I'm so happy with this sequel! I'm rarely satisfied with sequels but Guardians 2 really exceeded my expectations. The film was more meaningful than the first because it explores the idea of family. And I actually felt sad. Superhero movies usually do not affect me emotionally (usually it's Pixar, and sometimes Disney), so this was surprising.
I wish DC's Suicide Squad was half as good! If you think about it, the five of them were bad guys before they got together and saved the universe. I mean, we first saw Peter Quill in the first movie stealing an orb (or Infinity Stone); Gamora is a trained assassin and an adopted daughter of Thanos; Rocket and Groot are bounty hunters, mercenaries or whatever... They met Drax in jail, so I guess he was somehow a bad guy too, although he was introduced as a warrior with a tragic backstory who sought revenge on Thanos. But whatever. All of them are likable criminals and social misfits. You'd actually care what happens to them, unlike the characters in Suicide Squad. Anyway, this blog post would be about the characters based on the films not the comics.
The first scene was already funny because of Baby Groot! I loved Groot in the first movie and how he sacrificed himself to save everyone (awww) and now that he's in baby form he's even cuter. The Guardians were about to fight this disgusting creature called an Abilisk and Rocket was concerned about getting the sound system up so they could work while music played! Baby Groot was just dancing along until Drax does something absolutely stupid (just as he did in the first movie, when he actually called Ronan over for a fight.) which was to jump into the Abilisk and try to cut through its skin because he could not penetrate it from the outside. Drax needs some common sense knocked into him because obviously slashing it from the inside did not work.
There are some creepy golden aliens, called the Sovereign race, and they procreate by choosing the best genetics. Jeez, what perfectionists. Apparently, the deal was that if the Guardians could get rid of the ugly monster thingy, they would hand over Gamora's sister, Nebula. Gamora takes her sister as prisoner, Rocket reveals that he stole some pretty golden batteries, and soon, the Sovereign are after them. Thankfully, Starlord's father shows up (they called him a "one inch man" at first LOL. "That's how eyesight works!"), eliminates all the drones (the Sovereign are so advanced that they send drones, which are operated from their home planet like arcade machines). Although they are saved, the Guardians crash land on some planet.
Peter, Gamora and Drax go off with Ego (Peter's father) and this bug-eyed alien who serves him. Her name is Mantis and she has huge eyes and feelers. Instead of telepathy, she has the power of empathy and she's an "empath". In a funny scene, she shows the trio her power by touching Peter and saying that she could feel his "sexual love" for Gamora. Drax laughs so loudly and it's hilarious when Mantis touches him and ends up laughing as well! Drax is so simple minded and he was really the highlight of the film (other than Groot, of course) because he created so many funny moments. And Mantis said this with such wide-eyed innocence that it was like they'd make a cute couple! Both of them are just so straightforward! But Drax kept telling her that she was ugly. I'm not sure why because she's not, but maybe his alien race has different standards of beauty. And bugs aren't usually pretty (apart from butterflies, I guess). Or maybe he's doing the classic, "I'm insulting you because I like you" thing. Anyway, Mantis tells them that her role is to help Ego by getting him to sleep when he has to.
Rocket and Baby Groot stay behind to fix the ship and guard Nebula. However, Yondu and his crew show up. Rocket managed to play a few tricks on them but there were too many to defeat. Yondu was sent to capture the Guardians for the Sovereign leader. He's also the guy who abducted Quill when he was a kid so he's sort of Quill's foster father. So obviously, he wasn't gonna turn them over to the Sovereign. He told his crew, okay, let's just take the batteries and sell them. The crew decided that Yondu has gone soft, stages a mutiny and kills those who are loyal to Yondu by leaving them out in space to suffocate and die. Rocket and Yondu are locked up and Groot is bullied (aww). But okay, let's face it. From the poster itself, it's pretty obvious that Baby Groot was gonna be the one who crawls into small spaces and gets them out of trouble. Although in this case, all Groot had to do was find the captain's drawer and get the red fin that Yondu is supposed to wear on top of his head. He gets it totally wrong, until some dude called Kraglin helps out, feeling sad that mutineers (like Taserface. As Rocket mentioned, it's a stupid name) killed all his friends.
I forgot to mention that Nebula escapes and flies a ship to Ego's planet. She tries to kill Gamora who was sulking in a field (because she had a spat with Peter) and even though it seems like they were about to kill each other, they don't. Because even though Nebula hates her sister for winning every fight they ever had while they were training, deep down she knows it isn't Gamora's fault. I mean, Gamora was just doing her best to survive under Thanos and his weird rules. It's not Gamora's fault that Nebula was "upgraded" by Thanos every time she lost, and Nebula definitely hates Thanos because in the first film, she did tell Ronan that she would help him kill her father. So I guess, although there's bitter rivalry on the surface, there's actually sibling love? Later in the film, Nebula helps the Guardians fight the Sovereign fleet again, by allowing herself to be electrocuted so that the lasers could be powered up. Gamora offered her a place in the team but she declines. She and Gamora share an awkward hug before she leaves.
