Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2

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Infinity Saga

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Edit Coming 04/13/26

This chapter picks up shortly after the events of the first 'Guardians' film, with Groot still in baby form. It's placed before the events of 'Age of Ultron', and meant to give us some more background and development into Peter Quill's character.

It hits the ground running when Ayesha (Elizabeth Debicki), leader of the Sovereign race, hires the Guardians to protect some batteries from an inter-dimensional being in exchange for Nebula. A chase soon ensues after Rocket takes it upon himself to steal some of these valuable batteries for himself.

Forced to crash land on a planet, they are soon introduced to Ego (Kurt Russell), a celestial and Peter's actual birth father, which gives way to explaining how Quill was able to hold the Power Stone for as long as he did. Mantis (Pom Klementieff) is also introduced here; a being with unusual abilities that can manipulate and feel emotion nown as an Empath. Ego invites them to his home planet where all about Quill's origin is pretty much revealed, and Drax and Gamora tag along for the ride, leaving Rocket to repair the crashed ship, and watch Groot.

While Quill and the others are off doing their thing, Rocket is ambushed by a team of Ravagers, lead by Yondu, who have been offered a generous reward for turning in the Guardians to the Sovereign. However when Yondu has a sudden change of heart, the Ravagers end up doing a mutiny and take things over while both Rocket and Yondu's characters develop when they find more in common with each other than they could have imagined. 

Though perhaps not quite as good as the first 'Guardians', 'Vol. 2' definitely holds it's own, and ends up being a very good sequel to it's predecessor all the same. The characters and overall feel of things between the amazing visual effects and the old school soundtrack pretty much remain the same, and the connection between the two films remains solid. Really, one could watch these back to back if following the Timeline closely.

Part of the charm of 'Guardians' certainly lies in it's overall cheesiness. It's one of those things where if it's done too seriously, the audience for it might dwindle. That cheesiness needs to be there to some extent as it's part of the film's character. Which is not to say that there's no amount of things to be taken seriously, but it does make the fun of it all more plausible.

I think as far as sequels go, it's safe to say that this is a strong one. They're close enough in quality when comparing them that when saying the first is probably better, it's simply because the first was the introduction to it all, and several Marvel fans found a whole new, not only property, but team they could latch on to. This basically just continues that idea, and does so smoothly. Although I will say the arcade machine ships might throw some people off. But again, that sort of adds to the spirit of what 'Guardians' is; our love of nostalgia blending with our love of present-day stories.

To cap it all off, there were more credit scenes here than you could shake a stick at, making for a bit more of a fun time with the credits instead of just sitting and waiting for them to come on. Some of them jokey, some of them attaching to upcoming films, but all 'Guardians' related

​4/5

PRE-CREDIT SCENE: Kraglin tests out his skills on Yondu's arrow, only to hit Drax in the chest.

MID-CREDIT SCENE: Ravager leader, Stakar Ogord (Sylvester Stallone) is seen reuniting with his ex-teammates; a team of unknowns who may return at some point for another 'Guardians' film.

MID-CREDIT SCENE: A defeated Ayesha creates a new artificial being, naming him Adam, whit whom she plans to bring down the Guardians. This hints to the creation of Adam Warlock.

MID-CREDIT SCENE: After some apparent time has passed, Groot is seen as an ignorant teenager who gives Quill a bit of attitude

POST-CREDIT SCENE: After having done one of his most interesting cameos, Stan Lee is abandoned by a group of Watchers who leave him, uninterested in his stories.

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