Bubble girl.

Bubble girl finds love.  Trouble ensues.

That is basically the story line from the new YA novel adaption, Everything, Everything, written by Nicola Yoon.

Maddy (Amandla Stenberg) has never been outside of her house,  Never once (I guess those rebellious teen years went pretty easily).  She had a rare disease, SCID (severe combined immunodeficiency), that caused her immune system to be weak and threatened her life.

It wasn’t until handsome young stud Olly (Nick Robinson) moved in next door that Maddy began to wish to escape the bubble and experience the world.  Ah, young love.

Of course, Maddy hid the fact that she was having feelings for and talking with the neighbor boy from her overprotective doctor, (who happened to also be) her mother Pauline (Anika Noni Rose).  Maddy enlists the help of her nurse Carla (Ana de la Reguera), who in a remarkably irresponsible decision, smuggled Olly in to the germ free environment.

We have some attempt to make Olly a bad boy, as he makes some off the cuff remark about his favorite vice being minor theft, but there is absolutely no evidence of him being anything but an idolized version of a teen romantic hero.  He even had the abusive father and put upon mother who take up background time of the story.

There are so many gaping holes in this story that I wonder if the book reads any better.  It is a popular book, but that does not make it a good book.  These two characters are in such an unbelievable situation that it simply did not feel true.  I had not read the book so I do not know how loyal to the story the film is.

So Maddy and Olly run off to Hawaii with their (apparently unlimited funds) and have a good old time.  How did they get to Hawaii?  On an airplane.  I immediately thought to myself, where could they go with more potential germs than on an airplane.  Shouldn’t that have sent Maddy straight into the grave?  Neither of them even mentioned it.  Come on.  It’s like going to the hospital to hang out.  The fact that this girl who has been isolated from everything in the world for her entire life did not even once think about the danger she was in is just silly.

But the ending…. I won’t SPOIL it here, but it is truly one of the most selfish things I have ever seen and it is hardly even touched upon.  The ending made this implausible story downright far-fetched.

I will say though that the young couple, Amandla Stenberg and Nick Robinson are an engrossing pair, and I think they might have a pretty solid career ahead of them.  They were very pretty and they carried off these cardboard characters with a panache that speaks highly of them.  Stenberg in particular has an essence about her that I could see her doing something good in the future.  She was the engaging character of Rue in the Hunger Games film and she definitely has an “it” factor about her.

There was also an interesting story telling technique that allowed the audience to see a visual interpretation of the text messaging that went on between Maddy and Olly.  It was portrayed as a face-to-face meeting, despite it just being text messaging.  I thought this was a clever use, but I couldn’t help but wonder if there were any teenagers confused by these scenes.

However, this film is just another doomed young romance from a YA novel with all of the typical cliches and melodramatics of the genre.  Then it has an ending that changes everything, but not in a positive manner.  I want to see more of Stenberg and Robinson, but they deserve to be handed much better material.

2.3 stars

Sometimes doing these movie reviews are painful.

Of course, my friend Darin would say that it is my own fault, and he would be right.  I choose to do this, and I chose to go to the new recasted, rebooted Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Long Haul film despite not seeing one piece of advertising that would make me believe that it was going to be worth my time.

And yet, I had been surprised by the original films in the Diary series.  They were far from great, but they were mindless entertainment, a guilty pleasure, almost.  Could the brand new Wimpy Kid catch the same… I hesitate to say magic… how about…energy, as the last few did?

As I sat in the theater before the movie started, I began to get a feeling of dread in my gut.  A feeling that really created an uneasiness inside me.  I thought about getting up and heading home, but I persevered.   I had very negative feeling heading into the film, but it couldn’t be that bad, could it?

About ten minutes into The Long Haul, I realized that it absolutely could be that bad… and perhaps even worse.

I almost left several times during this road trip movie, where the newly minted actors (led by Alicia Silverstone- who, of course, is in one of the worst films ever made with batman and Robin) started their summer vacation driving for several days to get to Meemaw’s house for her birthday party.  Susan (Silverstone) had planned the trip as a way to help bond the family together, but clearly that would be prevented by hijinks.  Several hijinks including the basic gross-out far, puke and poop jokes that appeal to those with a sense of humor of a 6 year old.

