Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 ★★★½

HERE’S hoping there are many more Guardians of the Galaxy movies and they all as entertaining as the first two.

The original was an absolute hoot and left audiences wanting more. Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 2 isn’t as good, but it’s pretty damn close.

There were just a few times where the sequel threatened to lag, particularly during the extended battle sequences, but every time they snapped you out of it with some of the great banter between characters.

There’s a scene near the end involving Rocket and Baby Groot, a bomb and scotch tape, that perfectly demonstrates what I am talking about.

There is plenty of action and adventure in this series but, above all, it’s a comedy and that makes it pretty unique in the Marvel universe and modern cinema generally as comedy/science-fiction, as opposed to vice-versa.

This is a very effects-driven film in the visual sense, but it’s main strength is absolutely in the characters and dialogue.

There are probably 10 substantial characters in the sequel and all of them are interesting, fun and likable.

Yes, the five Guardians themselves are the main ones, but the evil sister, a golden queen, Peter’s blue kind-of stepdad, two of the raiders crew, Peter’s real dad and his servant all get extended periods to shine.

Speaking of Peter’s dad; he’s played well by Kurt Russell and I particularly liked the opening sequence with a digitally-enhanced Russell on a date back in 1980 in Missouri.

In this film the team complete a mission to stop a huge monster from destroying a planet’s energy source (an action sequence that plays out in the background while Baby Groot dances) but their success is tempered by Rocket deciding to steal a few things from their clients.

In evading retribution (altough these aliens keep throughout the film) they are saved by Peter’s dad who has his own planet. Peter thinks all his prayers have been answered until, well, I’m not going to spoil things although it is all pretty well telegraphed early in the proceedings.

If I had to pick a favourite of the characters (and really I love them all) it might be the highly inappropriate Drax. It’s amazing to think the former wrestler Dave Bautista is playing the character with such great comic timing.

Make sure you stay through the credits until after the stingers which are those little scenes that sometimes follow the main movie while the credits are rolling. Guardians has five and they’re all quite good, particularly the one involving Baby Groot.