I saw GOTG2 this weekend! It was pretty damn good.

Ego’s pretty good. I mean, he’s no Galactus or Celestial or the Fourth World, but he’s a giant planetface and that’s pretty cool.

 So some thoughts on GOTG2:

For a sequel that couldn’t change the status quo too much (because the Guardians are going to be in Avengers: Infinity War), I thought it did a good job telling a smaller, intimate story that’s really more about deepening and examining the psychologies of the individual Guardians and their relationships with one another. 

And that’s why I have a problem with people saying it was just a retread of the first film, even if they admit that it was just as funny and colorful and surprisingly sentimental as last time. Because the first Guardians movie didn’t really give Gamora and Nebula much character at all, let alone a really moving examination of two people struggling with an abusive childhood; likewise, Yondu in the first film is mostly just a heavy there to be fooled by Peter, whereas in the second film, you get this deep dive into an unexpectedly complicated and compelling person whose loss hits incredibly hard. 

Moreover, GOTG2 did a decent job of expanding the world of Guardians: the Spvereign were a great addition to the weird and wacky cosmic world that Marvel is building (and rather than being a throwaway villain, will continue to be significant through their creation of Adam Warlock), Peter’s heritage got revealed and expanded, the culture of the Ravagers was explored in way more detail than I expected (complete with a new team of possible antagonists or allies for the next film who all come out of the original GOTGs), etc. 

And finally, the damn thing was beautiful.