'Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2'

• Starring – Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana, Dave Bautista, Bradley Cooper, Vin Diesel, Michael Rooker, Karen Gillian, Kurt Russell, Pom Klementieff.
• Director – James Gunn
• Rating – 12A UK
• Length – 2hr 16min

When it was announced a movie would be made about one of the lesser known teams in the Marvel comic universe, to everyone apart from diehard fans, it didn’t get much excitement, I mean, it wasn’t like they had just announced Robert Downey Jr. was going to be Iron-Man. When I told my wife about it, she had no idea who they were and when I told her the team was made up of a man, a cybernetic assassin, a very literal minded maniac, a talking genetically altered raccoon and a talking tree; to say she was less than enthusiastic would be an understatement and when I told her the tree spoke the same three words over and over again; she said that sounds too weird.

Weird is probably the best way to explain Guardians of the Galaxy. By the way my wife loved the first movie.

All the reasons why Guardians shouldn’t work is exactly why it does; its completely different to Avengers, they are a very unorthodox team, more like criminals and as Star-Lord (Pratt) says at the end of the first movie, “What should we do next; Something good, something bad? Bit of both? A bit of both.” That one statement sums up this new team of heroes perfectly; they are good and bad and they are perfectly happy with that and so are we.

Now onto the follow up, I don’t call it a sequel because Marvel doesn’t really make sequels in the strictest sense, it’s more like a continuation of the same story. Vol. 2 starts off with the team being asked to stop a space monster, in the first couple of minutes we have seen Star-Lord (Pratt), Gamora (Saldana), Drax (Bautista) and Rocket (Cooper), I know what your thinking where is Groot (Diesel); well while the grown ups fight the space monster, Groot or should I say Baby Groot tries to get the music working and when he does, it kicks off the opening titles and they are simply hilarious. I will say no more because it’s too funny to spoil.

The first movie was about getting the Guardians together, this is about how Star-Lord/Peter Quill became who he is, it's also about fathers and sons. How fathers can be a disappointment, and not realising that what you look for in a father can be found from the unlikeliest of places. Over the years I have had a complicated history with my dad and to be honest, most of it is my fault, so this movie resonates with me on a personal level as well as a movie fan.

Shortly after this battle we are introduced to Ego (Kurt Russell), if you haven’t watched any of the trailers, I will not say who he is. He takes Peter, Drax and Gamora off to his planet which leaves Groot, Rocket and Nebula; yes I said Nebula (Karen Gillan), the cybernetic maniac sister of Gamora is back, as well as the awesome Yondu (Michael Rooker). How they interweave into the story and the Guardians lives again is great. We also have a new character in the form of Mantis (Pom Klementieff), the way her and Drax interact and become closer is great.

The movie moves on and we get some amazing action sequences as well as some truly hilarious moments, mostly from Drax. Once upon a time I used to watch WWE and I remember Batista coming into it for the first time, and if you had told me he would one day play Drax the Destroyer and be hilarious, I would have called you crazy. Dave Bautista is one of the biggest surprises in both Guardians movies, he has a talent for comedy and he nails every one of his fantastic lines with a sincerity that makes him even funnier.

As great as the rest of the cast is and I have such a soft spot for Zoë Saldana, she is sexy, deadly, and hilarious as Gamora. This movie belongs to Chris Pratt completely, he is the driving force behind everything in the movie, he is hilarious but he shows he is a better character and dramatic actor than a lot of people would give him credit for. I mention dramatic because whilst this movie is hilarious some of its best scenes come from some very emotional situations, towards the end; there is a fantastic scene between Star-Lord and Yondu; its testament to both actors and the writing because considering what’s around them having a really dramatic moment probably shouldn’t work but it does.

I will warn you now though the latter part of Guardians Vol. 2 is very emotional and made my wife cry several times and my daughter described one scene as breaking her heart in two; ah from the mouths of babes.

Recently we have heard that the Guardians are going to be in Avengers: Infinity War, seeing how this team mingles with The Avengers is going to be great, I really cant wait, now when you go see the movie and please go see this movie, especially see it in the cinema, you will need to wait until the very end of the credits as there is five, yes five credit scenes and also keep a close eye on the credits themselves as some hilarious things happen in them too.