Starring Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana, Dave Bautista, Bradley Cooper, Vin Diesel, Kurt Russell and a lot of CGI

Written and directed by James Gunn

Peter Quill deals with daddy issues when his father pops up unexpectedly…

The casting is fantastic; the special effects are as special as ever; the scenes with Rocket and Baby Groot sing for the most part. But there’s definitely something lacking in this follow-up to the surprise hit of the Marvel Cinematic Universe – and it’s that element of surprise. It feels as if Marvel have said they want more of the same, only a bit bigger, and that’s what James Gunn has given them. There are character moments, but a number of them feel forced; there are humorous lines, but more than a few of them equally feel pushed.

The opening of the film is quite promising (once we get the flashback to a de-aged Kurt Russell out of the way), and is in keeping with the spirit of the original movie, with Rocket unable to help himself from getting them all into trouble. But once Russell turns up, now old and grizzled, and takes Peter, Gamora and Drax back to his planet – rather unbelievably leaving Rocket and baby Groot to look after their captive, Nebula – things start to drag. For the first time since Age of Ultron, I found myself looking at my watch wondering when things were going pick up again – which they did with an extensive gag featuring baby Groot (fans of Garfield may remember something similar in the comics a few years back) that feels tonally out of place sandwiched between two gruesome massacres.

Second movies in the MCU have had this problem before – with perhaps the honourable exception of Captain America: The Winter Soldier – and while none of them have been bad, there’s been a sense of self-indulgence, which applies to this in particular. There are some very good gags – mostly featuring baby Groot and/or Rocket – but nearly all of them go on just that little bit too long. Things happen because the plot needs them to rather than out of the characterisation (Drax accompanying Peter and Gamora is a definite case in point), and we’ve no longer got a group of rogues working together because they all have a personal vested interest in staying together. You have to wonder if the 100% test score cards meant that nobody took a good hard look at this and tried to trim the movie down to two hours.

Don’t get me wrong – this is still fun, and looks gorgeous on the IMAX screen. But it’s a good contribution to the MCU rather than the great one that we’d hoped for.

Verdict: The band’s “second album” has a few more flaws than you’d hope but it’s still worth 8/10

Paul Simpson