Even better than the first

Rating: 8/10 (4 July 2017)

Even better than the first. It's even funnier for starters, more colorful and eclectic, but more importantly it has a more character- driven plot -- everyone is given something to do and each individual sub-plot is special in its own way.
Yondu comes out of nowhere to steal the show from everyone else. Michael Rooker does a lot with a single posture and look (see -- him standing in the brothel window) that helps to solidify his place within this Galaxy as more than just another aspect of the plot. And of course his Mary Poppins line absolutely killed.
It's pretty amazing how big this cast gets here, and how the film somehow finds a way of balancing every storyline. I think a lack of a big special effects driven middle helped out a bunch there, and made the ending battle that much more special -- for once it mattered and didn't just feel like another inevitable step on the boilerplate template.
Some of the criticism I've heard surrounding this movie, especially from what I would have considered "hardcore" fans of the original, has to do with how this one just felt like an "episode" and that it didn't matter in the grand scheme of things. I took that mean -- oh no there were character archs and personal growth and the MCU and its Infinity War wasn't furthered in any substantial way. Does anyone really care that much? These characters have solidified themselves so much more in the canon of this universe. And these people also love "Star Wars", and you know, every one of those is an episode and the second part of that is mostly character so...man I really hope that isn't the consensus on this one.