Fab follow-up is just cosmic
Vin Diesel-voiced Baby Groot (“too adorable to kill”) steals scenes alongside cranky buddy Rocket (Bradley Cooper) and his cutting jibes.
Ex-wrestler Dave Bautista’s Drax and his hearty laughter and mis-pronounced names are comedy gold and Zoe Saldana (Gamora) and Karen Gillan’s (Nebula) warring siblings are given more to work with this time around.
As is often the case with Marvel sequels, there are a lot of new characters – and locations – thrown into the mix and while some may struggle to keep up with everything going on, Russell delivers grandeur in spades and Pom Klementieff ’s doe-eyed Mantis perfectly slots into scenes with the Guardians.
Gunn’s flair for funny is stunning; from severed toes and classic arcade game-style remote-piloted spaceships to a discussion about who has tape at a crucial moment, your face muscles will be hurting afterwards from all the laughter. and Bautista shine in the comic book sequel
The director films using a kaleidoscope of rainbow colours and sets up musical queues for another top 70s and 80s-tastic soundtrack.
It’s very effects-heavy – with some scenes looking a little video-gamey – but this is cosmic Marvel after all, and it builds to a fist-pumping final showdown and poignant denouement.
Gunn’s superlative squad of scoundrels once again prove to be such wicked cool company you’d pay to watch them sat on a couch trading barbs.
I can’t wait to see them try to out-snark Tony Stark, butt heads with The Hulk and horrify Captain America with their language.