Guardians Of The Galaxy 2 Review
Hey Youtubers! This is Charlie. This is going to be my full Guardians of the Galaxy 2 Review so when I do get to spoilers I'll just say "Spoiler Warning." So here we go. Most of you have probably already seen the movie but it's dropping this week in America so I'm going to do the giveaway for IMAX tickets. All you have to do to enter is be a subscriber, leave a comment on this video.
So I've had the chance to see the movie at least once more since I posted my non spoilery review. There's really only a couple things I've changed my opinion on. But I'll still say that James Gunn is probably one of the best if not "The Best" film maker SINGLE film maker because The Russos are two people in the Marvel cinematic universe right now. Now there are a couple new directors that are dropping like Taika Waititi is going to be doing Thor Ragnarok later this year.
We haven't seen any of his Marvel films before so you can't really judge him yet. But James Gunn is so good at what he does that he is now sort of like the overseer of Marvel's cosmic universe. And if you're not already excited for Guardians 3 based on some of the post credit scenes, what they've said is that Guardians 3 is going to set up the next ten years of Marvel cosmic films. He is the defacto living tribunal of the Marvel Universe.
So there's all kinds of cosmic things that he teased that they are going to be developing, what other species we'll be seeing. But as I talk about some of the characters and some of the issues I had with the way it used the villains like the Sovereign. We'll talk about the current state of Marvel's cosmic races but overall the film was amazing. Definitely go see it in theaters.
It wasn't quite able to capture the magic of the first film, the sense of discovery because in that first film Everything was new and they went super weird and in an attempt to not recycle everything very formulaicly he tried to be very different with where he took the sequel. Tried to keep it very self contained but I feel like a few of those choices limited the film a little bit. And there were a couple complaints that I had with over reliance on certain types of humor and certain bits that just went on too long. But the character work was amazing! So comparing it to the first film the characters were much better.
The villains were a little bit better too. Ronin from the first film suffered from a lot of those Marvel under developed villain problems. That's been a common problem for the MCU. They're slowly moving away from that.
I think Thanos is probably going to be the best example that maybe the Black Panther villains like Kilgore or even Michael Keaton's vulture character in Spiderman Homecoming...Maybe they'll break that cycle. Because they are some Grade A actors. And Kate Blanchett is going to be an amazing villain. So Elizabeth Debicki as a Yesha was a great character but there just wasn't a whole lot of her.
They teased her at the end of the movie. She's going to be a much bigger thing in Guardians 3. So I will be doing separate post credit videos later this week after everybody has a chance to see the movie because there's a whole bunch of stuff that happens during them. Some of them are way more important than others.
Especially the ones that are relevant to Yondu's character. So we'll start with Yondu. Yondu had the best arch in the film. He was the best character.
And I've already said a lot about how the character found his way into the first Guardians film. It was a very round about way. Like he wasn't originally intended to be part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. But now he sets up this huge arch that's going to continue in other Marvel movies.
So you talk about Sylvester Stallone's character in those Easter eggs. They'll continue to be big characters in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. They've already said that even if they don't show up in the third Guardians film they will show up in other Marvel films. You know maybe the Thor franchise just because they're cosmic but because there are so many unknown questions about what kind of movies they're going to do in phase 4 and which other franchises are going to get a third or fourth movie.
We just don't know which movie exactly they are going to pop up in. But talking about backstory, so that's all related to Yondu's backstory. They tease this grand history of the Marvel Cosmic Universe. Alot of things that the Guardians are experiencing.
The trouble that they're having inside their families. Sort of them fighting happened before with Yondu and a bunch of his friends. So I love the way that they weave in all this new Ego the Living Planet story to the Yondu story as well as Peter Quill's history at the same time. So you learn a lot about his character, the history of the Marvel Universe in celestial constructs so in that way the movie is very big while at the same time being very small.
So when people say it's a small movie, the biggest complaint I've seen by far is that there's very little plot. That's not wrong. The characters do a lot of things but when you look at it from a bigger perspective really not a lot happens in the film. And then them meeting up with Ego the Living Planet and then the big revelation about what his story line is.
So really that's about it. So it's not like they're teasing big infinity war stuff which I think alot of people expected because Thanos was in the first movie so if there's anything that it failed to deliver on it was like big universe changing things. Even though I thought it did a very good job of introducing very big concepts in the Marvel Universe, we haven't learned a lot about the celestials. There was the collector that teased the infinity gems.That was a big reveal.
There's not really anything on that level in this movie. There are a couple big character reveals that I thought were well used. Which I will explain in one of my post credit scene videos but the other big setup for the new character that you've been waiting for this whole time at the end. So major bonus points for doing all the things that you thought that they were not going to do.
