Movie Review: Loses the Charm, Gets Dragging and Ends Up Alright!- Guardians of the Galaxy- Vol. 2

***Spoiler Alert!***
Guardians of the Galaxy was the smash hit of 2014. The movie had surprised audience and critics alike with some mesmerizing music, great action, stunning visuals and above all, an extraordinarily funny script. After Groot sacrifices himself for his new-found family, Guardians of the Galaxy- Vol. 2 (Hereafter GotG2) benefited having Baby Groot (yup, he's damn cute!) on it's roster. With widely famous Awesome Mix Vol 1, audience wanted more of those wonderful soundtracks in the background while their favorite outcast anti-heroes kicked some ass. The trailers and TV spots increased the hype with some genuinely funny scenes and some great visuals. Also, we all wanted more Baby Groot and waited for the movie to come out.
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The movie starts off with our guardians fighting off an inter-galactic threat with tentacles that feeds on batteries. Batteries that are sacred for Sovereigns, a highly sensitive, highly intelligent race. Rocket (Bradley Cooper) steals the batteries and Sovereigns are behind them for revenge when Ego (Kurt Russell) saves the guardians. Ego then reveals to the guardians that he is in fact the father of Peter Quill aka Star Lord (Chris Pratt) and he is a Celestial, a living planet (too much information for Quill!). His planet is seemingly perfect and things are going quite well when Gamora (Zoe Saldana) suspects of some foul play. There breaks out a riot against Yondu (Michael Rooker) and his leadership among the ravagers which proves costly for Yondu. Meanwhile, Nebula (Karen Gillan) is on hunt to kill her sister, Gamora because, well, sister issues! Sovereigns are still behind the guardians and on the other hand, Ego poses a new threat to the Galaxy. What is the story of Ego? What made him find his son after all these years and how the guardians saved the galaxy yet again makes the rest of the story.
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Marvel repeats the same mistake it did with Avengers: AoU with GotG2. Too many back stories. Instead of being the fun, whacky tale of outcasts, GotG2 heads down the path of being a tedious continuation of long chats. While the whole movie is a backstory to Peter Quill and his origins, we have a backstory for Mantis, one for Yondu, one for Nebula and one about the relationship between Gamora and Nebula, all explained in a lengthy, tedious conversations. They sure serve a purpose of audience connecting better with the characters but drag the movie. A lot. The music was the bomb in the first part. This outing's music is, well, meh! It sure is good but not a single track gets you "hooked" (pun intended!). The script seems like they are trying a little too much to evoke laughs. Though lot of scenes are hilarious, others just stick out instead of being subtle. The concept of Celestial has been handled good. Even though there is a little too much CGI, none of it looks out of place or dull. Yondu turns out to be one of the very interesting characters in the universe. Visuals are stunning, especially when Yondu gains advantage over his betrayers and when Sovereigns attack Guardians. Those quirky dialogues that worked very well with the first part are absent in this outing which makes it disappointing. Though we all swoon over Baby Groot, he's limited to the least of screen-time among all the guardians. Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana, Michael Rooker, Karen Gillan and Kurt Russell all put up good performances. Sylvester Stallone's role is forgettable.
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Highlights:

  • Visuals
  • Lead Performances
  • Baby Groot
Drawbacks:
  • Uneven Pace. 
  • Dragging Conversations
The important reason behind the first part's success apart from the less expectations is the guardians not taking themselves too seriously. They're a band of criminals. They do as they wish, like when Rocket steals the batteries. They're suddenly given a code to adhere to and it seems like everybody are bullying Rocket for not being serious on it. The lightheartedness is suddenly thrown out the window and it is not a good sign. The script then desperately tries to put some funny parts in there. Definitely loses the charm. The first outing had a lot of re-watchable potential. GotG2, not so much.

Verdict: Falls somewhere between Xandar and Nowhere on a scale of Ego-Xandar-Nowhere. (Watch Guardians of the Galaxy (2014)!) 

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