'Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2' is Marvel at its most emotional
The Marvel Cinematic Universe is 15 films deep as of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, and in a lot of ways it's starting to show. Doctor Strange suffered from feeling too much like an Iron Man retread; Ant-Man demonstrated just how far these movies could (or rather couldn't) stray from that true-and-tested formula; and so on.
But Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 also serves as a reminder of why it is we keep coming back to these movies, even as we know every single time that the heroes will prevail and the world will not end: it's the characters, stupid.
The plot of Vol. 2 takes a few twists and turns, but ultimately boils down to two major through lines: Two separate groups, the Ravagers and the Sovereign, are hunting down the Guardians; and Star-Lord (Chris Pratt) finally meets his biological father, Ego the Living Planet (Kurt Russell).
You can make some guesses as to where the film goes from there. At some point, the fate of the galaxy will be at stake, just as the fate of the world is routinely brought to bear for our Earth-oriented heroes. And while the team is broken up for large swaths of the movie, you can bet they'll converge by the third act for the requisite hero shot.
But along the way, director James Gunn imbues the characters with surprising depth.
The first Guardians got a lot of affection for its cheeky humor, its wacky world-building, its rollicking rock soundtrack, and its unusually broad color palette. At the same time, it reached for real emotion, opening with the death of Peter Quill's mother and winding down with Groot's heroic self-sacrifice.
Vol. 2 duplicates the liveliness of its predecessor, and pushes it to the outer realms. The fight scene that opens the movie is a thing of joy, and not just because it features tons and tons of Baby Groot – it's playfully choreographed and shot, with plenty of time set aside for one-liners to get us re-acquainted with the Guardians. The rest of the film has '80s references and deep-cut cameos aplenty, and the Guardians carry along with the same irreverence that made them feel like such unlikely marquee superheroes in the first place. And it all wraps up with one of the most beautiful sequences in MCU history, a mosaic of light in every color of the rainbow.
But Vol. 2 really doubles down on the feels.
Basically any ensemble adventure will spend some time on the drama that ensues when big personalities clash – think of Tony and Steve's sparring egos in the first Avengers movie, the second Avengers movie, and Civil War – but Vol. 2 taps into the insecurity and loneliness that comes along with it as well.
Every superhero worth their salt nowadays comes packaged with a tragic backstory, an emptiness that apparently only superhero-ing can fill. Vol. 2 lives in those old wounds, and somehow does so without ever losing sight of what makes these films so fun.
This is seen most obviously in Star-Lord, who wrestles with the unexpected arrival of the father he's yearned for all his life. Elsewhere, Rocket (voiced by Bradley Cooper, laying the Philly on thicker than ever) grapples with his deep uncertainty about his role on the team, and Gamora (Zoe Saldana) and Nebula (Karen Gillan) have their own sisterly issues to sort out. But the most moving example of Vol. 2's focus on family and relationships is Yondu (Michael Rooker), who finds himself torn between his loyalty to the Ravagers and his soft spot for Star-Lord.
Rooker is the kind of reliably employed character actor you've definitely seen in other stuff, even if you can't quite place where. But in Vol. 2, he gives a performance that'll make audiences sit up and wonder why he isn't a bigger star. He's funny, yes, and he's got swagger to spare – but his brilliance really shines in those in-between moments, when Yondu thinks no one is looking. There's a slump to his shoulders, a glint in his eyes, that tells us more about who he is and what drives him than pages and pages of dialogue ever could.
And that right there is the heart of the Marvel machine. Nearly a decade into the Marvel Cinematic Universe, we know more or less what to expect from every new installment, for better or for worse. We may never get as something as unique as a Logan, but at least we'll never get something as misguided as a Suicide Squad.
The fact that we've got no fewer than six MCU movies coming over the next two years should be enough to make even the most die-hard fan sigh with preemptive exhaustion. But we'll be there opening weekend for every single one, and films like Vol. 2 are why. As long as this franchise continues to invest in characters we can't help but love, it'll remain impossible to quit.