Like if you remember comic book fans complaining because hey where's Adam Warlock. Where are all these other characters? What's going on? This looks so different from the comics. James Gunn has so much comic book stuff in this movie but some of it's done in such a subtle way that you'd almost miss it if you weren't a huge comic book fan and looking for those things. And most of the problems the film has I think are largely in due to the first film just being so magical and so fresh.
Like Oh my God this looks so different from all these other Marvel films. This is amazing! So the benchmark is just way too high. You can do really weird stuff and they do. Ego the Living Planet is so weird in the movie I love it and they are relatively true to his origin story even though technically he's not a celestial in the comics.
He's closer to being one of the elders of the universe but usually those aren't things that I complain about. I didn't even think they were going to do Adam Warlock in the Marvel Cinematic Universe but now they're like Oh Yeah we are definitely going to do him after Guardians 3. He is totally a thing. Most of the complaints that you hear about the film this week will probably be about the humor.
The Drax character is totally interesting but I feel like once you get more into his back story and start talking about Moon Dragon, his daughter, I think it will get way better. But they definitely over rely on him for some humor that just does not land. So I totally forgive him for it. But I feel like the big surprise was that Baby Groot worked so well.
You'd think it would be super cringy but he actually was a pretty amazing part of the film. But I will go ahead and say careful for spoilers as we get into like the last part of the video. I'll be a little bit more specific about the things that I liked, things I didn't like, and Vin Diesel has been teasing that you have not seen full blown Groot yet. Even though he was an adult in the first film, they're like "You have not seen GROOT unchained!" So just to explain the time line a little bit, from this film to Infinity War there's going to be about 4 years that pass between the end of Guardians 2 and the beginning of Infinity War.
So if there was any question they're just implying that Baby Groot will be full blown Groot by the time we get to Thanos Infinity Gauntlet. But Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana, Dave Bautista, Karen Gillan, even Sean Gunn as Kraglin the Ravager, really all the ravagers...Everybody was FANTASTIC! All the performances were great. It will be a fun movie to re watch even if you know the plot. Like I feel like the best Marvel films are the ones that you are able to re watch multiple times because even if you know the plot It's just so fun to watch the characters on screen.
Robert Downey Jr has that special charisma that you just instantly forgive most of the faults in all the Iron Man films. And a lot of the same is true for Guardians of the Galaxy 2. Kurt Russell is an amazing villain in the movie. And even though I don't always like the movies that he is in I always like what he does in each of his movies.
The trailers have not done him justice. He gets vicious in this film. My real big Ego complaint is in that you don't learn too much about his back story other than he has this grand plan. He wants to replace all of life with him.
Like he's literally just terraforming the entire universe into more Ego the Living Planet. But beyond that he's a little under served for someone that's so big in the cosmic sense. He's supposed to be a celestial in this movie. You would think that it'd be a much bigger thing.
But James Gunn teased that they spent a lot of time setting his character up. He's an important part of the Marvel Universe. I suppose there are ways that he can always come back in the future as opposed to characters like Yondu who sacrificed himself Han Solo style. Or the original way that Harrison Ford wanted Han Solo to die, redeeming himself while at the same time going out in a blaze of glory.
A literal blaze of glory. There is a certain sense of disappointment in that it's not quite as connected or overlapping with Thor Ragnarok or the other Marvel films as you would like. You have that certain expectations of Marvel films but I think that's also in service of trying to keep it relatively self contained. So even though they don't hijack this movie with a bunch of other stuff, there is this sense that something is missing In that you don't see other big characters pop up in a plot based way teeing up big events that are happening next like post credit style.
So yes the Grand Master does show up. So that's the connection because we will see him in that movie. It's not as big as other post credit scenes that you have seen before like the Doctor Strange/Thor Ragnarok post credit scene. So a bit of a thumbs down on that.
So overall I give the film a B+ almost an A-. It just dragged down a little bit by some of the comedy that doesn't land and it really does lean on the comedy. So it's an amazing film. Definitely go see it.
And let me know what you guys thought of it if you have. And then we have to talk about the special thing that is Stan Lee in this movie. So like I said it's meant to be a small movie, relatively plotless, But they do really big things, introduce really big concepts. So because of the big Stan Lee twist we now have a unifying theory of the Marvel Cinematic Universe and of all Stan Lee Marvel cameos.
So you'll probably see that video in a couple more days like my post credit scene videos and my Guardians 3 video. And what's going to happen later tonight is there's going to be a new Wonder Woman trailer. So that will be my next video and it should post in a couple of hours. But while you wait for that you can click here for my new Infinity War video talking about Captain America's timeline and you can click here for a brand new Flash.
