Dr. Mantle

And you keep going to MCU films why. . .?

SmackDaddy

Wife and I caught this yesterday and enjoyed it quite a bit. While the "reconciliation" between Gamora and Nebulae felt incomplete for lack of a better word, everything else worked for me. Super bummed that Yondu is gone. I was hoping beyond hope that one of the credits scenes was him somehow alive (although it's not likely since he was turned to ash).

Bautista continues to impress. He certainly brings the funny.

majorjoe23

To be fair, he is Armand White.

Lifepawn

Half this movie felt like it was just sticking Baby Groot in front of the camera to be cute. Like the sci-fi version of an internet cat picture. Other than that I thought it was fun. Some of it dragged a little but that won't bother me on home viewings. All of the Yondu stuff was great. Ego was great. Was cool recognizing Ben Browder from Farscape as one of the gold people.

Maxflier

Agree they overdid the baby Groot thing, he's supposed to be sooo cuuuuute....we get it. Still loved the movie though. Drax was once again funny as hell.

hal9000

Thanks to all those who gave the heads up on taking my daughter to see this (Deftones, Obi-Wan_Jabroni, Mondo Kane, He Who Lurks No More). The entire family loved it. I think my wife (not really a comic fan) laughed more than I did.

For what Vol. 2 was I thought they hit it out of the park considering they had a lot of expectations to live up to.

Rooker was great, man that sentimentality really touched home for me. "He may have been your father, but I was your daddy" god damn, that got me tearing up. Why the hell did this movie have me taking stock on my life and as a father/dad to my children the entire time!?

Also, I know Gunn is a pervert, but all I could see was phallic symbols and a billion innuendoes throughout. Obviously the sexual "overtones" he wasn't holding back on - but even the remote drones sent to attack that were being controlled by the Sovereign people, lol, maybe it's just me but even the "pilot" chairs had everyone bent over and people leaning over from behind watching... lol, alright maybe I'm the pervert here.

I loved Drax... lol, "famously huge turds" all his lines were hilarious.

4.5 out of 5 see it with an open mind and you'll be pleasantly surprised.

Rex Power Colt-Robot Man

I commented to a friend he looked a bit like Robert Z'dar in the chin in those scenes.

robin2099

Didn't really like this one at all very much. It seemed like they were trying to hard to be bigger and better and top the first one and they were not able to succeed at all in that regard.

Pros:

-It looked beautiful. You could definitely tell some money was spent on it.

-I thought that Kurt Russell was great and enjoyed him a lot. I kept thinking about how I would love to see him play Snake Pliskin again.

-Drax and Rocket had their moments and were entertaining.

-I liked the Stan Lee cameo.

-I liked what they did with Nebula and Yondu.

Cons:

-It was overly long and honestly I started to get a little bored.

-Breaking up the team was not a good idea. It's an ensemble movie and that helped to slow the pace up.

-Stallone was wasted. Not sure why you cast him if your going to barely loose him.

-I thought most of the one liners were a miss. Star Lord was funny in the first film, but here his humor didn't always work. I thought the cameos were funny but some of them also were eye rolling too.

-Having a second movie in a row in which the good guys fight and defeat a celestial being was stupid in my eyes. I also kept thinking to myself how people complain about the DC movies and "destruction porn" yet are ok with an entire planet being destroyed in this one.

-Baby Groot kind of got on my nerves.

Overall I just didn't think this was that great. Winter Soldier not withstanding, I don't think that Marvel is capable of making a great sequel. All their sequels seem to be decent or ok but not great and this doesn't break that trend. This has some good points but being too long with a poor story and an attempt to one up the first too much hurts it.

3/5 or a B-

Mike86

I don't really agree about Baby Groot at all being overused or annoying at all. He was obviously used for the fact that he's cute and for laughs but I didn't feel like there was an over abundance of him. If anything I expected him to be in more and get on my nerves but I thought he was used just right.

The movie was great overall in my opinion. If a person couldn't find things to like in it and come out with a smile I'm not sure what to say. Great chemistry amongst the cast, good laughs, had heart, and good action. Just all around entertaining as hell. I'd give it 4.5 out of 5.

Probably the only minor gripe I had was I was starting to feel its length a bit towards the end. I think maybe some things could have been fine tuned to make it a tad shorter but overall it wasn't a huge bother.

At robin2099- How are you comparing destroying Ego who is one person and not a planet filled with life as explained in the film to destruction porn in DC films?

james2025a

Well two points. Firstly they didn't fight a celestial being in the last movie. They showed a clip of a Celestial, but Ronan isn't one.. Secondly, a whole planet is destroyed, but the whole planet has zero life and is also the bad guy. So makes sense in destroying it.

B5Erik

I actually liked the slower, character driven parts of the story. I thought there was a lot more depth to this one than the first while still being funny and lighthearted. There was plenty of action and excitement, but more character development this time.

