Friday, May 5, 2017

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol.2 Review

          For those of you who don't know, the MCU is the acronym for the Marvel Cinematic Universe. It's the universe that holds the Iron Man, Captain America, Thor, Doctor Strange, etc...movies. So just to let you know, that's what I mean when I say the MCU. 
          The first guardians really came out of nowhere and surprised everyone with how awesome it was. Vol.2 had some pretty big shoes to fill. I wasn't expecting this one to be as good as the first one because I don't think many MCU movies can. I just wanted to love it. I wanted to enjoy the heck out of this movie. I just wanted it to be a good movie.
          Right off the bat I can tell you two things that this movie does that are often the main weakness in many MCU movies. The first of those two things is the villain. When you look back at past MCU movies the only villains you really remember are Loki, The Winter Soldier, Red Skull, and that's about it. I'm not saying that the villain in Vol.2 is as good as the ones I listed. The villain is just not as bad as that one Dark Elf in Thor 2 or that one whip man in Iron Man 2.  It's a good villain when you compare it to MCU standards, it's just not necessarily a good villain when compared to other movies. Even though the villain did pack a good emotional punch to the overall story arc, we just didn't get enough time to get to know him. When they explained where this villain came from they briefly skimmed over a very important detail. So the villain does fall into that pit the MCU has of undeveloped villains just not as deep as their completely terrible ones. The right villain can really make a superhero movie. I wouldn't say the villain made this movie, it just saved it a little bit. It was just so nice to see a relatively good MCU villain.
          The other thing I alluded to was this movies score. Perhaps even more than the villain my biggest pet peeve about MCU movies is the score. They usually don't have the same composer come back and compose the same franchises within the MCU. All the Iron Man movies are composed by different people. Both Thor movies are composed by different composes. One reason why the Captain America films are my favorite is that the composer of the 2nd and 3rd stayed the same. People really don't realize how a score can enhance their viewing a film. A great score can really transport you into another world. The best example of this is Star Wars. As soon as you hear those first notes you escape reality and enter the world that is Star Wars. Same goes with Indiana Jones, Jaws, and even Jurassic Park. So all hail John Williams I guess? I guess the point that I am trying to get at is Tyler Bates composed the first one and this one. That made a huge difference.
          Even though it did things to improve on past MCU movies, that didn't make it a great movie. If the story to a movie is bland, great things don't make that much of an impact. I don't want to call Vol.2's story bland, or generic. Just find the middle of bland and generic and there you go. The story had good beats to it but the overall arc of it was just ok.
          Pratt needed to be in it more in the first of the movie. He is the heart and soul of these movies and he wasn't in it a bunch during the first part. My favorite part of the movie was Yondu played by Micheal Rooker. He was just a side character in the first one but in this one much more depth was added to his character.
          I just liked Vol.2. Even though it was funnier than the first one, I didn't like it as much. I wouldn't call it a bad movie. But I wouldn't necessarily call it a great, or even good movie. I would put it on the lower level of good. It's not a disappointment, it was just not as good as I wanted it to be. It was a movie I liked and somewhat enjoyed. There were more negatives I took away then positives.
          I would put it at place 9 or 10 out of 15 with all the MCU movies.