Guardians of the Galaxy Volume II

While on the run from the golden-skinned Sovereigns, the eponymous space misfits meet Ego (Kurt Russell), a bouffant and bearded charmer with a fabulous home planet. The amiably goofy Quill (Chris Pratt) is impressed, blue-skinned Gamora (Zoe Saldana) sceptical, but like the other guardians, she is more preoccupied by the vengeful Sovereigns, who are hunting the group following Rocket’s theft of some of their precious ‘batteries’.

                Though not as snappily plotted as its predecessor (there is a rather flabby, navel-gazing middle section), Volume 2 of this series is still miles better than recent products from the same stable – Doctor Strange and Captain America: Civil War –  thanks in part to its many genuinely funny one-liners and a slick seventies pop soundtrack that perfectly complements the sugar rush graphics.  This is a film that refuses to take itself too seriously while also managing to explore themes such as child-parent relationships and sibling rivalry in an affecting manner.  

                Perhaps this series’ greatest strength lies in its characters, a flawed band of outsiders who are by far the most likeable in Marvel’s cinematic universe.  Like Star Wars, it depends on its central band of heroes, but this is a more lovable crew. Quill is a guileless and smarm-free Han Solo, Drax the Destroyer (Dave Bautista) is a musclebound creature whose endearing inability to understand irony provides many comical moments while Gamora is one of those rare female characters who has been granted real wit in addition to steeliness.  It’s easier to care about this bunch of rejects than for Marvel’s better known superpeople, who spend a lot of their time trash-talking one another or agonising over their status as protectors of humanity/destructive vigilantes (though Mark Ruffalo’s sweetly vulnerable Bruce Banner is a notable exception).

                Being a relatively minor part of the Marvel canon, and being set almost entirely in space, gives Guardians of the Galaxy a freedom to experiment that is not available to well-established, and more popular, characters like Spiderman and The Avengers.  It would be hard to shove so much pop  music and so many eighties pop culture references (David Hasslehoff is mentioned several times) into one of the superhero films without raising the ire of the ultra-protective hordes of comic nerd fans.       

 Smarter than the other Marvel movies; more fun than Star Wars.