
When the first Guardians of Galaxy was released in 2014 it felt like a very odd choice for Marvel to make following the success of The Avengers; a sci-fi series featuring a talking tree, a psychotic raccoon, the tubby guy from Parks & Rec., and directed by a guy from Troma? Never should’ve worked. And yet, $770 Million and worldwide praise later, the film did work and serves as one of the highlights of Marvel’s cinematic universe, so no pressure on the sequel.
To get it out of the way quickly, Vol. 2 doesn’t live up to the first, only because the first film had no expectations of it, it came from nowhere, and blew everyone away. While the sequel had the unfortunate luck to come second, it’s still a burst of color and fun, while one of the best standalone MCU films to date.