Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 2

Guardians Of The Galaxy was such a breath of fresh air for the MCU; sci-fi overtones, rogue-ish heroes and 80's styling differentiating it completely to the earthbound superheroes we were used to, placing high on any fan's 'best of the MCU' shortlist (top of my personal one) and such a hit that it allowed Marvel to have equivalent success with other comparatively 'risky' movies as Ant-Man and Doctor Strange.

The worry for the sequel was whether the surprise would have worn off amid the inevitable linking connectors to the wider MCU and whether these would brush the fun under the mat in favour of the serious stuff.

I’m extremely happy to say that this is not the case because, put simply, there’s not a whole lot of connecting tissue. We pick up with our fearsome five-some (Marvel being able to turn a tree, a talking raccoon, a former wrestler, a green warrior and, at the time, a comedian known for Parks And Recreation into everyone’s favourite band of heroes deserves major praise) as they’re completing ‘galaxy saving tasks’ for cash.

The colour, humour and music are back in force as we begin with possibly the greatest credit sequence in the superhero genre (the less you know the better.) Just spending time with these characters is such a joy and returning Director James Gunn knows this, putting their banter and patter to the fore as they gallivant around the ever-expanding galaxy (with a few hints to future MCU movies here; the appearance of the Kronan planet anticipating Korg’s appearance in Thor: Ragnarok being just one.)

These early scenes do give the film a bit of a ‘Tales of the Guardians…’ vibe and, whilst this is in no way a bad thing, as aforementioned, it is the film with possibly the least significance thus far in the MCU as a whole. There’s [MILD SPOILER ALERT] no appearance from Thanos at all (but some nice comments from Nebula that she’s turned against him; it is she who lands the final blow in the comics after all), and no appearance from the Collector either, or the Infinity Stones.

We do learn of Peter’s heritage (although you’ll likely know it’s coming) and Ego does live up to his billing with a top performance from Kurt Russell. There’s also [LARGER SPOILER ALERT] a pretty predictable death, one of the more major characters in the MCU to date to bite the dust (ahead of Thanos’ desolation of the current crop of Avengers) and dealt with nicely.

It’s just thoroughly entertaining and no better way to spend your time in the cinema (especially in scintillating IMAX 3D which looks sumptuous.) How Marvel are going to incorporate the colour, vibrancy and, particularly, the music into the wider Avengers-verse is still a question yet to be answered but I, for one, cannot wait to find out.

In the meantime, we have the most entertaining film of the year thus far and, I know I’ve mentioned it before, but PLEASE stick around for the FIVE (yes, five) post-credits scenes. Three of which are pretty light-hearted but two have some wider implications for the MCU. It’s not quite as good as the first film, if only because the new-ness isn’t there, but it’s such a joy and, again, will sit pretty right at the top of the MCU list to date.

4 stars ****