Nice Follow-Up To The First Film

Rating: 7/10 (4 May 2019)

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 is the long awaited sequel to the surprise hit Guardians of the Galaxy. No one thought that film would be good, or be a success, but it was. Is this film good too, or did it crumble under the immense pressure. In all honesty, this film is actually a little better than the first. There's one simple reason for that; the characters and their amazing interactions and development.
Practically everything that made the first film fun and appealing is in this film; the action, the effects, the spectacle, the adventure, the humor, the music, the great characters, everything. The one thing this film does differently is the story. The first movie had a very straight forward narrative that you knew where it was taking you.
In this film you don't know where the plot is going until the third act. Some might have an issue with this, but I actually didn't mind it. With the first film you knew exactly how it was going to play out in terms of the plot. Here it could've gone in any direction, which makes it a bit more fun to watch.
What truly makes this film better to me is the character development. The first movie basically just set-up the characters, their personalities, and motivations, but focused more on the story. In this the story takes a back seat to the characters and their development and interactions. This is fine, because the characters are more important than story. The story is important, but the characters are why you care.
The character who gets the most development is star Lord, but everyone gets their development and chance to shine. Gamora, Rocket, Nebula, even Yondu all get great development. The only two major characters who lack development in this movie are Drax and Groot. Though, to be fair, there isn't much more that can be done with them, especially Drax.
The new characters are also good. Kurt Russell as star Lord's father is really good. Silvester Stallone also has a cameo in this, which was cool. The villain is another improvement over the first film. He's not an amazing villain, but he's made automatically better by the fact that he has a more personal connection with our heroes.
The one issue I had was some of the humor. The first film had good humor. I'm not saying this one did not, but there was an overabundance of it. Many sequels to films praised for their good humor will add more humor, which is usually detrimental to the movie, like Transformers 2 or Sherlock Holmes 2. This film does have that, especially in the first half. There many jokes that hit, but many that don't as well, especially Drax's humor. Drax I actually find to be the week point of this movie. Not only is he not given any real development, but most of his jokes I found lame.
Overall, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 is a fun time, especially if you enjoyed the first movie. Everything you love about that film is in this one, and then some. The comedy is hit or miss, but that's just me. Comedy is subjective.