Guardians of the Galaxy 2: What the hell happened?

I did not like this movie. The first GotG was hilarious with its off beat comedy and tight chemistry between our main performers. I have no idea what went wrong here.

I found some of its scenes to be delightful, mostly involving Groot and/or Rocket. The opening where Groot is dancing while the Guardians fight a being of unimaginable horror in the background was hilarious. It was the opening scene of a much better movie which GotG2 promised but failed to deliver on.

Ego is played by Kurt Russel and I think this was a very poor casting choice. It's not so much that he's a bad actor it's just his type of comedy doesn't gel very well with the film's tone. Initially from the movie posters, I thought Ego was going to be played by Jeff Bridges in his third appearance in the MCU which I thought promised to be a much better mix. Russel just isn't funny here and Pratt's comedy is muted by Russel whom he shares most of his scenes with.

The film is structured very poorly. The main cast proved they have excellent chemistry in the prior film but here they don't spend much time together. Rocket and Groot are separated from the main cast early in the movie and only return at the climax. Since Rocket and Groot get the best jokes in the film, this leaves the rest of the cast without much to do. Drax and Mantis's attempts at comedy (or a very forced romantic interest) are just painful to watch. Nebula and Gamora's reconciliation (and I use that term loosely) is forced and predictable. All of this is just setup for Infinity War.

An unwholesome amount of screen time is devoted to exposition where Ego explains things neither we nor the characters really cares about. Ego is a god. He does magic and he romanced Quill's mom. No one really cares about how his powers work or what songs he and Quill's mother listened to thirty years ago. Mr. James Gunn, I know you're getting a lot of flak lately and don't need any more criticism but film is a visual medium: 'Show, don't tell.'

The absolute worst scenes in the movie are the ones between Quill and Ego and unfortunately these are the characters we spend the most time with. As I said previously, these scenes are mostly exposition and foreshadowing but little actually goes on between the characters. Each time Quill and Ego interact the film just pulls the drag shoot and ambles along without developing plot or characters.

Ego's reveal as a villain is no real surprise but it does feel forced. Ego's goal isn't really all that clear. We know he's trying to terraform the universe but he never explicitly says why. What does he get out of this?

The low point in Ego's character comes when he admits to Quill that he placed the tumor in his mother's head which killed her. I actually paused the movie and replayed it three times to make sure I heard him right. Why the hell would Ego reveal this? For that matter, why would Ego do this in the first place?

Quill of course hears him and uses the rage this induces inside of him to fight free of Ego's control. Lazy writing to the rescue.

First off there is literally no reason for Ego to tell Quill that he did this. Kurt Russel says this line for one reason: so the audience knows that Ego is not a misguided character, he is the villain. I'm sure this hand-holding narrative was appreciated by all the five year olds who shouldn't have been watching this movie in the first place but the rest of us can follow a simple plot.

Secondly, there is no in-universe or in-character reason for Ego to have killed Quill's mom. It benefits him in no way and it doesn't advance his plan. It actually sabotages his plans since Quill could have easily died if his caretaker passed away before Yondu found him.

Ego's murder of Quill's mom is dumb and contrived, forcing a level of conflict into the narrative that isn't necessary. The Guardians are completely motivated to fight Ego as it is. We already know Ego wants to destroy the cosmos, I don't think we really need to make this fight personal.

Quill doesn't really have a character arc in this movie. Initially he has adopted the Guardians as his family, then meets his father, kills his father, reflects on the loss of a different father, and then ends the movie with his adopted family. Quill as a character goes nowhere.

Quill does develop a new appreciation for Yondu after he saves his life at the cost of his own but Quill and Yondu get barely any scene time together in this movie so Quill doesn't feel like he got any growth. The fact that Yondu and Quill shared anything relating to a parental relationship was a complete surprise to me. The movie feels stagnant and pointless because nothing really changes for our characters.

I'm really kind of baffled by the story decisions this film makes. If you want to make the movie about Quill and his dad, for whatever reason, why not have Yondu and Quill spend most of their time together escaping from pirates or Ego's world. Show us how they act as a pseudo-father and son team rather than springing it on us in the final act that we should view them that way. Putting Rocket and Yondu together for most of the narrative does nothing to advance the kind of story you've chosen to tell.

Also why does Ego have to be such a black and white villain? What does that get you? The Guardians are a motley crew of mercenaries with good hearts. You could have just as easily made Ego a typical dead beat Dad who is now calling Quill after all this time because he needs the Guardians to save his planet. This would have let you more effectively juxtaposed Ego and Yondu since one cares and the other doesn't. Instead we need to force one to be a hero and the other the villain. There are ways to tell this story without making Ego a knock-off Thanos.

All in all, this movie was very disappointing. Watch the awesome parts on Youtube so you don't have to sit through the bloated second act.

Final Score:

3/10