Review for Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2

Introduction

I have long been a collector of stuff. When it comes to entertainment, it’s always been a risky gamble at times, all it takes is one duff novel, one dismal second album, or one tired sequel, for there ever to be a taint on your shelf. There’s a Robocop 3 or a Beverly Hills Cop 3 or a Spider-man 3 to leave you hanging your head in shame. I had finally got to the point with the HD revolution to say that I wasn’t going to fall for it a third time, at least not as much. This time I would only get the films that I really enjoyed. So no Die Hard 5 on Blu-ray for me. To this act of defiance, the studios came up with a new strategy. We now have cinematic universes. Now films aren’t just sequels and prequels, they are all linked together, with story elements, post credit codas, character cameos and Easter Eggs. They’re like Pokemon, you have to get them all or your OCD flares up and sends you into a major depression.


Marvel started this with two universes. The Marvel Cinematic Universe actually came second, but at this time you need some 16 feature films and 8 TV series for it all to hang together. It all began with The X-Men universe back in 1999, although no-one was calling it that then, but at this time it’s ten movies strong now. And there are many more movies for both continuities yet to come, in production, soon to be released, or even just rumoured. Of course DC has its shared universe trying constantly to get out of first gear. Star Wars has jumped on the cinematic universe bandwagon as well, adding spin off movies and TV series to its central canon of 7 soon to be 8 movies. And now there are rumours of a Bond cinematic universe also, which seems absurd given 50 years of mostly stand-alone spy capers. You could always ignore the stinky sequel. No one ever forced you to buy Superman IV: The Quest for Peace. That’s so much harder to do with a cinematic universe, where a plot point in an otherwise meaningless and poor movie might be essential to the really cool movie that you do want.


So when Guardians of the Galaxy was released, I was wary enough to wait for the reviews, and for the disc to hit the bargain bucket before I tried it. I loved it, enough to buy the sequel sight unseen, but mostly because even though it was part of the MCU, it was set off far away out in the galaxy, away from the rest of the franchise. You don’t have to worry about the other fourteen films. That will change next year with the release of Avengers: Infinity War, the first half a grand MCU mash-up. Of course once I’ve seen that, I’ll need the other Avengers movies, all of the Thor movies, the Iron Man movies, the Captain America movies, the Ant-Man movie, the Spider-man Homecoming movie, the Black Panther movie and the Doctor Strange movie all to keep track of who is who and what their back-story is. That’s with me fully expecting that with all these star characters crammed into itty-bitty runtime, Avengers Infinity War is going to stink. But that’s me borrowing trouble, and taking a loan out at the bank... First let’s deal with Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol.2.


It’s been a few months since the events of the first movie, and the Guardians of the Galaxy are cementing their reputations as galactic defenders. It’s not a great reputation though, especially when protecting the Sovereign’s famous batteries, Rocket helps himself to a handful. Which is why they wind up crashing on a planet having barely escaped a Sovereign fleet. In fact they were saved at the last minute by a strange figure surfing on the back of a silver starship. That starship arrives bearing Ego, a man who introduces himself as Peter Quill’s father. It’s time for Peter Quill to learn of his heritage... But the Sovereign haven’t given up on revenge, and they’ve hired the Ravagers to hunt them down.

The Disc

2.39:1 widescreen 1080p, with DTS-HD MA 7.1 Surround English, DD 2.0 Audio Descriptive English, DTS 5.1 Surround Spanish, and DD 5.1 Surround Hindi, along with English, Spanish, Portuguese, Danish, Finnish, Norwegian, and Swedish subtitles are your basic disc specs. I can’t fault the transfer on this Blu-ray; it looks fantastic, once again bringing this Technicolor alien galaxy to vivid life. The audio too is spot on, wholly immersing you in the action, keeping the dialogue clear, while bringing another eclectic music soundtrack to life. You’ll want the 4k UHD disc if you want better colour or the 3D release if you want the variable aspect ratio IMAX experience


So... a rant about youthification. Everyone seems to be doing it, de-aging actors courtesy of digital magic, or worse, resurrecting the dead. This time it’s Kurt Russell who is suddenly made to look as he did thirty years ago, only he doesn’t. It’s just two minutes of uncanny valley at the start of the movie that freak me the hell out. Remember Sneakers, where they actually recast the roles for the prologue. Who didn’t buy Gary Hershberger and Jo Marr as the young Robert Redford and Ben Kingsley? I’m surprised they didn’t youthify Harrison Ford for the upcoming Han Solo movie. Why freak us out for two minutes when they could freak us out for two hours?