Greg Heffley (Jason Drucker) is the titular Wimpy Kid and he becomes an internet meme and goes viral on YouTube when he gets his hand stuck in a diaper.  Yes, he got his hand stuck in a diaper.  In hopes of living this down, Greg plots to attend a gamer convention in Indianapolis with Gamer sensation Mac Digby  and get in a video with him.  Nothing could go wrong with that plan.

Plot holes and coincidences abound as the movie goes out of its way to show the absolutely worst traits of humanity, not only in the Heffley clan, but the crew of locals and bystanders that they encounter along the way.  The film seems ready to insult just about anyone for a cheap laugh (laugh being a strong word).

To be fair, Jason Drucker does a decent job of playing Greg and carrying the weight of the film, but what he was given to do was so inane and so stupid that it didn’t matter that the boy had some talent.  In fact, the new cast was far from the problem.  Even the constantly ignorant and annoying Roderick (Charlie Wright), the most cliched of stupid characters, was not the main difficulty in this epic flop.

Diary of A Wimpy Kid: The Long Haul simply put is so insulting stupid that it cannot overcome the weaknesses even though the new cast is reasonably decent.  This movie is not about the cast of characters or the actors.  It is about throwing them into gross-out situation after gross-out situation and placing them in such an unbelievably dumb plot contrivance that we stop caring before we are even a quarter of the way to Meemaw’s house.

I almost left this atrocity several times, but I held out for the end.  I couldn’t miss that emotional reunion between a boy and his pig.

I’m not even kidding.

If you have yet to reach double digits in your age, you may enjoy some of the “jokes” in Diary of A Wimpy Kid: The Long Haul, because they have been written for you.  For the poor parents who have to attend this film along with said children… I feel your pain.

This is one of, if not, the worst movies of 2017 so far.  Please think about that before we redo a movie film series again.

0.4 stars

In what feels like an amalgam between the Prometheus film and the original Alien films, Alien: Covenant feels like it clashes with its message.  Is it the exploration of deep themes of world creation and the evolution of humanity or is it a violent monster flick filled with horror images?

The fact that the answer really is “both” is one of the problems for the new entry in the film series by Ridley Scott.  It is both a sequel and a prequel and, at times, is confused because of it.

The crew of the spaceship Covenant, on a colonization mission, awake from their slumber when the ship runs into trouble.  Several colonists are killed, as is the captain, leaving Oram (Billy Crudup) as the new captain.  They discover a strange message (along with a John Denver song) on a mysterious unknown planet considerably closer than the planet that they were originally heading to, so they decide to change course and go check out the new place.

Despite the fact that, from the outside, the planet seems to be perfect for their needs, the crew finds out that they are in deep trouble.

Michael Fassbender reprises his role as David here, as well as playing a second artificial humanoid named Walter.  David has been on this mysterious planet for years, since he arrived after the Prometheus movie.

I have to say, I found the first act of the film to be fairly slow and somewhat dull.  I know this was meant to be more Prometheus-like, but I enjoyed that movie more than I did this part of the film.

It also feels like this film is barely a sequel to Prometheus at all.  Most of the story line of that film is completely cast aside here.  If you were a big fan of Prometheus, Covenant will probably be a crushing disappointment.

Though I liked Prometheus, it was not a film that I loved.  In fact, there were only so many parts that I even remember from it, so the part where Scott tosses it aside did not bother me.

When creatures started popping out of people, I thought the film got considerably better.  There were several very tense and frightening moments in the film, more so than many horror movies.  The third act of the film really did feel like a totally different movie.  It was okay, though I did enjoy the Michael Fassbender parts.  The film was certainly predictable.  It was not hard to imagine what was going to happen to this colony of people on Covenant.

Along with the predictability of the script, the film also fell into the horror genre cliche of disposable characters.  There were very few that I had any connection to at all.  The new captain was kind of a jerk.  The women were all basically the same (although Katherine Waterston was solid as the typical badass female from the Alien franchise) and there were several who I did not even know their names.

One exception was Tennessee (Danny McBride), who was great in this film.  He was one of the characters that I cared about and whom had some development.

Unfortunately, Covenant had another horror weakness to it.  That would be how some of the characters do blatantly stupid things.  I mean, these are meant to be scientists.  They really do some dumb things.  There is one scene in particular with Crudup that is almost laughable it is so dumb.  Hadn’t the guy ever seen a horror movie before?

Alien: Covenant looked tremendous.   Ridley Scott has always had a flare for making these films look beautifully stunning, and this is another one.  There are so many great shots here that you can appreciate the work and effort Scott places into each exterior.  Still, I could have done for more development in the character arcs than what we got.

