The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
‘GUARDIANS’ SEQUEL TRIES TO HIT RIGHT BUTTONS
By Entertainment Editor Mark Meszoros >> mmeszoros@news-herald.com >> @MarkMeszoros on Twitter And the best movie in the Marvel Cinematic Universe is … still “Guardians of the Galaxy.” ¶ Marvel Studios’ new “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2” — as the name suggests, the successor to the 2014 smash hit about a group of misfits thrown together aboard of spaceship and called upon to, well, save the galaxy — is a fun adventure. ¶ It tries valiantly (if also at times desperately) to recapture the magic of the first installment. However, like so many sequels, it falls a little short of that admirable goal.
Directed by the returning James Gunn, “Vol. 2” early on offers an elaborate credits sequence that finds the Guardians of the Galaxy — Peter Quill/ Star-Lord (Chris Pratt), Gamora (Zoe Saldana), Drax (Dave Bautista), Rocket (voice of Bradley Cooper) and the now Baby Groot (voice of Vin Diesel) — hired to take on a big tentacled beast.
Like the movie as whole, this sequence is big and flashy but also a bit flat, bloated and overly silly, the camera following a dancing, now small-treelike Groot around, the fighting taking place mostly in the background
Again like the movie in general, though, the scene has its moments, like when an illogical Drax declares that the monster has too tough an outer layer to penetrate and leaps into its open mouth to try to kill it from inside, a decision that mystifies his team.
You just can’t stay mad at this movie. The story of “Vol. 2” is driven by the emergence of Peter’s mysterious alien father, who proves to be a celestial being named Ego, portrayed by Kurt Russell (“The Fate of the Furious”). (The movie begins with a prologue in which a strikingly young-looking Russell — no doubt due to computer trickery — is romancing Peter’s mother in 1980 Missouri, including taking her into the woods behind a Dairy Queen to show her some sort of glowing thing he has growing in the ground, which will be important later.)
“I can’t believe I fell in love with a spaceman,” says Laura Haddock’s Meredith Quill, who, we know from the first movie, will die from a brain tumor, an incident that will devastate her son.
Back in the present, after slaying the aforementioned beast on the behalf of an oddly shiny race of people known as the Sovereign who are ruled by golden High Priestess Ayesha (Elizabeth Debicki), the Guardians soon are on the run from their remote-controlled armada. The reason? The raccoon-like Rocket, for pretty much no reason other than he could and is generally a jerk, stole some of the Sovereign’s powerful and valuable batteries.
That leads to a rescue by Ego, who says he has been searching for Peter for a long time. Although Peter doesn’t entirely trust Pops, he, Gamora and Drax agree to accompany him in his weird little egg-shaped ship back to his supposedly wondrous homeworld. Rocket, Baby Groot and their prisoner, Gamora’s revenge-thirsty sister, Nebula (Karen Gillan), stay behind on the planet where their ship has crashed and is badly damaged.
While Peter’s former father figure and current rival Yondu (a returning Michael Rooker) and his gang of Ravagers track the ship to the planet and tangle with the always armed-to-the-teeth Rocket, Peter and Ego bond in paradise while a leery Gamora watches from afar.
And then there’s Drax, the MVP of “Vol. 2.” The obtuse, muscle-packed being spends time with Mantis (Pom Klementieff), an empath who is an aide of sorts to Ego. Despite the two small antennas protruding from the top of her forehead, she is perfectly attractive; however, Drax makes clear he finds her extremely ugly, which he sees in his unique way as something quite admirable.
As the somewhat messy story of “Vol. 2” unfolds to bring the various plot threads together into one big congealed thing, Drax remains the reliable comic center. Wrestler-turned-actor Bautista improves upon his solid performance in the first movie, crushing each of his wonderfully absurd lines, often punctuated by his powerful, over-the-top laugh. He is a delight.
The rest of the characters are slightly less interesting versions of what we got in the first movie. Given the story line, it’s understandable that Pratt isn’t as consistently funny this time. Saldana is a little underutilized as Gamora, who clearly cares deeply for Peter but doesn’t want to show it too much. Cooper, meanwhile, is charged with making Rocket even more of a feather-ruffling guy, er, rodent-guy this time. Largely because of his antics, he and Peter constantly bicker, but Rocket does find some common ground with Yondu, of all people.
And Baby Groot? He’s not as consistently funny as the trailers would suggest. On the other hand, one of the Ravagers is correct when he says Baby Groot, with those expressive eyes, is “too adorable to kill.” There is no question.
As for why “Vol. 2” doesn’t quite live up to its predecessor, the writing isn’t as tight this time around, perhaps Gunn missing “Guardians” co-writer Nicole Perlman. This could have been addressed somewhat in editing, but “Vol. 2” is allowed to balloon to well more than two hours. Relatedly, there are five — yes, five — scenes peppered throughout the closing credits, and, honestly, none of them is worth hanging around for.)
Really, though, it feels like Marvel Studio gave Gunn and the rest of the filmmakers too much money to spend. Considering the first movie made more than $770 million worldwide at the box office, no doubt more bucks were thrown at making “Vol. 2” a real spectacle.
And it is that. It dazzles the eye, but it doesn’t leave you wanting more.
There is plenty of action, along with sufficient laughs and even a couple of fun cameos in “Vol. 2. As Peter announces early on before the fight with the tentacled beast, “It’s showtime, (expletive)!”
Showtime, yes, but not much more.