Extras

You get one disc in an Amaray case, which boots to an animated menu after playing a trailer for Thor Ragnarok.

You can play the movie with or without a 1:39 intro from director James Gunn, and you can watch the Thor trailer again in Sneak Peeks.

There are four featurettes on the disc, looking at the making of, the music, the VFX, and the cast, and together they run to 37:39 HD.


The Gag Reel runs to 3:41, and there are 4 Deleted Scenes running to 5:04. Deleted scenes are less fun when there is a whole lot of green screen or pre-render digital animatics.

You get an audio commentary from director James Gunn

By far the best thing on the disc is The “Guardians Inferno” Music Video, presented in 1080i but in 80s VHS quality. We’re talking The Hoff of course.

Conclusion

It may be premature to worry about how the Guardians will mesh into the Cinematic Universe, but there is certainly reason to be concerned about how the film performs as a sequel. You can lay those fears to rest, as Vol. 2 just continues on from the first film as if nothing has changed. The characters are still the same, the storytelling style is still the same, the worldview, the special effects, the music; it all feels of a piece. Most importantly for this particular franchise, the writing and the sparky quality of the dialogue is still at the top of its game. I had just as much fun watching this film as I did the first one, and if I were to pick a favourite of the two, it would only be the first one for the sheer novelty that I had then of discovering something new. That, and the fact that it didn’t freak me out with an uncanny valley moment.


More importantly, there is a sense of growth in the story, a sense of forward momentum. If the first film was about getting the band together, introducing the characters and forging the relationships between them, the second film is about exploring those relationships, about family, especially the oddball unit that has developed comprising of Peter Quill, Gamora, Rocket, Groot, and Drax. Of course it doesn’t seem that way at first, with the job for the Sovereign paid for in the form of Nebula, Gamora’s estranged adopted sister, and who they aim to claim the bounty on. The antagonism between the two doesn’t look as if it will be resolved any time soon. Then Peter’s father Ego shows up, the human avatar of a living planet, a god with a small ‘G’, who is looking to take on Peter into the family business. Naturally, Peter has some abandonment issues to work through first.


The action is spectacular of course, brought with all the digital splendour that modern cinema expects, but with that wry sense of humour that the first film established. Gamora and Nebula working out their issues as sisters is a case in point. Then again there is the opening sequence, with all of the big action happening in the background, while the foreground focus is on dancing Groot and the opening credits. The story too is suitably epic. ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’ does imply some sort of galactic peril, and sure enough, there are far reaching implications to the plans of this film’s villain.


Most important of all in this film are the characters and their stories, which is something that you can rarely say about the current crop of superhero films, and it’s also this which gives me misgivings about Infinity War. It’s hard to reconcile the pantheon of comic book characters in the other Marvel movies with the more believable and down to earth characters of Guardians of the Galaxy. The action may be big, but it all happens on a personal level for these characters, and that’s what makes the film so relatable.


I watched the first film, and I saw a bit of Red Dwarf in its bones, with slobby Peter Quill the sole human in a vast alien galaxy, but with this second film presenting us with a group of mismatched misfits against that galaxy, dealing with their interpersonal issues while saving the universe, I see a lot more of Farscape in Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 2 (I didn’t even realise Ben Browder has a cameo in this film until I saw his name in the end credits), and that is very much a good thing.


The Guardians of the Galaxy have grown up for their second outing, but not too much. It’s a worthy sequel, and well worth putting on your Blu-ray shelf. I’m already looking forward to Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 3.