It's taken me two viewings and just under 24 hours of rumination, and now I think I'm ready to talk about Guardians of the Galaxy, Volume 2.
First, a caveat - I love the original Guardians of the Galaxy. Like love it in a way that is visceral and utterly independent of logic or objectivity. I did review that film for my own review site that I ran at the time, but even then my bias was apparent. When I walked into the cinema to see that film, I was already excited by months of trailers and having read one Brian Michael-Bendis comic book starring the titular characters. I literally danced off with the guy who sold me my ticket, as Hooked on a Feelin' played from my phone. I looked like a jackass, but I didn't care. I'd thoroughly enjoyed every MCU movie to date so far, and this one looked like being just as good.
It wasn't.
It was better. In every conceivable way, GoTG moved the whole bar of the MCU up for me several notches. Avengers Assemble, the previous high point of the franchise, paled in comparison. Something in that movie spoke to me on a deep, primeval level. I loved every joke, every line, every scene. I drank in the visual splendour of the sets and costumes, sat slack-jawed at the set pieces and for every single minute that I sat through that glorious first two hour watch through, I was overwhelmed by a feeling - nay, a conviction - that James Gunn had made a film just for me, and it was perfect in every way. I came out of the cinema that first time literally jumping up and down for sheer joy, high on a sugar rush of excitement that took me to see it another seven times at the cinema. I started writing, a lot. I listened endlessly to the soundtrack, I read more of the comics, and I started to love the MCU in a way I had never thought possible.
Yes, much like Winter Soldier magically retroactively made First Avenger into a better movie, GoTG breathed more new life and love for the entire MCU franchise into me than I had dreamed possible. I started not just anticipating MCU movies, but looking forward to them. I started watching all the tie-in shows. I became, in essence, a complete MCU fanboy.
I lay all of this out to make it clear that to me, the first Guardians of the Galaxy movie was not just a 'film I really liked' - it was a transformative and positive experience the like of which I had never gotten from a film before. I love it not just because it is, on its own merit, a superb little slice of quirky space opera in the tradition of Star Wars and Serenity before it, but because it was everything I ever wanted. I see the flaws (how could I not, after so many viewings?) but I don't care in the slightest - it is, to me, the perfect film.
All of which meant that going in, Volume 2 had a lot to live up to. I won't lie, on my first viewing I was nervous. Hell, I was petrified. I had that feeling of pent up emotion you get when you're going to interview for a job you really want, or about to sit a really important exam. I was excited, sure - it was a film I'd waited nearly three years to see, ever since those famous words 'The Guardians of the Galaxy will return' had flashed up in the end credits that first time. But I was also terrified - would it, could it possibly live up to the expectations that were built up in my mind. Could it be as utterly perfect to me as that first movie had been? Would it re-ignite all the same passions in me? And how would I feel if it didn't?
Let's get the obvious part out of the way: Volume 2 is a phenomenal movie, in my opinion. I'm going to offer absolutely zero spoilers here, but I am going to talk about how the first viewing of it made me feel.
Emotional.
I don't mean 'Oh it was a bit sad' or 'oh it was a rollercoaster of excitement'. I mean that after the 2 hours and 18 minutes were over, I was an exhausted, overwrought jumble of emotions. Friends messaged me knowing I'd seen it and wanting to know whether I was ready to squee all over the place as I had with the first, and I could only answer that I just wasn't ready. I went and sat somewhere quiet for a good ten minutes, and every time I tried to start examining details of what I had seen, tears would well up in my eyes, unbidden. I'd spent a good chunk of the movie weeping tears of various emotions anyway, but coming out, the whole thing fresh in my mind, I just couldn't unpack. My critical faculties had shut down and gone on holiday, and my emotions were just raw. I went home and carried on vaguely chatting to other friends who had seen it, but I kept it light, allowing tiny observations of micro portions of the movie to slowly slip out of me, the soundtrack album playing jauntily in the background as I did so. If the first movie had me punching the air for joy, this one left me hollowed out, exhausted and drained. I'd not seen a movie, I'd had an experience.
Part of me wondered, in a detached way, how much of this emotion was the film itself and how much was the 'comedown' of all that hype and nervous energy and expectation dissipating through my system, the adrenaline of the pre-viewing having drained out of my system. I couldn't tell you then or now, I can only say that I was not capable of thinking or speaking critically about the movie in any way whatsoever for several hours afterward.
After a few hours, it was time for viewing number two, the as my wife and I had a date night with it. Going in, I'd calmed down a bit, and I was looking forward to seeing the movie again, bereft of the mountain of nervous tension and expectation that had accompanied my first viewing. I was also a little excited to see what my better half would make of it.
