+ Best Action Movie of the Year
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| A stuffed, eye-popping, deliciously colorful poster for James Gunn's Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 |
Peter 'Star-Lord' Quill leads the Guardians in space, as they are saved by a mysterious stranger with tremendous powers, who just might be Quill's mysterious biological father...
The sequel to crowd-pleasing hit Guardians of the Galaxy (2014) sees its writer-director James Gunn (Slither (2006)) return with a new vision and story, set in the same universe of hijinks and colorful, witty glee as the first one. Gunn did not write this based on any single Guardians comic book, - but the film has a staggering 10 (!) additional character writing credits listed, (which I won't deign to award more space here.)
Chris Pratt (Her (2013)) is still an ideal Quill, who goes through a larger dramatic arc here, as he searches out his father and his feelings about him versus stepfather Yondu. Michael Rooker (Undisputed (2002)) is back as the flawed, ostracized Yondu, who seeks redemption, and he is great in the part. SPOILER Kurt Russell (The Barefoot Executive (1971)) turns out to be Quill's biological father, a God with his own planet by the name of Ego, who unsurprisingly turns out to be less benign than the first shots of him leads us to believe, (scenes which also implicitly poke fun at Russell's own voluminous hairdo in the 1980s.)
Vol. 2 has many storylines, and it may not be clear all the time, which is the main one, but much of this also comes from its ambition to further our connection with each of the Guardian characters. The first film was similar in this, which is also why you will likely have a hard time recounting the plot of the film today, (if you haven't rewatched it recently.) - The Guardians movies seem to be more about the fun had along the way than the actual stories involved. - Which is fine, especially because they are fun and dazzling. The use of 3D makes sense here, and the film makes use of music in untraditional ways, which heightens the enjoyment. (Only I found that Pratt sometimes seems to be pushed together when in full character in the screen's middle, making him appear at those times disproportional and stocky.)
Zoe Saldana (Blackout (2007)) is still a cool fan-boy fantasy as Gamora; Dave Bautista (Spectre (2015)) is one of my favorite parts of the film and gets to laugh loudly several times, which is for some reason hugely enjoyable. Vin Diesel (Strays (1997)) returns for another one of the easiest top billings perhaps in cinema history, voicing now adorable Baby Groot's "I am Groot" several times, (and to be fair, this time in no less than 16 languages, for different major markets, I read.) The film also has Sylvester Stallone (Rocky V (1990)) in a fairly small part that seems likely to build in the next movie; Pom Klementieff (Borderline (2011)) is funny as Mantis, who shares some good scenes with Drax, and Elizabeth Debicki (The Night Manager (2016), miniseries) is an icy and comic villain in all-gold.
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 is light and breezy good entertainment that announces the coming of the summer blockbuster season with a joyous roar. The visuals and CGI is top notch, but the CGI is also so ubiquitous that we are not as awed as we otherwise might have been by its most impressive aspects. Somehow the overall feeling isn't as real as in the first film and there are significantly fewer wow-moments. It is also a bit long and definitely not made with anything resembling a less-is-more attitude. Instead it is more of all the stuff Gunn served so appealingly and enthusiastically in the first film.
And, luckily, that still seems to go over very well.
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Guardians of the Galaxy (2014) - Get giddy with this pretty awesome, the silliest summer blockbuster of the 2014
Watch an official trailer for the film here
Cost: 200 mil. $
Box office: 431.5 mil. $ and counting
= Too early to say
[Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 premiered 19 April (LA) and runs 136 minutes. Shooting took place in and around the Pinewood Atlanta Studios in Atlanta, Georgia from February - June 2016 with reshoots in November 2016. It is the first film to be shot with an 8K resolution camera, the Red Weapon 8K. More sets were created for the shoot than for the first film. If the above-stated cost is accurate, which it may not be, it is down 13.9 % from the ballooned 232.3 mil. $ budget of the first film. Vol. 2 has opened on 400 IMAX screens in China as part of its release in the country, the highest number of such screens ever for a release. It opened to a stellar 146.5 mil. $ first weekend in North America (up 55 % from the first film's 94.3 mil. $), and has already become the 6th highest grossing film of the year. Gunn is already announced to be coming back for a third Guardians movie. Vol. 2 has already gained traction onto IMDb's user-generated Top 250: It sits at #211, between The Princess Bride (1987) and Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015). Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 is certified fresh at 81 % with a 7.1 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]
What do you think of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2?
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