Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 2: 5 Things It Got Right (& 5 It Got Wrong)

Following the unprecedented success of Guardians of the Galaxy in the summer of 2014, Marvel re-recruited writer-director James Gunn to helm a sequel, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, in time for the 2017 blockbuster season. As teased by the final moments of the first movie, the sequel revolved around Peter Quill finding out the identity of his biological father, Ego the Living Planet, who turns out to be a cosmic genocidal maniac.

The Marvel fanbase was widely polarized by the Guardians sequel, with some calling it one of the MCU’s best entries and others calling it a travesty. The truth is, it’s somewhere in the middle, with both merits and flaws.

10 Right: Emotionally Resonant Dramatic Moments

The dramatic scenes in Marvel movies, like the dramatic scenes in sitcoms, can often fall flat, because they’re usually the most undercooked and disingenuous elements of the story. However, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 continues the original’s balance of heart and humor.

The sequel’s dramatic scenes, from Gamora and Nebula bearing their souls to one another to Yondu cutting through to Rocket’s core to Quill reaching the devastating realization that his father killed his mother, really ring true.

9 Wrong: Hit-And-Miss Humor

There are plenty of funny moments in Guardians Vol. 2, but there are also many that are supposed to be funny, but the joke doesn’t land. These moments are made worse by characters laughing hysterically when the audience hasn’t made a peep.

Marvel’s heavy use of test audiences should’ve been able to suss out which jokes landed and which didn’t, but unfortunately, they dropped the ball and the humor in the final cut is very hit-and-miss.

8 Right: Gamora And Nebula’s Relationship

Throughout the first Guardians movie, Nebula wanted to kill Gamora, just to prove to their adoptive father Thanos that she could. In the sequel, Nebula and Gamora’s sibling rivalry was developed with a lot more depth.

Nebula became a lot more humanized as she revealed to Gamora that she never wanted to compete with her — she just wanted a sister — and they make up in a really heartwarming full-circle arc.

7 Wrong: Turning Drax Into A Joke

In the first Guardians movie, Drax was a brooding, emotionally complex character, driven by the desire to avenge his family and learning along the way not to let his quest for revenge cloud his judgment. He still had funny moments, but it came from his penchant for the literal, which was a neat comic premise.

However, in Vol. 2, he was reduced to a joke. He bragged about his “famously huge turds” and burst out laughing at absolutely everything. Even Dave Bautista was unhappy with his characterization in the sequel’s script, but he had to learn to live with it, like Mark Hamill in The Last Jedi.

6 Right: Star-Lord And Gamora’s Romance

In a lot of poorly written blockbusters, the man-child protagonist wins the heart of his love interest without really changing because Hollywood is in the business of wish fulfillment.

James Gunn deserves a lot of credit for the way he wrote Star-Lord and Gamora’s love story. Gamora didn’t fall for Quill’s immature shtick and actually forced him to grow before reciprocating his romantic feelings.

5 Wrong: Slow Start

While the first Guardians movie is a tightly structured adventure movie that briskly moves from its character introductions to their team-up to the central conflict, the second one takes a while to get going.

Since the audience was going to be invested no matter what, the sequel plods through its lengthy first act, but it suffers on rewatches, and superhero movies are supposed to be rewatchable.

4 Right: Even Better Soundtrack Than The First One

With Star-Lord’s “Awesome Mix,” James Gunn established that the Guardians franchise would have the best soundtrack in the MCU (although Kendrick Lamar and Ludwig Göransson gave him a run for his money with the Black Panther soundtrack).

The music that Gunn licensed for Vol. 2 was even greater than the songs he chose for the original. From George Harrison’s “My Sweet Lord” to Fleetwood Mac’s “The Chain,” every track was perfectly paired with the scene it appears in.

3 Wrong: Larger-Than-Life Villain

The problem with a lot of MCU villains is that they’re too big and powerful to be relatable or understandable. Characters like Ultron and Hela have the powers of a god and their plans are too insanely large-scale to fully grasp the weight of them in a single movie.

Thanos has the omnipotence, but he was humanized by Josh Brolin’s performance and the writing. Ego starts off as somewhat identifiable, due to his father-son bond with Quill, but when that turns out to be a deceit, he just becomes yet another cosmic warlord with larger-than-life evil plans.

2 Right: Yondu’s Redemption Arc

The theme of Guardians Vol. 2 is fatherhood. After years of searching, Peter Quill finally meets his biological father and discovers that he’s evil. When Yondu shows up to rescue him, he realizes he knew his “real” father all along.

Redemption arcs are tricky to pull off, because the redemption often doesn’t feel earned. But the Guardians sequel takes a different approach. It doesn’t try to forgive Yondu’s past mistakes, but it’s clear that he does regret them and he did his best to raise Quill as his own son. His final sacrifice is heartbreaking and exemplifies his good intentions.

1 Wrong: Failing To Recapture The Original’s Freshness

Nothing quite like Guardians of the Galaxy had ever been made prior to 2014, so the first movie came as a real breath of fresh air in a summer full of derivative, self-important blockbusters.

However, when the sequel came along, something like Guardians had already been made — Guardians itself — and so it didn’t feel quite as fresh as its predecessor.

About The Author

Ben Sherlock
(3465 Articles Published)

Ben Sherlock is a writer, comedian, independent filmmaker, and Burt Reynolds enthusiast. He writes lists for Screen Rant and features and reviews for Game Rant. He’s currently in pre-production on his first feature (and has been for a while, because filmmaking is expensive). You can catch him performing standup at odd pubs around the UK that will give him stage time. Previously, he wrote for Taste of Cinema, Comic Book Resources, and BabbleTop.

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