Seeing it the second time, certain emotional points inevitably hit me with less force, because I knew they were coming. That said, I still cried, though not as much or as often. What really struck me though, was that I laughed as much as I had at all the jokes, snarks and asides. The movie packs gags to spare, and the characters are all just as delightful as you remember them being before, while in many cases also having evolved. Baby Groot predictably steals the show on a number of occasions (like, basically every time he's on screen) but everyone else shines here too. Mantis is a more than welcome addition to proceedings, and Kurt Russell - well, he's Kurt Russell, so you know going in that he's going to be awesome. For me though, the star of the movie overall is probably Drax. In the first film he stole a lot of scenes with the deadpan humour and a comic timing we'd honestly never expected from an ex professional wrestler. Here, we get to see an even deeper range from Bautista, and honestly it just makes me even sadder at just how badly wasted he was in Spectre.
But fanboying aside - just how perfect is this new entry into the MCU?
The movie has flaws.
There, I said it. Like its predecessor, I can see faults in it. The main one this time is that the movie is just a little too pleased with itself. GoTG was a breakaway hit out of nowhere, and when you look at how tight that film was, with a bang on 2 hour run time and perfectly edited scenes, it's clear how 'safe' Marvel was in fact playing it. Here, it's clear that everyone feels a little more assured, and there is therefore inevitably some flab. Scenes and even individual gags go on just a few beats longer than narrative convenience should allow more than once, and some individual jokes aren't as funny as the rest. It also dollops on the schmaltz throughout, going for heavy-handed tugging at heartstrings at several junctures. Self-indulgent would be the best way of describing it - Gunn is comfortable with the characters and the story, and it shows.
However, when they are characters as strong as these - characters who the first movie just made me want to spend even more time with, you can get away with this. Also, I like schmaltz, and I'm not afraid to admit it. I am the guy who will shed a tear at the heartstring-tugging animal charity ads on TV, so I'm never going to complain about this sort of thing in a movie featuring characters I love. Similar applies to the lengthier gags and scenes - I could feel them slowing the momentum of the movie, and envision them having been cut from the first outing, but I didn't care, because every second I got to spend with these guys was a delight.
And that's mainly down to the excellent cast. The guys coming over from the first film are all as likeable as before, and the new additions fit well. Pom Klementieff is particular is just adorable as new character Mantis, and I sincerely hope we see more of her not just in the inevitable Volume 3 but other parts of the MCU as well. There's also a couple of familiar, if highly unexpected faces that pop up, and they're exceedingly welcome as well. It's clear that everyone had fun making this movie, and whereas that may not make it critically speaking the perfect movie, it certainly helps cement its brilliance to me.
Of course, the main criticism of MCU entries is that - Tom Hiddlestone's Loki aside, there are no really decent bad guys. Even GoTG suffered from this criticism, with many people voicing the opinion that Ronan the Accuser was just another templated one-film villain. Whether Volume 2 solves this will be down to your personal tastes. It's an inevitable part of its rogueish charm that there's more than one threat facing the team, but whether this will be seen as more or less satisfactory to audiences remains to be seen - it certainly worked for me.
So the important thing - the thing I know that anyone who knows me and my love for the first film will want to know - did I think this one was as good?
Honestly, it's a weird one. I grew tired of early critic reviews saying it suffered inevitably from lacking that 'surprise factor' the first film had, though I see their point. It's also impossible to view the film as a stand alone, because if you see this having not seen the first one, you won't get at least half of what's going on, and you certainly won't connect as much to various story and character beats.
What I will say (and to some this will seem a copout) is that it's different. The first movie had emotion and comedy and heart, but it was also dealing with giving introductions and backgrounds to several separate leads, jamming them together and then telling an actual story over the course of one two hour film where Avengers had had five movies dealing with the individual characters first (another reason why I see the first as a towering achievement for Gunn).
This one doesn't have that - sure, there are additional characters introduced but the core guys - you already know and love them, you already know where they came from. You can learn additional bits and pieces about them, sure. But what you really have here is a nearly two and a half hour hangout with the guys the first movie sold you on. That surprise factor is replaced by (for me) a comfort factor in reveling in the company of the gang. Where I came out of the first triumphantly punching the air, I came out of Volume 2 drained and emotionally wrecked. It moved me, though inevitably a lot of the rawest emotional parts lost a little of their immediate, visceral impact second time around. I will say this though - there aren't many two hour and twenty minute movies that I can think of that you can watch twice in a day and have the second time fly by even quicker than the first.
Do I love this movie as much as I had hoped? Absolutely. Is it a worthy successor to my favourite ever movie? Yes. Do I hold it in the same ridiculously stratospheric regard as its predecessor? I'll tell you after I've watched it a few more times.