There were plenty of people who complained after Prometheus that they did not get any Xenomorph action in that film, and this film tries to make up for it.  It succeeds part of the way.  By including the Xenomorphs, the film becomes more of a horror monster movie than anything with greater aspirations.  Not that a good horror monster movie is bad.  It just feels like this should have been even greater.

3.2 stars

I was thinking about the movie “Phone Booth” during the new film, The Wall, by Doug Limon.  The concept was the same, but the placement was clearly different.  Whereas “Phone Booth” saw the main character trapped inside a phone booth on a busy city street by a crazed sniper looking to teach him a lesson, here we find ourselves in the deserts of Iraq.

In 2007, the Iraq War had been deemed over, but for two American snipers, you could not tell.  Isaac (Aaron Taylor Johnson) and Matthews (John Cena) were in Iraq investigating trouble for a work crew when they wind up pinned down and wounded by a mysterious sniper.  When Isaac finds cover behind the remnants of a brick wall, he realizes that the sniper is talking to him over his own communication device.

What follows is a tense character piece between Isaac and the sniper Juba (Laith Nakli) that brings the audience with them into the dirt and the grime of the Iraqi desert.  The claustrophobic film really doubles down on the realism of the environment and the brutality of the situation, despite the outlandishness of the story.

Blood, spit, snot, tears, sweat are everywhere and creates such mesmerizing imagery that develops the theme of helplessness for Isaac and the audience.

Aaron Taylor-Johnson is tremendous as Isaac, filled with desperation and fear, yet never quite reaching the point of giving up.  He bounced between all levels of human emotions, one minute feeling helpless to the next being filled with guilt over what he has done.  He has to spend most of the time on screen alone, which makes the level of his performance even more impressive.  There are some unbelievably devastating moments, including when he digs a bullet out of his own leg.  I was honestly gritting my teeth right along with Isaac with each squirm-inducing second.

John Cena turns in another very strong supporting performance.  Cena has come a long way from “The Marine,” where he put on display his one-note emotion face.  Coming off entertaining roles in Trainwreck, Sisters and Daddy’s Home, Cena brings it to this dramatic role with gusto and realism.

The fact that Juba psychologically messes with Isaac over the coms really creates that sense of “Phone Booth.”  He forces Isaac to think about what he has done and why he is still in Iraq, despite the “war being over.”  Isaac responds to Juba in all kinds of ways, from cursing him out to almost engaging with him.  It is like a cat-and-mouse game of a brutally realistic nature.

The Wall is a small movie, but it faces big issues.  It feels more like a comment on how war can be isolating and, in the end, pointless.  I am not sure how I feel about the ending of The Wall, but it does fit with the remainder of the film’s tone.

I loved “Phone Booth” and The Wall is every bit as good as that film was.

3.8 stars

Happy Mother’s Day to everyone out there.

Snatched focuses on the mother-daughter relationship between Amy Schumer and Goldie Hawn, and their connection is what drives this movie to be more than just another silly comedy.

Amy Schumer played Emily, a down on her luck sad sack who has lost her job and her boyfriend just before she was to head on vacation to Ecuador with non-refundable airplane tickets.  Linda (Goldie Hawn), desperate for her daughter’s attention, convinces her to come visit and get over the break up.  In a moment of weakness, Emily asks her mom to join her on the trip.  Linda did not want to go, but Emily convinces her.

After Emily meets a hunky man (Tom Bateman), she again talks Linda into going with them on a day trip.  Unfortunately, the women wind up getting kidnapped and held for ransom.  With some shenanigans, the ladies escape and have to wander through the Amazon trying to avoid the criminal (Óscar Jaenada) who had kidnapped them.

There are some funny scenes in the movie and I did enjoy the chemistry with Schumer and Hawn.  Goldie Hawn was really good here and she looked amazing.  There were some really funny moments from the supporting cast as well.  Christopher Meloni played Roger, an apparent guide who meets the ladies and offers to help them.  He was a standout here.  I also enjoyed the parts of the film involving Wanda Sykes and Joan Cusack as fellow tourists Ruth and Barb.  That pairing could have used more screen time.

The biggest issue with Snatched is the story was so ridiculous that it was hard to get past.  They made the Amazon seem pretty small and the time it took for them to make it through Ecuador and into Columbia was just a few scenes.  Some of the cuts really made it feel like the timing of the film was off-kilter.

