GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY VOL. 2 Review

With the first Guardians of the Galaxy I went (or at least wanted to go) into the film with little to no expectations. Of course, with Vol. 2 it would be next to impossible to do the same unless one had skipped the first which, of course, would then only mean it would be next to impossible to fully understand or better yet, appreciate, what this second film has to offer. And so, despite having some expectation for Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 there wasn't much beyond suspecting that writer/director James Gunn might hand pick a new list of late seventies/early eighties hits to set something of a remixed version of the original's events to while pushing whatever story points the Marvel overlords needed pushed forward. If this sequel teaches us anything though (and it does try to teach if not at least say something significant) it's that sometimes expectations aren't detrimental to the overall effect a piece of art can have. That's right-I'm calling a Marvel movie, and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 specifically, a piece of art as well as stating that it surpasses all expectations. I'm saying this loud and clear because I feel like it would be easy to think otherwise about the rather unconventional super hero movie that Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 actually is. It seems it might be easy to be disappointed in the sequel because it doesn't exactly fit into the conventions we've become conditioned to expect. How does Guardians numero dos buck this trend that Marvel has so perfectly perfected as of late? Well, the first thing it changes is that of setting up a convenient villain in the form of another Thanos crony looking for world domination (Gunn literally thought bigger this time, going for galactic domination) while also giving our heroes a real and emotional investment in the plight of the antagonist. Sure, the film opens with the guardians on a for hire mission that sees them doing battle with a large CGI monster for the purposes of getting paid handsomely by a race of snobby and rather pretentious Goldfinger/Goldmember lookalikes, but this is essentially only a framing device and reason to usher Michael Rooker's Yondu back into the fray. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 is instead mostly about the relationships between the members of the titular team and developing those dynamics in exchange for progressing the overall Marvel arc. Where Vol. 2 really exceeds though, is in balancing the exploration of these relationships with that of still telling an effective story, the guardians story, and there's just something special about a ginormous, big-budget, special-effects extravaganza that feels this personal. Also, Baby Groot.

New Trailer for GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY VOL. 2

I'm as excited as the next guy for Director James Gunn's Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, but did we really need another trailer? That full-length trailer we got back in December that has been playing in theaters for months now kills every time and after the new clips released during the Super Bowl it seemed there would be no need for anything else major from the Guardians of the Galaxy promotional team, at least not until a couple of weeks before release when momentum really needs to buid. Alas, here we are still with three months to go until the official release date of the film and we have yet another full-length trailer set to the tune of yet another seventies soft rock track (this time it's Fleetwood Mac's "The Chain," from 1977) that infuses the clip with a nice amount of momentum and surprising freshness. With Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 kicking off the summer of 2017 in that first weekend of May slot that Marvel has now dominated and considering that recent news story that touted the film receiving a rare 100 score in test screenings one can understand why Marvel and is intent on riding the hype train through the next three months as well as giving audiences venturing out to see Logan this weekend something new to chew on until then. Given the trailer Gunn and his team have put together one can bet it will do just that. Surprisingly, we get to see a lot of new footage here with the trailer mainly focusing on the rag tag group that make up the titular guardians while highlighting the humorous banter between them as it intends to sell the humor of the piece just as much as it does the special effects and action. Luckily, we still don't have a real keen sense of what story the film will be telling though we do get our first glimpses of Ayesha (Elizabeth Debicki) and Ego (Kurt Russell) in motion for the first time. In the end, this trailer is as promising as one could hope while still seeming to maintain much of what the film truly has to offer. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol.2 also stars Chris Pratt, Zoe Zaldana, Dave Bautista, Bradley Cooper, Vin Diesel, Karen Gillian, Michael Rooker, Glenn Close, and opens on May 5th, 2017.

First Trailer for GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY VOL. 2

Director James Gunn released a "sneak peek" trailer for his follow-up to the breakout Marvel success of 2014 in Guardians of the Galaxy just over a month ago although I hesitate to call what we saw only a sneak peek as it ran over two minutes and gave us a look at each of our favorite characters and what they're seemingly up to these days. That said, it was clear this wasn't the last we'd see/hear from the Guardians prior to the end of the year with Disney rolling out Rogue One in less than two weeks. With Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 kicking off the summer of 2017 in that first weekend of May slot that Marvel has now dominated for the past six years save for 2014 when Winter Soldier opened the first weekend in April (due to The Amazing Spider-Man 2 claiming the opening weekend that year) you can bet Marvel and Kevin Feige are intent on getting the hype started as soon as possible. Given the trailer Gunn and his team have put together one can bet it will do just that. While some of what we see here in the full-length trailer is more or less the same as what we saw in that aforementioned "sneak peek" we get the added reassurance that if nothing else, this sequel will be really funny and feature some great banter between the core members of the team. There is no revealing of any previously unknown story elements and we don't see any footage of new additions Ayesha (Elizabeth Debicki) or Ego (Kurt Russell) though we do get our first look at Mantis, a former member of the Avengers in the comics, played here by Pom Klementieff. Still, this trailer is as promising as one could have hoped if you enjoyed the tone and humor of the first. Proving more of the same isn't always a bad thing here's to the hope that train of thought is only to ease us into the sequel with the actual movie offering something slightly different from our first experience with the team. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol.2 also stars Chris Pratt, Zoe Zaldana, Dave Bautista, Bradley Cooper, Vin Diesel, Karen Gillian, Michael Rooker, Glenn Close, and opens on May 5th, 2017.