heartbreaking scenes with him that were hard for me to watch, I just wanted to cuddle him. I could honestly talk about how much I love Groot for ages!

I gave this movie:

Being a Marvel film I think it was pretty much a certainty that I was going to enjoy this, but having seen it I absolutely loved it. I can't decide where I would rank it against other Marvel films just yet, whether I liked it more than some of the others, although I do know that it hasn't beaten Captain America: Civil War. That's a tough one to beat in my opinion. But overall I loved it and I really want to go and see it again.