Subverts expectations, but half of the movie is a slog

Rating: 6/10 (17 April 2019)

I along with many other people loved the first Guardians when it came out. No one knew what it was, though I had some minor knowledge of them from the comics. It was a hit so obviously Marvel was gonna do more.
The way this movie starts off is something James Gunn did as he probably wanted to subvert the expectations of what people thought would happen. Everyone though after the initial scene that they would fly off and find an adventure together and have a fun romp like the first one with the crew getting along and having a blast of an adventure.
Instead after the opening bit, he pretty much reduces their relationships to rubble as well as Star-Lord's iconic ship. I don't mind Gunn doing something that we didn't expect, but its after this point that the movie splits into two stories as the Guardians split into two groups.
Peter, Drax, and Gamorra go to Peter's father's planet. The 2nd group starts with Groot, Rocket, and Nebula, and but then adds on Yondu and the mutinous crew of Ravagers. The Rocket/Yondu/Groot story felt fun and like an adventure that we would see the Guardians take part of. The Star-Lord/Father bit is one of the slowest, uninteresting thing you could ever watch in an "adventure" movie.
That whole side of the story is just exposition after exposition and you 100% know his father is going to turn out evil, no question. So since there is no question or doubt he will be bad, you spend all of those times they cut back to it just waiting and waiting for the turn to happen and it is so dull. They also take quite a while introducing and getting us used to Mantis, which is fine, but the pace at which they do that along with the Peter/Father stuff just brings the whole movie down.
There's way too many repeated jokes that are just annoying (ie "It's Not Ripe yet", "Tazerface", the many times Rocket is made fun of, and some really unneeded sexual humor).
I just wish they had tackled the Star Lord's father part of the script differently. It just brings down the movie so much whenever they cut back to it. Also the Yondu/Peter father/son relationship felt way too forced. Since they don't see each other until the end there is no buildup to them ever having that kind of relationship. Even in the first movie it's never alluded to that Yondu raised Peter like a son.
It's a shame as the opening is fantastic, there are small bits here and there that are really good, and the final action scene is great. It's just the Star Lord/father stuff that really wasn't done well and the overused jokes just really become annoying. I'd watch a Yondu/Rocket/Groot full on movie over what they split this movie into.