Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (2017)

This sequel to the 2014 blockbuster is predictably entertaining with plenty of laughs and great makeup and special effects, though a little heavy on the pop psychology: daddy issues, sibling rivalry, and a touch of Freud with a character named Ego. Returning from the first go-round are Chris Pratt (last blogged for Passengers) as Peter Quill, Zoe Saldana (most recently in Infinitely Polar Bear) as green-skinned Gamora, Bradley Cooper (after Joy he was a voice on the phone in 10 Cloverfield Lane) as the voice of Rocket who doesn't want to be called a raccoon, and Dave Bautista as Drax and Vin Diesel as the voice of Baby Groot (both of their last appearances in these pages were for the original Guardians of the Galaxy--Diesel voiced big Groot last time), to name a few. Joining up for this chapter are Kurt Russell (profiled in The Hateful Eight) as Ego and Sylvester Stallone (starred in yet another Rocky sequel, Creed) in a cameo.

James Gunn returns to the director's chair and writer's desk from the original and, this time, he is the only writer credited with the script and not with creating a concept or a character. As usual, keep your eyes peeled for Stan Lee's appearance, watching our heroes whiz by an unnamed planet.

Like so many big budget blockbusters, this has pages and pages of trivia factoids. One that caught my eye is that Gunn choreographed and performed the motion capture for Baby Groot's dance in the opening credits and it took almost two years to make just that sequence digitally. Also, his brother Sean performed motion capture for all of Rocket's scenes.

Awesome Mix Vol. 1 was integral to the first movie as Awesome Mix Vol. 2 is to this one. You can read the playlist on this page and listen to it from this one. Tyler Bates reprises his role as composer of the driving battle music, available on spotify.

We saw it two weeks ago and liked it fine, agreeing with Rotten Tomatoes' critics and audiences, who average 81 and 90% respectively. It's still playing everywhere in various formats and they've already started making Volume 3.