I finally processed enough of the spectacular that is Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 to hammer out a short review of the Blu-ray which was recently released. The Blu-ray includes commentary, deleted scenes, a blooper reel, featurettes and the number 1 all time very best feature: a weird little music video, you just have to see to appreciate. It’s my favorite part of the whole thing.
Also, listening to James Gunn and the cast members in the featurettes confirming and validating my take away from the feature was an unexpected surprise; but I can’t really talk about volume to without saying a few words about vol.1. I new nothing about the Guardians going into the first movie. I was also very invested in the tone of the MCU at that time and wasn’t sure how I’d take a more whimsical and fantastic point of view. I have to say James Gunn won me over pretty fast. The prologue was good, but then watching Quill dance around on a forboding planet lip synching to Hooked on a Feeling while attempting a heist was absolute genius. I got an instant feel for the character and the world of the film in one visual queue. The movie grabbed me and never let go. It became my favorite of the Marvel movies, largely due to Gunn’s tenacity and very clear vision for the story and the characters.
Vol. 2 focuses on exploring those characters further, which is accomplished primarily through humor. The one huge compliment I can pay to this film is that those characters, their dialogue and exchanges are spot on, very funny and hugely entertaining. That alone is worth the price of admission and it’s important too, because the story doesn’t really start to come into focus until pretty late in the game. Besides the Characters, Gunn was very preoccupied with the new awesome mix. Topping the first film’s soundtrack is a nearly impossible task. Gunn really wanted the soundtrack and the story to be organic so the songs were built into the script for better, or for worse. The songs are good, but in my opinion the organic nature of it kind of worked against my suspension of disbelief and kept me from being more immersed in the story. It’s unfortunate, but the very first scene of the movie–a great scene right off the bat is kind of destroyed by the first song, ELO’s Mr. Blue Sky…
…Hold up. There is no bigger fan of ELO than me. I’ve read the Diary of Horace Wimp! I wish I was a wild west hero! I love me some ELO! I also get the gag of baby Groot dancing around to the song while the other Guardians fight in the background occasionally sliding, falling, or getting thrown onto Groot’s side of the screen. It should have been a lot funnier than it was. I partially blame the music. Love the song. Don’t think it was a good match to scene and the pace was way slower than it should have been. The disappointment is exacerbated by the irony that the movie is so about the music. This was supposed to be the hook me moment and it just didn’t. The rest of the Guardians nailed it and the scene ended very strong. I just think although it’s a funny idea and probably story-boarded well, the Groot bit should probably have been cut.
The film favors irreverent humor over a solid story line and so the actual plot is very simple despite the running length. However, that isn’t to say the story is bad, or that there isn’t plenty of action. For me too much action becomes like white noise, so I found myself losing interest during what was supposed to be the most climactic point of the film. However, it is worth hanging in there and I definitely got caught up in the ending.
Overall, it is a very funny sequel with more great dialogue and theatrics from the characters we fell in love with the first time around. It also has Sly Stallone, which in my book gives it bonus points, especially knowing how hard it was for Stallone to say his lines from watching the blooper reel.
Buy Guardians of the Galaxy vol. 2
So that’s it. If you are a Guardian’s fan and don’t have the Blu-ray yet, get it… And totally watch the music video in the bonus features.
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