My wife and I just watched Volume 1 the night before to refresh ourselves on what was going on in this world. She was a big fan of the original, and she doesn't normally go for this type of thing. To be honest, I don't normally go for this type of thing either. But director James Gunn really knows how to work this material.

I gave this movie the same score as the first, but I do think it is slightly weaker than Volume 1. This film doesn't know when to end. It has another "Best of the 70's" soundtracks, which I hate when obvious pop songs are used to evoke emotion in place of action of character development. The final battle in both films are anti-climatic. And this movie does more weird Marvel world-building that I don't understand.

I will say that the action in this film is superior to the first film. It really made me question how much bigger a film can get. I am sure people have been asking that from the days of Intolerance, but if this film gets any more stuffed with action, it may break the point of interest for me. The first Zack Snyder Superman movie had Superman (nearly a god) fighting Zod (nearly another god). They were equal in power, which is an interesting concept, but they just punched each other for 20 minutes, neither of them getting winded or even scratched. It was like two guys standing face to face and slapping the other without pain. It was a fight scene screen saver. I am afraid that if Guardian's gets any bigger, that I will lose interest.

The performances are all good again. I have seen a lot of people praising Drax this time, but I feel like his character slipped a bit in this film. I like Gamora and his sister, and their plot line. I would watch a movie of just the two of them. Adding Kurt Russell to your franchise is alway a good choice, and what child of the 80's wouldn't want Kurt Russell as a father? But after his character was established, and once he started to go "full planet", I grew a bit weary of him.

Michael Rooker gets a beautiful moment in the end of this film. He is a character actor that I admire, and it was nice to see him given such a strong role in this film. He made a lot of the character, and will likely be the thing that I remember most from this film going forward.