Funny, Emotional, Smart, Characterful, Beautiful, not as good as Vol.1

Rating: 9/10 (29 April 2017)

I'll get this out of the way first; Vol. 2 doesn't beat it's predecessor, in fact it may not even equal it. Guardians of the Galaxy was a pure masterpiece of a Space Opera, and Vol. 2 never quite meets the same nigh-perfection of the first film. But I won't waste this review comparing the two movies, because the only result of that is a negative impression of Vol. 2, and that's not the impression I want to paint at all.
Vol. 2 is a Guardians movie through-and-through, utilising the same charm of the first movie to re-create it's unique footprint in the moviescape. It's bright and colourful, it's filled to the brim with a unique brand of humour, it touches on a deeper, more emotional core, it's soundtrack is made up of classic rock and pop from the 70s, and it puts it's characters before story or action. Nonetheless it does feel painfully aware of where it's come from and attempting to recapture that same feeling of the first, to the point where it can sometimes feel a little forced or unnatural.
The story, in an Empire Strikes Back kind of way, splits the team up, gives the "main" character a father figure, and brings them all together at the end. Fatherhood and family is a massive theme that permeates almost every conversation in the movie. Starlord finally gets to meet his father after nearly thirty years, while Drax continues to struggle with the loss of his wife and daughter, and Gamora and Nebula come to terms with the awful treatment they suffered from their father. Yondu and Rocket share a heartbreaking moment when they realise their loss of any kind of family gives them more in common than they ever thought as well. The Guardians are starting to turn into the space-faring version of Dom Toretto's team in the Fast and Furious franchise, but arguably do it better and touch at the emotional core of family better than any Fast and Furious movie ever could.
Vol. 2 is probably the funniest movie in the entire MCU so far, but that's not necessarily a good thing. I mean, yeah, it is. It's full to the brim with jokes, gags, one- liners, and running humour. It's easily the funniest movie I've seen in a long time, and remains quotable long after the credits have rolled. However when it comes to jokes, it just seems to keep chucking them at the screen in the hopes that most of them stick. Unfortunately a lot of them don't. Some of the gags feel forced in and ruin the already shaky pacing of the movie. One prominent example being a cool 360 montage of the team assembled and ready to take on the villain, except it's ruined by a rock knocking one of them over in the name of laughs. It was a cool moment, it didn't need comedy to make it more enjoyable than it already was.
The same criticism applies to the film's emotional moments. I'm not going to lie, Vol. 2 is surprisingly emotional, balancing out the overabundance of humour with some really serious, heartbreaking moments that offer a true insight into the deeper characters of the cast. But again it felt like some of it was forced in. As mentioned, Yondu and Rocket's exchange is really good, and Nebula's desperation to "win" over her sister has a sad tinge to it, but it never quite reaches the complete gut-wrenching emotion of the first film (yeah, I'm sorry, I had to use the comparison here). Vol. 1 has the second most tearjerking opening of any movie, and learning about Drax and Rocket's past was a genuine punch to the gut when you realise how far they've fallen from pure loneliness and lack of love and family. Vol. 2 never quite hits it despite it's numerous attempts. The closest it gets is the funeral at very the end.
Finally (yes, finally) the soundtrack is unsurprisingly great; full of 70s classics from the likes of Fleetwood Mac to Cat Stevens, Electric Light Orchestra to Parliament, Sam Cooke to George Harrison. Sometimes they serve a narrative purpose in the movie, sometimes they're used to create a juxtaposition to what's going on on-screen, and sometimes they're just used really well as part of the soundtrack's core sound. The score by Tyler Bates is also pretty good, but falls into the forgettable nature most Marvel scores suffer from. That said the Avengers theme does protrude on more than one occasion which was a really nice touch, tying what is ultimately an added extra in the MCU to the wider universe.
Vol. 2 does not compare favourably to the first one three years ago, but as Vol. 1 was a near masterpiece, that's not saying a whole lot. On it's own merits, or even compared to other Marvel movies, Vol. 2 is still pretty great. It has Marvel's most engaging villain since Loki, the most emotional resonance since Vol. 1, and is likely the funniest movie so far. It's largest downfall is trying too hard to recapture the charm of the original rather than forging it's own path. It throws in a lot of attempts to build up the Cosmic side of Marvel, and a lot of them work really well, but it sometimes detracted from the main story a little. The Sovereign's role in the climax was used as little more than motivation to come back in Vol. 3 and introduce a fan-favourite, for instance. I give Vol. 2 a low 9/10; not as good as Vol. 1, or even Winter Soldier (2014 is still Marvel's best year by far), but it's still up there with the best of them; a solid superhero movie, a solid space opera. Bring on Ragnarok later in the year when the line between Avengers and Cosmic is blurred even further!