Everything great about the first Guardians of the Galaxy is amped up by 100 in this funnier, superior sequel, which achieves its aim of being an absolute blast and is sheer entertainment.

Although there isn’t much exploration into character depth it spends its time strengthening the relationship and dynamic of the group, which clicks perfectly within the quirky world it creates which is full of colour and accompanied with its impeccable soundtrack. It’s a lot more self aware than the first, and embraces itself for what it is. The seamingly perfect casting of Kurt Russel in this cheesy, 70s and 80s induced action flick really epitomises what Guardians is about. The film lays a great pathway for its story to unfold and has a better structure than the first, and only adds to what we loved about the first. The long take at the start is actually very impressive and set the tone for the rest of the film, and allowed me to just relax and enjoy 2 hours of simple movie enjoyment.

Guardians 2 is an ode to family and fatherhood, and adapts upon what they went through in the first, as they realised that working as a team is better than being solo, whereas in volume 2 it explores the conflicts within family and between characters. A lot of them have troubled pasts and thanks to some great writing from Gunn we can see how the characters deal with this, in particular Yondu and Peter Quill undergo brilliant arcs for their respective characters. I was really impressed with how the sequel was handled and how the Guardians dynamic has taken shape, and there is some great technical elements which deserve praise, like the brilliant long take in the opening, the dolly zoom, the perfectly utilised score and also the VFX which is blended seamlessly.

Not for everyone, Guardians 2 doesn’t  take itself too seriosusly, but does touch on some nice themes and thrives on its brilliant characters. For me it just works and is one of the few Marvel films that I actually liked. Meta, crazy and enjoyable as fuck.