The sequel to the first movie and the 15th movie in the Marvel Cinematic Universe is the only sequel apart from Iron Man perhaps that feels the most separated from the other films. This makes it a good thing especially for director writer James Gunn who gets to expand his crazy wings to even bigger level. Although not as much as the first one, the film is still an entertaining watch especially the second half of the movie.The story explores Peter Quill's past and his relationship with his father, Ego the living planet played by the wonderful Kurt Russell while also diving into the relationships between the Guardians after they become a proper team. We also get to know more of Drax's past through another character called Mantis (Pom Klementieff) and Gamora's (Zoe Saldana) relationship with her sister Nebula (Karen Gillan). The jokes and humor for the most part land well and you can see they tried to make this extra funnier. Yondu's scenes in the final act were emotional and very well acted and I wish his relationship with Peter was explored more to have more of an impact with those scenes. I always like a Stan Lee cameo. The cameo also ignites more fire into the theory that he might be Watcher in all of Marvel films. We also see a lot of other cameos like the return of Howard the Duck, even more that I certainly missed. As I said before, this film is even less related to the bigger MCU picture involving Thanos and infinity stones with only a line or two that I could remember having any connection to it. And I actually enjoyed that aspect. The space battles and color depiction is beautiful to watch. I always enjoy a good cosmos.
The jokes in the first half started good but I remember at one point starting to feel a little tired of them especially Drax's dry humor. It did pick back up in the final third of the movie perhaps because it was used at the right times for me. The music except maybe for the last song (Father and Son by Cat Stevens) was not memorable to me unlike the last movie. I also did not like that it was used a lot more in this one and not always in right situations. I also think I made a mistake of watching this movie in 3D which I didn't enjoy as much.
Movie Rating: 7/10