So I finally went to see the #1 movie in America right now, the Guardians of the Galaxy Vol.2 with my girlfriend, sister and her boyfriend....



....and I LOVED IT!!!!!!



Goddamn was this a really good movie, perhaps better than the first even?
Someone likened it to being like the Empire Strikes Back, and I can totally see that being the case, as this movie continued to build on the developing of the entire original cast and their own stories, as well as seamlessly bring in old enemies (frenemies?) into the fold with Yondu and Nebula joining the team, albeit temporarily for various reasons.

I even liked Mantis, despite being nowhere near like her comic counterpart, and hope she sticks around for the threequel, because I'd like to see her character develop further as the new team member.


And then there was the reveal of who Quill's dad was in the MCU, Ego the living planet, played perfectly by Kurt Russell.
















The reveal that he was a celestial as was Peter, was interesting, and further builds up the cast of the Elders of the Universe, much like the previous Guardians' movie introduced us to the Collector, and the new Thor movie will introduce us to the Grandmaster.

There's a few more for Marvel movies to get around to like the Runner, the Gardner, The Champion, the Stranger, Order and Chaos, Eternity, and of course the Living Tribunal.

Stan Lee had a funny cameo in this one too, as he does in all the Marvel movies, this time hanging out the Watchers, which is funny considering the theory that he himself is in fact a Watcher. Guess not.

And we caught a glimpse of the Original Guardians of the Galaxy, as this movie introduced us to Yondu's old crew in the Ravagers, headed up by Rocky himself, Sylvester Stallone, who played Starhawk.



There were other OG members there like Charlie-27 (played by Ving Rames) Martinex (played by Michael Rosenbaum or Lex Luthor from Smallville) and a few other faces I can't recognize.

Now according to director James Gunn, he plans on using Starhawk's team in the future, wanting them to be an important part of the MCU going forward, even if they might not appear in another Guardians movie. I really hope so, because just the bits we got from the movie has definitely piqued my interest in seeing more of this team of Ravagers, especially since they were pretty much acknowledged as being the predecessors or "Guardians of the Galaxy" before Quill's crew were.

Then there were the post-credits, for inventively done, and of course, we get a teaser promise that we'll be seeing Adam Warlock, and hopefully in the next sequel too.

All in all, I thoroughly enjoyed this movie, and would gladly recommend it to any and all comic book fans.