A bit funnier but mostly the same thing

Rating: 6/10 (13 November 2017)

"How can you guys be friends? all you do is argue." asks Gomora's sister. For most of the first half, I confess, I was asking myself the very same question. The script is 80% bickering, which makes Guardians paradoxically entertaining and not. The banter is the film's highlight, but its not easy to invest in a family that only ever points out the worst in each other. Rocket has enough material to be an insult comic.
Director James Gunn's strength is his ability to set up laughs both in dialog and in shot. He has a good eye for framing shots to make the most out of the visual gags. Just when you think the movie is starting to take itself seriously, he throws in another punch.
Perhaps it could be argued then that his weakness is restraint. The action set pieces are a circus of animation and disorienting camera work, and there are far too many colours on the palette (including pink). When everything is dazzling to look at, nothing is. The climax is an especially shaky fiasco, pitting the guardians against Quill's super villain father and his generic super villain plot involving control of the universe. Here we have Kurt Russell playing Kurt Russell, and never knowing how seriously to take himself from line to line.
The script makes it a priority to shed light on Peter Quill, but less for the sake of the character and more for the sake of embedding plot device; Isn't that always the case? It's a shame that Chris Pratt has nothing to bring beyond his face. Even his one liners fall flat, because he takes himself so darned seriously for the camera.
Stan Lee gets his usual funny cameo but more unexpected is a guest appearance by Sylvestor Stallone, who is just in the movie long enough (and not too long) to be good.