Apart from sisterly love, the main story is about Peter and his father, Ego. He explains that he's a Celestial, or a "god" with a small letter "g". He's immortal and has created his own planet, which is a beautiful but creepy place because nobody else lives in it. Gamora and Nebula find this cave full of skulls and bones, which obviously means that Ego has killed a bunch of people and that there's something wrong with him. Mantis also warns Drax about Ego. Peter was being hypnotized by Ego and he explained that basically, he needed another Celestial being to help him with his evil plan of getting rid of all the other planets. So he had sex with a bunch of women and got Yondu to collect his offspring for him. When he found out that they didn't have Celestial power or whatever, he'd kill them. What the heck? First of all, he's a ruthless asshole who kills his own children. Secondly, he manipulated so many females and pretended that he was in love with them! What a jerk. (Can totally see why his name is "Ego" now) But the thing that triggers Peter is the fact that Ego actually implanted the tumour in his mother's brain, which caused her to die. He snaps out of hypnosis and is furious because his father has been lying about how much he loved his mother (and also because Ego destroyed his walkman).
The final battle was intense yet hilarious. So Ego is the ultimate bad guy, trying to kill everyone who stands in his way. He's a Celestial so it's extremely unfair. And in come the Sovereign drones once more, but they were defeated with lasers as mentioned earlier. Mantis managed to buy some time by getting Ego to sleep for a while. The best part was when Rocket instructs Baby Groot about the bomb he has made using the stolen batteries. Groot was to carry the bomb to Ego's brain (which is a physical thing outside his body, like a core) and he's the only one small enough to get there (see, told you so). Rocket gets Baby Groot to repeat the instructions back to him but Groot keeps getting it wrong! So cute. And Quill pops his head in to say that Rocket is making him nervous! Okay, all of them are trying to be good parents to Baby Groot and it is so adorable. Rocket asks for some tape but nobody has any, and Groot quickly runs off with the bomb. Somehow he doesn't push the death button and gets the instructions right in the end. Yay, Groot always comes through! During the fight, Peter compares Yondu (who was holding onto his arrow and drifting down to the ground) to Mary Poppins and Yondu doesn't get it, referring to Mary Poppins as a "he" and asking if "he" was cool. HAHA.
At one point, Ego was almost winning and all the planets were about to get destroyed. However, Peter finally uses his own Celestial power against his father and creates... PAC MAN. That was awesome! Okay eventually the bomb explodes, everyone makes it to the ship alive except Yondu and Peter (because he was still fighting his father). Yondu, his foster father, saves him and sacrifices himself. He places the oxygen suit or whatever that bubble wrap thing is on Peter, and he just suffocates and dies. That was a surprisingly sad scene! I didn't even know I cared about Yondu as a character until he died and I started tearing up. How did this even happen? Okay, Yondu is such a bad ass himself. He had this awesome red arrow which he controls by whistling and that's how he killed all the men who turned on him. But most of all, he was Quill's real Dad (even if they aren't genetically related) because he actually brought him up and protected him no matter what. Sure, the joke that he would eat Peter was scary to him as a kid, but which parent didn't like scaring their kids with stories about the Boogeyman or whatever else that applies to your culture?
And okay, again Yondu wasn't perfect. He did send lots of children to their doom, since he delivered them to Ego. But he did this under Ego's orders, not knowing the implications of his actions until much later, which is also why he didn't hand Quill over after being paid and just gave an excuse to keep him, claiming that he was skinny and could fit into small spaces. There was even a proper funeral for Yondu, where Quill places the troll doll that he had given to him next to his body, together with other stuff, and he's cremated. A bunch of Ravager ships appear and there is a fireworks display in space to honour Yondu. (I wish that there was a funeral for Dumbledore in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. The films pale in comparison to the books)
The film really likes shitty paternal figures in general, with Thanos and Ego as villains in the first and second films respectively. Since they come from broken families (or, in Rocket's case, genetically enhanced by scientists), they now have each other as family. When Nebula remarks that the bunch of them aren't friends since all they do is yell at each other, Drax corrects her and says that they're family. So true! Also, in this film, it seems like more characters are able to understand Groot whenever he says "I am Groot". In the first movie, only Rocket understands him. I guess it's only natural for them to understand Groot as the 5 of them are spending more and more time together. As mentioned, they are all trying to be Groot's parents, which is really nice. In the previous film, Groot also stated, "WE ARE GROOT" just before he sacrificed himself.
I love the post-credit scenes. The best would be Baby Groot becoming Teenage Groot! He's in his room playing video games and Quill comes in to scold him for leaving his vines all over the place. HAHA. Other than that scene, Kraglin is shown having trouble controlling Yondu's arrow, and of course, a Marvel movie isn't complete without a Stan Lee cameo. He is seen as an astronaut, talking to some Watchers (another alien race). This scene was played earlier in a comical part of the movie, when Rocket, Yondu and Kraglin were doing 700 jumps to get to Ego's planet. At the end, the Watchers are seen leaving, presumably sick of listening to Stan Lee. Oh, and the soundtrack is awesome!
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 is definitely a thing. The Sovereign leader, Ayesha, has created a new artificial being called Adam (Jeez, Adam and Eve I guess?). I'm sure people familiar with the comics would know a lot more about Adam than I do. Based on the short end-credits scene, it seems like Aysha is in trouble with the Sovereign's council for her failure to capture the Guardians and so she's trying to make up for it with Adam. This sets the scene for the next movie already and I can't wait.
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