Thank you so much for watching. Let's high five and I'll see you guys tonight..
So I've had the chance to see the movie at least once more since I posted my non spoilery review. There's really only a couple things I've changed my opinion on. But I'll still say that James Gunn is probably one of the best if not "The Best" film maker SINGLE film maker because The Russos are two people in the Marvel cinematic universe right now. Now there are a couple new directors that are dropping like Taika Waititi is going to be doing Thor Ragnarok later this year.
We haven't seen any of his Marvel films before so you can't really judge him yet. But James Gunn is so good at what he does that he is now sort of like the overseer of Marvel's cosmic universe. And if you're not already excited for Guardians 3 based on some of the post credit scenes, what they've said is that Guardians 3 is going to set up the next ten years of Marvel cosmic films. He is the defacto living tribunal of the Marvel Universe.
So there's all kinds of cosmic things that he teased that they are going to be developing, what other species we'll be seeing. But as I talk about some of the characters and some of the issues I had with the way it used the villains like the Sovereign. We'll talk about the current state of Marvel's cosmic races but overall the film was amazing. Definitely go see it in theaters.
It wasn't quite able to capture the magic of the first film, the sense of discovery because in that first film Everything was new and they went super weird and in an attempt to not recycle everything very formulaicly he tried to be very different with where he took the sequel. Tried to keep it very self contained but I feel like a few of those choices limited the film a little bit. And there were a couple complaints that I had with over reliance on certain types of humor and certain bits that just went on too long. But the character work was amazing! So comparing it to the first film the characters were much better.
The villains were a little bit better too. Ronin from the first film suffered from a lot of those Marvel under developed villain problems. That's been a common problem for the MCU. They're slowly moving away from that.
I think Thanos is probably going to be the best example that maybe the Black Panther villains like Kilgore or even Michael Keaton's vulture character in Spiderman Homecoming...Maybe they'll break that cycle. Because they are some Grade A actors. And Kate Blanchett is going to be an amazing villain. So Elizabeth Debicki as a Yesha was a great character but there just wasn't a whole lot of her.
They teased her at the end of the movie. She's going to be a much bigger thing in Guardians 3. So I will be doing separate post credit videos later this week after everybody has a chance to see the movie because there's a whole bunch of stuff that happens during them. Some of them are way more important than others.
Especially the ones that are relevant to Yondu's character. So we'll start with Yondu. Yondu had the best arch in the film. He was the best character.
And I've already said a lot about how the character found his way into the first Guardians film. It was a very round about way. Like he wasn't originally intended to be part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. But now he sets up this huge arch that's going to continue in other Marvel movies.
So you talk about Sylvester Stallone's character in those Easter eggs. They'll continue to be big characters in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. They've already said that even if they don't show up in the third Guardians film they will show up in other Marvel films. You know maybe the Thor franchise just because they're cosmic but because there are so many unknown questions about what kind of movies they're going to do in phase 4 and which other franchises are going to get a third or fourth movie.
We just don't know which movie exactly they are going to pop up in. But talking about backstory, so that's all related to Yondu's backstory. They tease this grand history of the Marvel Cosmic Universe. Alot of things that the Guardians are experiencing.
The trouble that they're having inside their families. Sort of them fighting happened before with Yondu and a bunch of his friends. So I love the way that they weave in all this new Ego the Living Planet story to the Yondu story as well as Peter Quill's history at the same time. So you learn a lot about his character, the history of the Marvel Universe in celestial constructs so in that way the movie is very big while at the same time being very small.
So when people say it's a small movie, the biggest complaint I've seen by far is that there's very little plot. That's not wrong. The characters do a lot of things but when you look at it from a bigger perspective really not a lot happens in the film. And then them meeting up with Ego the Living Planet and then the big revelation about what his story line is.
So really that's about it. So it's not like they're teasing big infinity war stuff which I think alot of people expected because Thanos was in the first movie so if there's anything that it failed to deliver on it was like big universe changing things. Even though I thought it did a very good job of introducing very big concepts in the Marvel Universe, we haven't learned a lot about the celestials. There was the collector that teased the infinity gems.That was a big reveal.
There's not really anything on that level in this movie. There are a couple big character reveals that I thought were well used. Which I will explain in one of my post credit scene videos but the other big setup for the new character that you've been waiting for this whole time at the end. So major bonus points for doing all the things that you thought that they were not going to do.