I got real excited when I saw Ben Browder, but was disappointed that his part was smaller than Stallone's (which was a glorified cameo). I'd like to see Browder get a significant role in a Marvel movie down the line (not too far down the line, though, as he's older than you'd think).

Overall, I'm not sure if I like this one more than the first or not, but I enjoyed it on first viewing more than I did the first one. (The first Guardians has grown on me a lot on repeated viewings.)

I'd have to rate this one a 4.25/5 for now.

Defiant1

Elizabeth Debicki is really cool as the head Sovereign gold lady. She really does the cold and imperious thing well.

robin2099

Because people constantly talked about in BVS and MOS about how buildings were being destroyed for no reason, and it's just destruction porn for destructions sake etc. Say what you will about the DC movies but they never blew up a planet uninhabited or not. But here, we have a living planet that is completely destroyed while Quill suddenly becomes a superhero and is flying around and smashing around it. It just seems like a double standard how people criticize the DC movies for it but here and Age of Ultron it wasn't a big deal because of a throw away line that the planet or city is empty.

That was my fault I should have specified second Marvel movie in a row. We had Dr. Strange last November in which in the finale he fought a celestial being, and her we have a finale in which they fight a celestial being.

Honestly the more I think of this movie the more I dislike it. I disliked Civil War also but at least that had the airport fight scene. This really had nothing that makes me want to watch it again and I feel that Infinity War or whatever they call it will just be a cluster.

I also cant believe that THAT was the post credit scene they chose to end the movie on.

Why So Blu?

She's gorgeous, too. She was in the Great Gatsby. She's also 6'3. Now that's a mountain I would love to climb.

Obi-Wanma

Dormammu isn't a celestial either.

RichC2

I'm pretty sure she showed some goods for a minute in Night Manager.

Just saying.

Why So Blu?

Haven't watched that...yet.

Mike86

But the only thing living was the planet aka Ego. It's not populated by anyone else but Mantis and they took her with them. So no one was killed in its destruction besides Ego who was the villain.

It's not a double standard whatsoever. DC films show populated areas being destroyed and the heroes not doing much to save civilians. That's the difference. The destruction porn is really only a problem for most of us who criticize it for that reason. Heroes are supposed to be saving people. Seems like you're reaching for something to criticize that's not there in order to defend DC.

Why So Blu?

A few people probably got killed after the Ego plants blossomed and turned into giant waves. I remember tons of cars getting swept over by it before it solidified.

Mike86

That's not by the fault of the Guardians of the Galaxy though. That's through Ego's doing and they were in a completely different area where they wouldn't have been able to get there to make a rescue. Plus that's if they even realized that was happening which doesn't seem to be the case. I think the Earth scenes were just obligatory scenes to ground the film to the MCU taking place on Earth. Maybe that's part of the conflict between the Guardians and the Avengers when they first meet.

islandclaws

Sad to say, but this one was all style with minor substance.

Drax and Yondu were the clear highlights, although I hated how Gunn used the cliche "give a not-so-rosy character an arc that shows they're more than what we've been led to believe, only to do so purely so they can be killed". Yondu should have gotten his redemption and been made a member of the team. His story, which really overshadowed any other in the film, would have been subversive had it gone the other way.

Way too much cloying family crap and relationship drama that draggggggged the film down.

Ego's plan was stupid - amorphous blobs doing large-scale, hollow damage - and nearly all of his dialogue was exposition.

Way too many songs, and definitely too many ballads. Felt like I was listening to a jukebox. Needed more of Bates' score to let big moments shine.

I really didn't care about Rocket's story at all. His schtick is old and we already understood why he was the way he is the first time around.

Mantis was fun.

Drax stole the humor, most of which felt forced and just didn't work nearly as well as the last time.

Nebule/Gamora... eh. Who didn't see that coming?

Speaking of which, there were way too many moments where dialogue used earlier in the film came to an actual realization later on. Telegraphing abound. It got very tiresome.

Sovereigns were cool. I would do bad thing to Debicki in her gold makeup.

Opening scene was great. Unfortunately, it was the best moment other than Yondu's funeral.

The whole "Taserface" thing was dumb. Why would anyone in space even know what a taser is?

And "trash panda" is lame pandering to the millennial crowd. I doubt Quill is browsing reddit in outer space.

5 post-credit scenes and the only truly good one was Kraglin and the arrow.

Dug seeing Sly in the movie but as someone who never read the comics his inclusion means nothing to me.

Visually, this was absolutely gorgeous. Great shot composition and use of color. This will be a stunner on BD.

the 3D was immersive and very impressive. Definitely recommended.

Why So Blu?

I almost forgot -- did you guys catch Michelle Yeoh and Ving Rames as alien Ravagers?

Nice touch there.

Mondo Kane

A lot of people thought Yeoh was Cate Blanchett's Hela. And Ving looks like he grew 4 feet taller and gained 200 pounds.

Rex Power Colt-Robot Man

Little nerditry on who he is

dex14

It looked like Pamela Adlon was with Yeoh too.