“Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2” was released on May 5, and is the sequel to “Guardians of the Galaxy” (2014). It stars Chris Pratt as Star-Lord, Zoe Saldana as Gamora, Dave Bautista as Drax, Vin Diesel as Baby Groot, Bradley Cooper as Rocket, along with many other actors.

Like its predecessor, the movie starts out on Earth in the 1980s, where we see Peter’s (Star-Lord’s) parents on the road together and happy. Peter’s father then reveals a crucial plot point that the audience will not understand until the climax of the movie. It then switches to our title characters preparing for a battle with a space creature to protect an alien planet’s power source. However, Rocket steals part of this power source, unknown to the other Guardians, which causes the alien race to pursue the Guardians as a side conflict throughout the movie. In addition, Peter’s father, the celestial Ego, appears out of nowhere to be a part of Peter’s life. However, things are not always as they appear with Peter’s father.

The film, overall, has genius comedic timing and made situations that seem perilous, hilarious. Notably, some of the movie’s highlight funny moments are with Rocket or Baby Groot. Even in the climax, they added  a lot of comedy, particularly at one point when Rocket asks Peter for tape, so we hear Peter going around the battle zone asking for tape. The acting was enjoyable, but sometimes, certain plot points felt rushed or seemed insignificant if the actors brush over it. still, the cast gives it their all for their returning characters and new characters entirely.

The theme of the movie is strong and can be interpreted through every character in the movie. The topic of the movie is clearly family, and the theme could even be defined as family will fight, but will always be there for each other. In addition, some returning characters had their characters expanded upon. Yondu, for instance, went from being a heartless pirate antagonist in the first move, to more of a caring father figure to Peter. Also, Nebula went from being a ruthless assassin to a broken girl who all along wanted a sister to love her, and found that in Gamora. The theme of family was everywhere in the movie.

Overall, I give the movie a 4.5/5. The movie was certainly enjoyable and almost as good as the first one. “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2” is an enjoyable space adventure following the Guardians of the Galaxy as they come into contact with Peter’s father Ego. The whole movie was hilarious, yet heartwarming. I have no major criticisms for the movie.