Film: Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2

The element of surprise is gone, and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 has some serious flaws, but they got the most important thing completely right: this is a generous helping of film fun.

The tremendous success of Guardians of the Galaxy (2014) was unexpected because the motley crew of unconventional space heroes was completely unknown. But it is not really surprising that the green murderer Gamora, Drax the hulk, Rocket the rude racoon, Groot the grumbling tree, and Peter Quill aka Star-Lord the space pirate drew more people to the cinema than Iron Man, the Avengers, and all the other superheroes in the ever-expanding Marvel Universe.

The Guardians of the Galaxy are simply much more fun than all those tormented, deadly serious superheroes. These are not Übermenschen but misfits like you and me. They're just a bit bluer, greener, dumber, or stronger.

Director James Gunn, who used to specialise in horror, masterfully threw all the usual superhero bombast and intergalactic solemnity to the wind and focused instead on uncomplicated entertainment, unpretentious popcorn fun. A lot of people enjoyed themselves so much that they didn't mind about the plot being overly confusing and far from exciting. They attempted to remedy these defects in the sequel, but it doesn't make a great deal of difference.

It is immediately evident from the rather slow beginning that the element of surprise is gone, and you start worrying that this film will just be an exercise in repetitiveness, now with more colour, more 1970s music, more references to pop culture, and even more obvious references. But this sequel does eventually manage to blaze its own trail.

In the third act, there is a little too much sentimentality, pop psychology, and Oedipus and David Hasselhoff jokes to our taste, but we do appreciate the defence of friendship, shady stepfathers, and blended families. But now we're probably getting too serious ourselves, which is contrary to the spirit of this generous, entertaining blockbuster. Cheers.

> Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2.
> US, dir.: James Gunn, act.: Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana, Vin Diesel, Dave Bautista, Bradley Cooper, Michael Rooker