Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 Review

Gunn's second film has almost no plot, which is a choice rather than an accident. The Guardians land on a planet, split up, and spend an hour working through parental damage while the actual antagonist waits politely offscreen. When it works, it really works. Michael Rooker turns a comic relief blue pirate into the film's soul, and his funeral, arrows rising in formation through a fireworks sky, earns tears the first film never even asked for. Nebula and Gamora screaming at each other about which of them was tortured worse is the sharpest character writing in the run.

Kurt Russell plays Ego as a smug planet with a great hook and a bad plan. But the indulgence is real. The comedy leans hard on Drax laughing at his own cruelty, Baby Groot is a merchandising decision with legs, and the sound and color are cranked so high that the middle third becomes exhausting. The finale, a giant digital brain on a shifting landscape, is the weakest thing Gunn has staged anywhere. Uneven, overlong and genuinely felt, which is more than most sequels here manage.