20% brilliant, 80% boring

Rating: 5/10 (7 May 2017)

I really liked the first GOTG and had high hopes for this one. Alas, it was not to be.
To be fair, 20% of the movie is brilliant and inspired. Unfortunately, the other 80% is fall-asleep / walk-out-of-the- theater bad.
While many summer blockbusters substitute CGI for plot – and GOTG2 is no slouch in this department – GOTS2 also substitutes attempts at witty banter for plot. Neither strategy succeeds. While some of CGI is very clever – such as the sequences with Yondo's yaka arrow – the rest fall flats. The witty banter fares no better. While some quips are laugh-out-loud funny, most are repetitive and border-line irritating.
Part of the minimal plot involves (spoiler alert) Quill meeting his father, and one scenes even ends with them playing catch. (?)
Most of the GOTG1 cast is back and they're uniformly excellent. Kurt Russell stands out as Peter Quill's father, and Seth Green, Michelle Yeoh, Ving Rhames, Miley Cyrus, Jeff Goldblum, David Hasselhoff and Stan Lee each make cameo appearances.
The movie has lots of cross-references to other parts of the Marvel Universe, and the credits include not one but FOUR credit-cookies.
See it now if you're a Marvel fan. Otherwise, wait for the DVD, or just re-watch the first one.