Tuesday, May 16

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 Movie Review *Spoiler Free*

Back from who-knows-where, Jerhawk is here to give his review of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2. I just got back from seeing this one this past weekend, and I came away impressed and satisfied from the newest installment to the MCU. Here on XBLN, we review more than just games, we review things gamers will be interested in as well, such as movies. Click to read more of my spoiler free review.


I'll give my movie review as streamlined as possible. For those of you who haven't seen the movie yet, this is the post for you. I'll post my spoiler review later this week.

The acting overall, was very good. The only actress that I thought could've and should've given a better performance (by not needing to try so hard) was Nebula, played by Karen Gillan. Chris Pratt does an overall solid job as Star Lord, where he's faced with quite a bit more emotional revelations this time around when he meets his father Ego (played by Kurt Russell.) The entire cast put on a great performance, particularly Michael Rooker's Yondu.

By the way, speaking of Kurt Russell, the CGI animations that Disney and Co. are coming out with lately have been incredible. The first one that comes to mind was a younger version of Jeff Bridges in Tron: Legacy. Then, the younger Robert Downey Jr. scene in Captain America: Civil War. Then, the CGI reconstructed Peter Cushing as Tarkin in Rogue One (as well as Carrie Fisher's Princess Leia.) The beginning of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 has a scene of a younger CGI recreated Kurt Russell as he's seducing Peter Quill's mother, Meredith, behind a 1980's style Dairy Queen. The CGI recreation of these actor's when they were younger continues to amaze me.

Continuing with CGI, the visual effects in general for this movie was excellent. I normally try to avoid going to movies in 3-D, but I went to see this one in 3-D and was not disappointed. This film had the best 3-D effects I've seen since Avatar. I highly recommend that you spend the extra money to go see this one in 3-D. For as much CGI was this movie had, there wasn't a single scene that stood out to me as looking fake, or needing extra polish. It all looked stunning, from start to finish, and that's really something Marvel Studios has done well at, and should be proud of.

Another great element to this movie was (not surprisingly) the soundtrack. The first Guardians had a great soundtrack, and this one is just as good. The opening scene with Baby Groot galavanting his way around the battlefield as chaos ensues behind him to ELO's "Mr. Blue Sky" was a ton of fun. George Harrison's "My Sweet Lord" in another scene midway through was also perfectly used.

The movie wasn't perfect, however. The humor in this film, while still funny, missed its mark for me on a few occasions. It almost felt like the writer's needed to have comedy in every scene, and it felt a bit forced at times throughout. One running joke throughout the second and third act between Drax and Mantis became unnecessarily stale after the second time it was used. Less is more when it comes to humor in an action movie like this. The film is already goofy and funny as it is, especially with Baby Groot and Rocket the Racoon. One line from Yondu near the end of the film had me laughing out loud. Unfortunately, the constant bombardment of humor became watered down.

I also felt that the movie stalled in its second act, and lost its sense of direction for a good 30 minutes. However, once the villain is finally shown to us and a clear goal is in sight for our heroes, the movie picks up and finishes strong.

But that's just a minor complaint amongst all the positive things this movie has going for it. Overall, this movie is fun, exciting, and had my undivided attention throughout.  I'll go in depth with my spoiler review later this week.

My overall score: 8/10

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