Bigger, louder and (slightly ) lesser

Rating: 7/10 (6 May 2017)

Plot; The Guardians find themselves at odds with a host of adversaries while de facto leader Peter Quill discovers the truth about his parentage.
The first Guardians movie was like a breath of fresh air, breaking the (admittedly successful) Marvel/Disney mold with its colorful cast of wisecracking, misfit antiheroes. Vol. 2 can be forgiven if it lacks its predecessor's freshness, but it's still obligated to add some new dimensions, and it does. Eventually.
Cranking up the volume on everything people liked about the original, Vol. 2 seems at times as if it's trying a bit too hard to please. The humor is forced at times rather than springing organically from the plot or the characters. It's more "Okay, time for Rocket to add a wisecrack.". The same can be said of the action. It's obligatory. Grafted on. That's not to say it's not well done, but it--like the film--feels like an animal doing tricks for a treat. But the third act is when the track laid on all of the various relationships really begins to pay off, and in every instance it does so as satisfyingly as you could hope. The basic sinew of the film is family, and it's that theme that gives the movie its beating heart.
The returning cast all wear their roles like a favorite pair of jeans, and newcomers all mesh well into the fabric of the zany universe. I enjoyed spending another two hours with these characters, and they and it can be forgiven if I enjoyed it just a tad less than I did the first time.