Like if you remember comic book fans complaining because hey where's Adam Warlock. Where are all these other characters? What's going on? This looks so different from the comics. James Gunn has so much comic book stuff in this movie but some of it's done in such a subtle way that you'd almost miss it if you weren't a huge comic book fan and looking for those things. And most of the problems the film has I think are largely in due to the first film just being so magical and so fresh.
Like Oh my God this looks so different from all these other Marvel films. This is amazing! So the benchmark is just way too high. You can do really weird stuff and they do. Ego the Living Planet is so weird in the movie I love it and they are relatively true to his origin story even though technically he's not a celestial in the comics.
He's closer to being one of the elders of the universe but usually those aren't things that I complain about. I didn't even think they were going to do Adam Warlock in the Marvel Cinematic Universe but now they're like Oh Yeah we are definitely going to do him after Guardians 3. He is totally a thing. Most of the complaints that you hear about the film this week will probably be about the humor.
The Drax character is totally interesting but I feel like once you get more into his back story and start talking about Moon Dragon, his daughter, I think it will get way better. But they definitely over rely on him for some humor that just does not land. So I totally forgive him for it. But I feel like the big surprise was that Baby Groot worked so well.
You'd think it would be super cringy but he actually was a pretty amazing part of the film. But I will go ahead and say careful for spoilers as we get into like the last part of the video. I'll be a little bit more specific about the things that I liked, things I didn't like, and Vin Diesel has been teasing that you have not seen full blown Groot yet. Even though he was an adult in the first film, they're like "You have not seen GROOT unchained!" So just to explain the time line a little bit, from this film to Infinity War there's going to be about 4 years that pass between the end of Guardians 2 and the beginning of Infinity War.
So if there was any question they're just implying that Baby Groot will be full blown Groot by the time we get to Thanos Infinity Gauntlet. But Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana, Dave Bautista, Karen Gillan, even Sean Gunn as Kraglin the Ravager, really all the ravagers...Everybody was FANTASTIC! All the performances were great. It will be a fun movie to re watch even if you know the plot. Like I feel like the best Marvel films are the ones that you are able to re watch multiple times because even if you know the plot It's just so fun to watch the characters on screen.
Robert Downey Jr has that special charisma that you just instantly forgive most of the faults in all the Iron Man films. And a lot of the same is true for Guardians of the Galaxy 2. Kurt Russell is an amazing villain in the movie. And even though I don't always like the movies that he is in I always like what he does in each of his movies.
The trailers have not done him justice. He gets vicious in this film. My real big Ego complaint is in that you don't learn too much about his back story other than he has this grand plan. He wants to replace all of life with him.
Like he's literally just terraforming the entire universe into more Ego the Living Planet. But beyond that he's a little under served for someone that's so big in the cosmic sense. He's supposed to be a celestial in this movie. You would think that it'd be a much bigger thing.
But James Gunn teased that they spent a lot of time setting his character up. He's an important part of the Marvel Universe. I suppose there are ways that he can always come back in the future as opposed to characters like Yondu who sacrificed himself Han Solo style. Or the original way that Harrison Ford wanted Han Solo to die, redeeming himself while at the same time going out in a blaze of glory.
A literal blaze of glory. There is a certain sense of disappointment in that it's not quite as connected or overlapping with Thor Ragnarok or the other Marvel films as you would like. You have that certain expectations of Marvel films but I think that's also in service of trying to keep it relatively self contained. So even though they don't hijack this movie with a bunch of other stuff, there is this sense that something is missing In that you don't see other big characters pop up in a plot based way teeing up big events that are happening next like post credit style.
So yes the Grand Master does show up. So that's the connection because we will see him in that movie. It's not as big as other post credit scenes that you have seen before like the Doctor Strange/Thor Ragnarok post credit scene. So a bit of a thumbs down on that.
So overall I give the film a B+ almost an A-. It just dragged down a little bit by some of the comedy that doesn't land and it really does lean on the comedy. So it's an amazing film. Definitely go see it.
And let me know what you guys thought of it if you have. And then we have to talk about the special thing that is Stan Lee in this movie. So like I said it's meant to be a small movie, relatively plotless, But they do really big things, introduce really big concepts. So because of the big Stan Lee twist we now have a unifying theory of the Marvel Cinematic Universe and of all Stan Lee Marvel cameos.
So you'll probably see that video in a couple more days like my post credit scene videos and my Guardians 3 video. And what's going to happen later tonight is there's going to be a new Wonder Woman trailer. So that will be my next video and it should post in a couple of hours. But while you wait for that you can click here for my new Infinity War video talking about Captain America's timeline and you can click here for a brand new Flash.
Thank you so much for watching. Let's high five and I'll see you guys tonight..
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