Movie Review -- Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2

Today we have the 11,687,120th Marvel movie. It is Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2. Is it any good? Let's find out.

The story begins with the Guardians protecting super important batteries for a golden-skinned alien race called the Sovereign. Things go well until Rocket (Bradley Cooper) steals a few batteries, incurring the wrath of the Sovereign. A battle ensues...

Then the Guardians meet a mysterious man named Ego (Kurt Russell) who informs Peter Quill (Chris Pratt) that he is his father and invites them to his planet to convey additional important information. Peter, Gamora (Zoe Saldana) and Drax (Dave Bautista) accompany them, while the others stay behind to guard Nebula (Karen Gillan) whom they have taken prisoner. But things gets dicey for the latter group when Yondu (Michael Rooker) returns for a nice payday at their expense.

Meanwhile, the first group takes in Ego's beautiful planet while he explains just what's going on. However, Gamora senses something's not quite right in paradise. Just what is Ego up to, and how does it affect the rest of the galaxy? And what will happen when the Sovereign come for vengeance? You'll have to watch it to find out.

I feel Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 is a great improvement over the first film which I viewed as Avengers Lite. This one's stylish and pretty funny. Baby Groot (Vin Diesel), in particular, provides plenty of heart and humor, especially when given simple yet (for him, at least) very difficult tasks such as retrieving an important item for Yondu.

Also greatly adding to the movie's appeal is the quality soundtrack which features a number of good songs from a variety of artists, in addition to Tyler Bates' score.

The only criticism I have is with the main villain who ends up being pretty generic, albeit no more so than Ronan last time. This particular character has no real motivation other than galactic conquest.

And, finally, I want to mention the epic final battle. It's very kickass and really puts the exclamation point on the whole shebang. 

Bottom line: Go see Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2. As Schwarzenegger would say, "DO IT!!"