"I'm Mary Poppins, y'all!"

Rating: 8/10 (14 May 2017)

I liked the first Guardians of the Galaxy movie. It was fun and flashy, a good summer movie. However, Volume 2 is just marvelous, a blockbuster that does more than just entertain you for two hours; this movie is character-driven, even philosophical. It touches on themes of family, love, and altruism. Like Empire Strikes Back, it is a sequel which includes everything we loved about the first installment while also upping the emotional stakes and putting the heroes we've come to love through hell and back.
A lot of summer movies come and go. You spend eight bucks, have fun for two hours, and then forget what you saw days afterward. But this movie gives you something more than a few one-liners and cool fight scenes: it's emotionally engaging. I'm more excited than ever to see what the filmmakers bring to the table in the next movie!