Marvel May - Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (2017)

         Hey guys, Chuck here. Well, as we continue to look into Marvel's Phase Three movies for Marvel May, we are heading back to the stars with Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2. 

         The second Guardians of the Galaxy film, once again written and directed by James Gunn, starts with a flashback of Meredith Quill, Peter Quill's mother, as she goes on a date with a young man named Ego. Ego, it turns out, is the father of Peter Quill in this movie. Flash forward to just a few months after the end of the first movie, and the Guardians are fighting a giant monster to protect a supply of anulax batteries for the Sovereign, a golden-skinned, human-like race of intelligent beings, who hand over Gamora's adopted sister Nebula to the Guardians, haven taken her prisoner beforehand. Unfortunately, the Sovereign quickly hunt down the Guardians after it's revealed that Rocket stole some of the batteries to sell on the black market. The attack is halted by the arrival of Ego in his pod-like ship, After using a jump point and crashing the Milano on a nearby planet, the Guardians meet Ego, along with his associate Mantis,  and they all sit down around a campfire and it's revealed that Yondu was meant to deliver Quill to Ego years ago, but never did. Quill, along with Gamora and Drax, leaves with Ego and Mantis, leaving Rocket to fix the Milano, and look after Groot, who is a toddler at this point. 

         On the other side of space, Yondu and his crew are relaxing, and Yondu sees and confronts Ravager leader Stakar Ogord, who kicked Yondu out of the Ravagers because he broke the Code of the Ravagers: never smuggle children. Meanwhile, Sovereign leader Ayesha hires Yondu and his crew to hunt down the Guardians. On Ego's planet, we learn that the Ego we've spent the movie with is an embodiment of the true Ego: the planet they're walking on. Quill and Ego spend a lot of time bonding, Drax gets to know Mantis, and Gamora can't shake the feeling that something is wrong. 

         Yondu and his crew of Ravagers, meanwhile, catch up with Rocket and Groot, who them off until Nebula hands both Rocket and Groot over to them. Yondu, however, refuses to kill any of the Guardians, as doing so would lead them to be hunted down by the Nova Corps. One of Yondu's crew members, a fugly looking dude named Taserface, betrays Yondu and takes over the crew. Taserface plans to hand Rocket and Yondu over to the Sovereign, while keeping Groot for the amusement of the Ravagers. Groot, along with Yondu's first mate Kraglin, break Rocket and Yondu out, and bring Yondu a prototype fin to control his whistling arrow. The Ravagers, along with Taserface, are killed, with their ship destroyed...all except for a section called the Fourth Quadrant, which Yondu, Rocket, Groot, and Kraglin use to save Quill from Ego. 

        Nebula, meanwhile, goes after Gamora, enraged over the treatment she always got from Thanos for being bested by Gamora in combat, and the two go to help Quill, who is set to be used as part of Ego's plan: the expansion. Ego literally plans to turn several planets across the universe, including Earth and Xandar, into a n extension of himself. The Guardians, along with Mantis, Yondu, and Nebula, all work together to stop him, all while fending off an attack by the Sovereign. Ego, who revealed that he put the cancerous tumor into Meredith's head years ago (and shatters Quill's walkman), is defeated, his planet destroyed, be Yondu sacrifices himself to save Quill, who realizes that Yondu had been a father to him all along. The Guardians hold a funeral for Yondu, with Kraglin handing Quill a replacement for his walkman: a Zune. Meanwhile, Stakar and the other Ravager captains arrive and shoot off fireworks, giving their fallen comrade a Ravager funeral. Nebula and Gamora reconcile, and Mantis joins the Guardians of the Galaxy, ending the movie. Later on, Ayesha begins creating a new being to destroy the Guardians: Adam. 

         Okay, so this movie has a lot going on. First off, continuing a lot of threads from the first movie, specifically surrounding Nebula and Gamora, was good. I liked seeing some of those threads continue to be worked on. Making Ego the Living Planet the villain was cool, and having him be Quill's father, although a departure from the comics, was a nice add-on. I definitely liked Kurt Russell as Ego, as well as Pom Klementieff as Mantis. The returning cast of Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana, Dave Bautista, Karen Gillan, Michael Rooker, Bradley Cooper, and Vin Diesel were great, and other new additions like Sylvester Stallone and Elizabeth Debicki were terrific as well. And, I'm going to just say this: Baby Groot is so adorable. Now, in one of the post-credits scenes, we see Teen Groot, but I really enjoyed Baby Groot in this movie. 

        The movie's soundtrack, Awesome Mix Vol. 2, has a lot of great tracks on it, and while Vol. 1 is still better, I do recommend picking up Vol. 2. In fact, that is how I feel about this movie: definitely worth watching, but not as good as the first movie. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 gets a rating of 4.25/5. Now, in December of 2022, we're getting The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special on Disney+, followed by Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 in theaters Summer 2023. Anyway, this is Chuck signing off, and I'll see you guys next time when we continue Marvel May with Spider-Man: Homecoming.