Plus, there is a scene with a tapeworm that just defied explanation.  Honestly, all I was thinking with that scene was… “Would that really work?”  It took me way out of the movie.

In the end, Snatched puts a lot on its two stars and they are what make this watchable.  Without the presence of Schumer and Hawn, this film would be extremely weak.  As it is, with them, the movie is okay.

3 stars

Unfortunately, within ten minutes of King Arthur: Legend of the Sword, I was bored and wishing the film was done. That is not a good sign.

Most of the YouTube movie reviewers who I like seemed to like this movie, so, despite the low Rotten Tomatoes score, I went into the new Guy Ritchie version of King Arthur with a hope that it would be better than I thought.

Then, I hated it.

The new movie tells the familiar story of the one and future king of England, as Arthur pulls the sword Excalibur out of the stone and began his return.  Arthur is played by Charlie Hunnan, trying to return to the throne, held by his uncle Jude Law, who ruled England since he killed Arthur’s father Eric Bana.

There were a lot of stylish scenes that remind you that this is a Guy Ritchie movie and some of those actually worked.  Specifically, the time when Arthur was recounting his interactions with this group of Vikings for one of the constables that he knew was a fairly entertaining scene.  Some of the dialogue was clever.  However, there were just not enough of these kind of scenes and when they did come around, most of them felt as if they were nothing more than heavily exposition laden scenes.

The film actually lost me right away with the ginormous elephants in the initial scene.  I thought the whole thing was ridiculous and wasted.

Plus, the film spent a lot of time with Arthur trying to be able to harness the power of Excalibur and being unable to do it because of something that he could not face.  We saw the flashbacks to the scene in question multiple times through the film and there was no payoff for this when Arthur finally overcomes his troubles.  It made little sense and detracted from the story they were trying to tell.

Charlie Hunnan (from Game of Thrones) was adequate as Arthur.  His performance did not stick out in any way really.  He had some quips that felt like were out of place with the rest of the tone of the film.  Jude Law was fine, but he over acted in several scenes as well.  There were at least two examples of characters screaming “no” that carried over tot he next scene.  It was almost comedic and made me think of Darth Vader’s ever laughable “no” at the end of Revenge of the Sith.

The CGI here was basically poor.  I found the film too dark and hard to watch.  The fight scenes were all choppy and difficult to follow.  The ending was much like a video game as Arthur had to go through all the lackeys to fight the big boss at the end.  Other parts of the film felt like a giant music video as montages were the order of the day.

In the end, I really did not enjoy this film at all.  It was boring and poorly shot.  It had unfortunate CGI and the acting was, at best, passable and at worst cheesy.  I was very disappointed in King Arthur’s return to the screen.

1.8 stars

I was on Hulu last night, catching up on the television I missed this week, when I saw this at the top of the screen.  Batman and Bill.

I had heard about this documentary somewhere.  I think it was Jon Schnepp on Movie talk or Heroes or one of those movie talk programs I watch.  It was someone who had some knowledge on the subject.  The subject of Bill Finger.

Who you say?  Why Bill Finger co-created Batman.

As a co-creator of one of the most famous super heroes of all time, you would think that Bill Finger would be a well known name, raking in millions from the countless movies, shows, toys, and other products.

But you would be wrong.

You see, for years, only one man had been given credit for creating Batman and his name was Bob Kane.  Bill Finger was a “ghost.”

The new documentary follows the investigation of Marc Tyler Nobleman as he planned to write a book on Bill Finger, and lead a charge to get Finger the credit he deserved in his participation in the creation of the Dark Knight.

According to the film, Finger worked with Bob Kane, taking a preliminary drawing Kane had made of the Batman and giving the character most of his iconic costume, characteristics and origin.  Finger spent years writing the comic of Batman, only to have Bob Kane’s name on the work.  It was one of the ways that comics were done at the time, but, as the years progressed, Finger slipped into obscurity while Kane became more and more famous.

After Finger’s death in 1973, Kane even went as far as to admit in an interview that Finger was responsible for 50-75% of the Batman.  Still, on every place where credit was listed, the words “Batman created by Bob Kane” remained.

The documentary talks to many comic creators (Roy Thomas, Todd McFarlane etc) and fans (Kevin Smith etc) about the trials of trying to find a way to get Bill Finger the proper credit years after his death.

