Guardians Of the Galaxy VOL. 2 May 5, 2017

Guardians of the Galaxy VOL 2

So, here’s my pet pisser: Star Trek Beyond (2016), The Fate of the Furious (2017) and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 play around with the meaning of the  word “family” but never really explore the concept of family. Why? I mean, why just pay lip service to it if you’re really not going to do some extra, super-duper deep soul searching and exploration as to what the hell having a family really, really means in human terms? Granted, Guardians Vol. 2 does take it farther than Beyond or “Fate of the Furious”  but it still seemed a bit surface to me, more a shallow attempt at a plot device than an honest exploration of what I always have heard is a human necessity, the family.

Having got that out of my system, I gotta say Guardian is an eye popping, ear blasting megaton bomb of fun!  Yeah, it’s silly, it’s stupid, it has the emotional and intellectual depth of a teaspoon of water but it is . . . FUN! How do I describe the sensory, mind blowing world of GG Vol. 2? I know. It would be like you took a hit of Windowpane (if you don’t know what Windowpane is, you’re too young to read this review.), jumped into a time machine to 1975 (or there about) and went to a full-tilt Disco party! Yeah that’s it!

Chris Pratt (Star-Lord) and Zoe Saldana (Gamora) are a solid good at portraying the mom and dad of this dysfunctional galactic family of misfits and outlaws. But the real “heroes” of this movie are the supporting characters. Dave Bautista as the socially inept Drax the Destroyer is wonderfully funny. Yeah, he’s totally someone you don’t want to invite to a party because he would insult everyone  . . . but it’s fun to watch him “accidently” destroy the self-esteem of everyone around him. Pom Klementieff  as Mantis, the snail girl with the ability to feel the emotions of other is both charming and creepy at the same time! But the real star of this amazing piece of cotton candy is “Baby” Groot (voice and motion capture performed by Vin Diesel). Dude, BG is one of the funniest, heartwarming characters to come around in a long time. And he really does capture our heart! We’re sad for him when he’s mistreated by the “adults,” and we genuinely fear for his wellbeing whenever he is put in harm’s way! Baby Groot rules.

Like Kong: Skull Island (2017), Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 is a great “popcorn” movie and is totally enjoyable. It’s so good that I didn’t really care if it had any intellectual meaning. And that, to me, really says something about this movie.