More of the same, only better!

Rating: 8/10 (17 May 2017)

This particular iteration of the MCU is starting to grow on me, particularly since 'Vol 2' gave me exactly what I required from the sequel: more Nebula, more Baby Groot, funnier jokes (the toilet humour excepted) and more originality (seriously, I spot more rip-offs from other films in GOTG every time I watch it). I also like how the whole thing kind of reminds me of classic 'Star Trek', Chris Pratt being, well, Kirk; Quill's, or Pratt-Kirk's, egotism being on a par with Pine-Kirk's from reboot Trek, but most obviously when flirting with Elizabeth Debecki's Ayesha shortly after the opening credits! Meanwhile, Zoe Saldana riffs on both her role in rebooted Trek while simultaneously serving as this series' Spock character (complete with the requisite green skin),struggling to keep her emotions in check while at the same time being patronizing to her less evolved crewmates.
Anyway, keeping things as spoiler-free as possible, Kurt Russell makes a great Kurt Russell as he portrays Pratt-Kirk's 'celestial' father; reuniting with his earthling progeny for not particularly altruistic reasons (and his name is pretty much a spoiler hidden in plain sight). Ga-hura works out some sibling rivalry issues with her cyborg sis (and I definitely require more from Miss Gillen in the inevitable next installment) by way of a sequence clearly inspired by 'North by Northwest', Rockett steals the 'cow' joke from 'Father Ted' (as well as other more plot-significant things) and participates with Yondu in my favorite sequence in the movie, as Yondu retakes his ship in a very 'Pirates of the Caribbean' fashion. Dave Bautista earns his paycheck as Drax, with some laugh out loud dialogue to go with his impressive physical acting. Baby Groot is, well, go see for yourself but in my humble opinion he steals the show.
The weaknesses (IMHO) of the original are still there though; some pretty uninspired, CGI-heavy action sequences (and was Ego's manifestation of himself throughout the Universe as a blue-grey blob, reminiscent of, well, 'The Blob', really the best they could do visually to realise his plan to reshape the Universe in his own image?), the afore-mentioned toilet humour, Saldana'a woefully limited acting range (which is further exposed by pitting her against Karen Gillen) and over-reliance on shots from other (not necessarily better) movies; for example: if you've already successfully sneaked in a copy of the 'Avengers Assemble' tracking shot in your first movie, why go all-out and simply rip it off in the second?