I am so disappointed in this movie! The first movie was great with original characters and interesting plot, but this... The plot seemed to waver and the introduction of new characters felt unused. Though I enjoyed a continuation of Star-Lord's story, I did not like where it was going.
At five o'clock I was already at the Nex mall by Serangoon. Ash was meeting me there quarter to six, but I felt like I needed to walk around alone before that so I could get a feel for the mall. There are so big here in Singapore and it is easy to get lost. My feet took me up two escalators and there was H&M. Being a Swede I suppose my subconscious finds H&M before anything else to feel at home. I went around in the store but could not find anything I liked. When Ash arrived she led me to the cinema on the fourth floor, taking strange paths that I would never have found on my own.
We bought a family pack of popcorn, meaning we got one huge bowl with mixed salted and caramelised popcorns and two large drinks of our choice. Just as I was telling Ash about a popcorn incident story I squeezed her drink and it landed on the counter as well as my shorts. It was a laugh, not too much was lost. The cashier asked if I wanted a bag for the popcorn, which I gladly accepted and let Ash carry the drinks. The story about the popcorn incident was very short. I told her that once I stood still with a large popcorn in my hands when one of them suddenly taps the underside of the bowl and popcorn rains down on the rows in front of me.
Recap of the movie:
The movie starts with the gang doing a work for another alien species. While they are fighting, Baby Groot puts on some music and dances around near the camera. When the work is done, the bad alien killed, the Guardians have a meeting with the human look-a-like aliens. As payment they get Nebula as a prisoner. Rocket steals the batteries they were hired to protect which leads to them being chased and almost killed.
A man comes out of nowhere to help them out. The Guardians manage to hyper-jump and crash in a forest. The man who helped them arrives shortly after, proclaiming to be Peter's, aka Star-Lord's, father. While Rocket, Baby Groot and Nebula stay behind to repair the crashed ship, Peter, Gamora and Drax go with Peter's father Ego to his home-planet. There Ego explains himself to be a God who created the planet they stand upon and also that he appears as a human to better understand life.
While half the gang is over at Ego, the few still left at the ship are being attacked by Yondu and his crew. Rocket takes care of most of them, but when Groot is being manipulated by Nebula and releases her, she captures Rocket and Yondu. Together with other space pirates, Nebula murders most of Yondu's crew by spacing them (putting them in a airlock and send them out in space without any suit). Yondu and Rocket are placed in a cell, awaiting the arrival on some planet where Nebula will receive an award for their capture. This is the only reason why they are kept alive. Groot is being bullied and kept as a Ravager mascot, but in the end helps them escape from their cell. What follows is a lighthearted mass-murder with catchy music. There must be a couple of hundred people, dropping like flies as Rocket and Yondu walk to their freedom.
At Ego, the god/planet/human, Peter learns to control the power he has inherited from his father. While they bond by catching a lightning ball back and forth, Drax socialise with Mantis and Gamora leaves to be alone in the nature. Yondu, Rocket and Groot have managed to flee unharmed from the pirate ship and arrive at Ego, followed by Nebula who finds Gamora and starts a sister-fight.
It is the beginning of the end. They all realise they have to kill Ego. By venturing deeper inside the planet they eventually find a massive cave which holds the core, or the brain of Ego, inside a shell. While the Guardians try to figure out how to destroy the brain, the gold-painted humans arrive with their attack ships that can be steered from a distance. A fight erupts, keeping most of the Guardians busy. Groot is the only one small enough to get to the shelled brain and Rocket tried to teach him how to use the explosive. As the gold-painted humans have been dealt with, Ego arrives and the Guardians have to keep fighting. Gamora and Nebula make truce and help each other as equals.
There is a long sequence when they all try to flee to the ship on the surface, but Ego, being in control of everything, fights them all at the same time. When the brain of Ego explodes, Peter loses his demigod powers and they all manage to flee from the exploding planet. Yondu dies after just having been welcomed to the gang. Mantis is never officially introduced as part of the Guardians, but she stays with them in the end. Space pirates gather to send fireworks for Yondu's funeral. Nebula flies off to fight Thanos. End of movie.
Own thoughts:
Apart from selling merchandise, Baby Groot had little purpose in the movie. The only time he is generally useful is when nobody else can fit to reach the centre of the shell surrounding the brain, but even without Groot I believe they would have found a way.
Star-Lord's backstory is interesting, but giving him demigod powers just to take them away as he learns to use them feels wasted. It would have been more satisfactory to let him keep them. Ego made little sense too. The fact that he has to reach his own core to be there felt strange. If he literally is the planet, then why is he not present everywhere at all times. Also, when Nebula crashes a ship on his planet, he does not feel it or react to it. When he seduces other species to get an offspring that inherits his powers he is still in human-form instead of reshaping to attract and match the different aliens. As if humans are attractive in a galaxy-wide manner.
The scene were Yondu and Rocket murder what must be over a couple of hundred people is disturbing. The music is too careless and they walk like life has no meaning. There is no indication of knowledge of what they have done and sending a message to the younger audience that murder is alright. I feel like they could have made it smoother, at least have let the characters consider what they have done. I believe they could have escaped the ship with much fewer casualties, making it a stealthy scene where they only incapacitate their captors.
Mantis is never officially introduced to the gang, but I believe she is now part of the Guardians. Her power is to feel what others feel and can apparently put gods to sleep. It does not feel like a much needed addiction to the Guardians of the Galaxy and she does not do much of value throughout the movie. I suppose that she is cute and she made the audience laugh is good enough reason to keep her.
All in all I think the movie was a flop. Compared to the first movie, nothing really happened. If the big even was Ego and the planet, it could have been skipped. We knew nothing about him before the movie and everything resolved itself in the end, so really it felt like nothing added to the long and complicated universe Marvel has created. Guardians of the Galaxy vol. 2 is not worth a cinema visit and not even worth seeing to keep up with the series. In my opinion it can be skipped entirely.
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