A whole lotta backstories

Rating: 6/10 (4 May 2017)

In short, Peter Quill's father finds him in this movie. They spend time together on a far-flung planet, getting to know each other, and then we learn the family has a secret. And it's not good. All the while, the Sovereign and their drone fleet have it in for the Guardians, but that doesn't matter a whole lot. More on that below.
Plotting on the second outing with the Guardians is a lot weaker than the first movie. This one spends quite a bit of time filling in character histories. The beginning also slips into wooden exposition of what's going on and what the Guardians are doing. The dialog has moments of snappy interchange, though.
As for the overall plot, it needed work. Peter's father, played by Kurt Russell, is a character with immense power, and that causes a problem. He's so powerful, in fact, that he completely removes any threat to Peter and his friends for most of the movie. That makes for a dullsville plot. With a character like that in the mix, writing a strong plot is a huge task to pull off successfully. In Guardians Vol. II, it didn't work out well.
What we ended up with was a dragging section from 1/3 of the movie on, at least until we learn what Peter's father is really up to. Then, we're back in business. The problem is that it takes waaaay too long for that to happen. The Sovereign and their drone fleet, as well as Yondu's bunch, cause some problems for Rocket, but they're a non- factor to the rest of the Guardians until the very end of the film.