As a comic fan, this documentary really creates a world where Nobleman is trying to gain justice for Finger, a man whose life took a drastic downward spiral.  The film tries to keep from painting Bob Kane as the villain, though it does make him look pretty selfish and greedy at times.

Batman and Bill is a tremendous documentary that has some unbelievable twists and turns and an ending that seems to come right out of a Hollywood blockbuster.  Marc Tyler Nobleman took what seemed like an impossible dream and made it happen and we are able to watch as the whole story unfolded before our eyes.

Hulu’s got a winner here.

4.5 stars

I wouldn’t have liked any of those courses of specialty foods served during this dinner.

My picky taste buds aside, I didn’t like The Dinner much either.

Two brothers, one a popular Congressman Stan Lohman (Richard Gere), another one a former teacher Paul Lohman (Steve Coogan), get together with their wives at a fancy restaurant to discuss major issues that are facing their family.

Stan is running for Governor as well so taking time out of his schedule to have this dinner is a trying thing.  Paul and his wife Claire (Laura Linney) are dealing with a problem with their troubled son Michael (Charlie Plummer).

Paul has some kind of mental illness. It has apparently been transferred from their mother.  Paul spends the whole time monologuing and acting confused.

The children of the brothers become involved in a horrible crime and that winds up on YouTube and causes a nationwide shock.  No one knows who committed the crime, except this family.

These are horrible people.  I found Steve Coogan interesting as Paul, but he really was confusing through much of this.  Laura Linney is such an enabler.  And in the biggest twist of the movie, Richard Gere is playing a politician who is trying to do the right thing.

Talk about fiction.

I disliked most of this movie.  There were moments where I was starting to be interested in the story, but then they went off on a ten minute monologue on Gettysburg and I was checking out.

Plus, the kid Michael, who I thought was decent, turned out to be a deep seeded dirtbag.  I did not want to cheer for him at all.

The film is told in flashback as we discover what had happened and why these people are so rotten.

Honestly, trying to reflect back on the film, I am having trouble putting together a cohesive thought about it.  It is a great cast and they have some solid performances.  But the fact is the characters are terrible and inconsistent and the story only grabbed me at certain points.  Plus, the dinner was just not up my lane.

Check please.

2 stars

When Guardians of the Galaxy came out, few people expected it to be such a massive hit.  In fact, there were many who were claiming that it was going to be Marvel Studios’ first flop only to be completely won over by the charm, humor and heart of the film.  Who knew that a talking raccoon and a giant tree could be so engaging?

So after a remarkably successful run, it was a guarantee that there would be a sequel.  Could it possibly live up to the first film or was that just too much to ask?

I came back from a double feature showing of Guardians of the Galaxy and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 tonight and I have to say that the sequel cannot match the first film.  Seeing it again after a few years reminded me how near perfect I find the original Guardians of the Galaxy.  I’m not sure that it is possible to reach that level of goodness.

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol.2 does not measure up to the original, but it is a damn fine movie that has plenty of fun, laughs and action.  It also has a ton of character development among our favorite characters.

We pick up with the Guardians hired to protect these batteries by a race of golden skinned people known as the Sovereign from a giant monster.  Success does not come easy and is, eventually, undermined when Rocket (Bradley Cooper) actually steals the same batteries that they were hired to protect.

This leads to the Sovereign, including their leader Ayesha (Elizabeth Debicki) chasing the Guardians across the galaxy.  They get away thanks to the well timed intervention by Ego (Kurt Russell), who turns out to be the long lost father of Peter Quill (Chris Pratt).  Ego leads Quill (aka Star-Lord) with Gamora (Zoe Saldana) and Drax (Dave Bautista).  Meanwhile, Rocket and Baby Groot (Vin Diesel) stay behind to baby-sit Nebula (Karen Gillan), who they had captured and was preparing to return to the Xandarians.

The movie really dives into character examination of why these people are the way that they are.  Peter Quill and Ego are at the heart of this story, examining the relationship between both father and son and father and mother.  However, even though Quill and Ego are the main story, we still get quite a bit of examination of Rocket, being compared to and linked with Yondu (Michael Rooker).  Michael Rooker is one of the absolute standouts of this movie as Yondu is not only shown as a bad ass, but we get to learn more about him than you ever would have guessed.  Rooker really brought the A game here.

Baby Groot is as amazingly cute as you thought he was gong to be.  In fact, the cuteness of Baby Groot is actually worked into the plot and becomes a real factor in the story with Rocket and Yondu.  Baby Groot is very innocent and is much like a baby as well.  You can see how much the Guardians cared for the little tree creature and Groot’s relationships with all of the Guardians are great.  It is not just Rocket and Groot here.

