In James Gunn’s sequel to Guardians of the Galaxy, the team journeys to unravel the mystery of Peter Quill’s (Chris Pratt) parentage. Also starring Bradley Cooper, Vin Diesel and Zoe Saldana.

Three years after the hugely successful and critically acclaimed Guardians of the Galaxy was released, the cast and crew from the first film are all back to reprise their respective roles.

This time, Peter Quill and his Guardian team have been hired by The Sovereign, a powerful alien race, to protect their precious batteries from invaders. However, Rocket has stolen the items, so the Sovereign get their hands on vengeance. The Guardians will do all they can to escape and while this happens, the mystery of Peter’s percentage will be revealed.

In terms of the cast, Chris Pratt is the main character here in his double role as Peter Quill and Star-Lord – Peter is the man whose percentage will be revealed, while Star-Lord is the half-Celestial leader of Guardians of the Galaxy.

Zoe Saldana is Gamora, a member of the Guardians and an orphan from an alien who seeks improvement for her past crimes; Dave Baustita is The Dark Destroyer, a highly skilled warrior who is in search of revenge; Vin Diesel is Baby Groot, a tree-like humanoid and the assistant of Rocket.

Bradley Cooper is Rocket, a genetically modified bounty raccoon hunter; Michael Rooker is Youndu Udonta, a buccaneer who is the head of the Ravagers; and Karen Gillan is Nebula, a reluctant member of the Guardians.

All of the cast give very good live-action and voice (Diesel and Cooper) performances in their respective roles and they all suit them well.

The direction from Gunn is very good because he allows the facial expressions to be seen to a strong effect, especially on Baby Groot and Rocket, while also keeping a mixed atmosphere happening as well.

The script is written to a decent standard by the director as he makes the film easy to follow and also creates some moments of humour throughout, which is a good thing, because it means this sequel doesn’t take itself too seriously.

The technical elements that stand out best are the set, cinematography and visual effects, because the set is decent to view at times; the camera makes good use of the locations and also captures the funny, tense and action scenes well, which get the edge-of-the-seat status; the visual effects dazzle whenever they appear on screen.

Overall, very good performances from the cast, James Gunn’s direction and script, along with the technical elements means Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 lives up to the standards and expectations that made the first entry so much fun to watch.