Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2: Reckless, chaotic and very GOTG

Cast: Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana, Dave Bautista, Sylvester Stallone, Kurt Russell

Rated: 6.5/10

For followers, this one is as much a riot as the original 2014 edition was, the only difference being that while the first one must have taken them by surprise with its tumultuous and irreverent spatial proceedings, No 2 is a familiar you-know-what-is-coming kind of a built-up anarchy.

The action here is much more lionised, technologically honed and prolonged in a bid to keep you engaged for much of the 2.5-hour movie, drawing much of its power from the nebula of the galaxy — a band of bickering, naughty, chilled out and yet impatient odd-balls on a mission to save the galaxy.

It all starts with the guardians hard at work on a contract to kill a nauseatingly slimy, mammoth for the gold-plated race of Sovereigns led by oh-so-uptight Miss Ironpants Ayesha.

With the incorrigible raccoon (voiced by Bradley Cooper) stealing some Sovereign batteries, the chase of splendid action begins, crossing many frontiers to ultimately reach a father-son soiree helmed by a celestial Kurt Russell (new entrant as Ego, The Planet) and his half-human-half-extra-terrestrial son Peter Quill (Chris Pratt) who comes with daddy issues, having been deserted by the original and raised by a rakish blue rogue who is humanly greedy, ambitious and a tad mean Ravager whom you may grow to like later in life.

The chaotic action is splendidly counter-foiled by a rash of 60s-70s oldie-goldies with Cat Stevens leading the gentle tapper with the “father and son” song, followed by Sam Cooke’s “bring it home to me.”

The film suffers with the same expectations burden as Bahubali 2 but what Rajamouli traversed and tided over with a bigger, newer splash, GOTG2 director-writer James Gunn does with much too deliberate and in-your-face $773 million hitech effort. Not that it takes away majorly from theGuardians series but it does introduce that drag element which even the smartest of sequels fall prey to.

Over and above that, and if you are not in the habit of looking for lacuna, GOTG2 is quite a spiral that will leave ET action junkies in a tizzy, what with the ultimate meanie Drax engaging in running-down two-liners here and there, the raccoon vacillating between emotion, bravado, humour and action, Gamora still not giving in to Peter, Nebula being on a revenge mission after being mutilated by father, and the good old, the cute and the very becoming Baby Groot (Vin Diesel) giving you those pick-me-up moments pretty often in the film.

And yes, there’s Rocky Balboa too, this time only for a bit, entirely spatial, of course without his gloves but with his signature drawl – as a Ravager warrior – well, doing almost nothing in the, and, for the film except showing the money power of the producers.

In short, this sequel is quite a Marvel and yet not entirely a marvel.

Source: Sunday Pioneer, April 7, 2017