Of all the characters, Drax probably has the least amount of development (although there are a couple of strong scenes of Drax remembering his wife and daughter).  Of course, Drax is also one of the funniest parts of Vol. 2.  After watching the first film tonight, I am reminded on how amazing a job Bautista does as this character.  He brings a level of emotion and depth to, what really could be a one note character, that I did not expect.  Bautista felt just as comfortable with the comedy in Vol. 2 as he did with the emotions of the first one.  I heard some people complain that Drax the Destroyer does not do any destroying in the 2nd or 3rd acts of this movie, but I think that is not a fair assessment.  Drax does what he has to do and his scenes with Mantis (Pom Klementieff) are very strong (especially at the end when Drax is helping her.)  Mantis was an alright addition to he cast, but I did not love her.

Speaking of the comedy, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 is one of the funniest Marvel movies yet.  However, it felt as if some of the humor was forced and actually played against several of the scenes.  I would have liked for the movie to cut back on some of the humor.  Now don’t get me wrong, I would say that 75% of the humor here was great and fit well with the film, but there was a few moments where it felt like there was too much ha ha.

The film looked great, particularly with the colors and the settings.  Some of the CGI was iffy, but most of it was passable.  There were some really beautiful back drops, especially when the team was on Ego’s planet.

There are some intriguing cameos and Easter Eggs here as well.  SPOILERS from this point on.  Sylvester Stallone appears as Stakar Ogord, whom comic fans know as Starhawk from the original Guardians of the Galaxy comic team.  Yondu is also on that team, and the film plays an interesting dynamic between the two.  Of course the problem is that this is Stallone and he stands out.  Maybe we will see him more down the road.  Another cameo that is jaw dropping is the typical Stan Lee cameo, but this one is anything but typical.  He is shown talking to a group of Watchers, implying that Lee reports to them.  (By the way, I never would have guessed that we would see the Watchers in a Marvel movie).  Marvel Studios head honcho Kevin Fiege has confirmed that all of Stan Lee’s cameos in all Marvel movies are the same character, which was actually a fan theory.  We also get fun cameos from Ving Rhames (Charlie 27), Miley Cyrus (Mainframe) and Michael Rosenbaum (Martinex)- all members of the original comic version of GotG (here as members of the original Ravagers).  Howard the Duck shows up again!  And… um.. David Hasselhoff?  Awesome!

End of SPOILERS

There were five, count them, FIVE post credit scenes.  They ranged from mind blowing to humorous.  There were also very funny shots of the Guardians dancing as the credits rolled across the screen.

The music is a major part of the Guardians of the Galaxy and this movie had plenty of it.  I think the first film’s Awesome Mix Tape may have been better, but there were some clear stand outs, including ELO’s “Mister Blue Sky” (featuring a dance routine like few others).  Director James Gunn really has a handle on how to incorporate music into these Guardians movie naturally, without feeling like he is just cramming songs into it (hi there Suicide Squad…).  Each song had purpose and blended seamlessly with the scene.

Gunn has said how much he loves these characters and it shows. He treats these characters with so much humanity, despite them being a tree or a raccoon.  There is the flavor of James Gunn throughout this movie and I am extremely pleased that he has said publicly that he would be back for Vol. 3.  I am not sure what a Guardians of the Galaxy film would be without James Gunn.

Many people complained that the Sovereign was not a strong villain and was annoying how they kept popping up.  I would agree that Ayesha was not as strong as some characters here, but she has an extremely vital post credit scene.  As for the Sovereign, they did feel fairly disposable and, at times, felt as if they undermined themselves with the tone that they had set.  However, I do not think that is the problem because I do not agree with them being considered the main antagonist of the film.  That role falls to another character.

There is a really emotional ending to the film and the characters’ relationships continue to be wonderful.

Did I think that Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 was better than the first movie?  No, I did not.  Guardians of the Galaxy was and still is, one of my favorite MCU movies of all time (maybe #3 or 4).  Seeing it again tonight as a warm up for the new film was amazing, and I had tears in my eyes once again.  Vol. 2 does not reach that level.  However, this still has plenty of greatness about it and is a really enjoyable time.  The characters are better every time we see them, we have a lot of funny moments and it continues to set up the Marvel Movie Cosmic Universe.

4.6 stars