Groot Jr. falls into this trope pretty frequently, such as when he's dancing happily to "Mr. Blue Sky" in the opening scene of the film... only to freeze when Drax turns and sees him. And then starting to dance again as soon as Drax looks away.
Mantis also falls into this for many viewers. Her Squeeingover Rocket during the film's climax is both absolutely adorable and gut-bustingly hilarious.
The opening sequence sees Drax jumping into the mouth of the monster they are fighting to "cut it from the inside". The other Guardians see this as a particularly stupid act because it's the same skin from both sides. However, it's very likely that Drax didn't mean "cut it Chestburster style" but rather "cause massive damage to its internal organs". When we see him inside the monster, he is happily stabbing at the inside rather than try and make any effort to get out. Taking credit for killing the monster may have been him being a Cloudcuckoolander, but for all he knew, Gamora might have sliced the beast open after it died to get him out.
Ego: Did he truly love Peter and his mother? Did he truly want to get to know his son as a father? Did he kill Meredith because he was scared of his love for her causing him to lose what made him special? Or did he simply see them as a means to an end? Did he only see Meredith as an Earthling incubator for his progeny to dispose of once he got what he needed? Did he just manipulate Peter to get him to achieve his goals while feeling nothing for him? There's enough ambiguity between his actions and his words to give credence to any one of these interpretations. Perhaps one of the biggest is the moment Ego crushes Peter's Walkman, the last memory he has of his mother, while quietly singing the refrain to "Brandy, You're a Fine Girl" one last time. Was it a Kick the Dog moment that firmly booted Ego over the Moral Event Horizon as a showcase of his utter lack of morality, or was it (in his own twisted way) a genuine effort to try and make Peter let go of his attachments to his mortal life and join him in godhood, as the only other being in existence who could eventually understand him? Or maybe both?
Come Eternals, we are introduced to the other Celestials. Unlike Ego, they are more-or-less comic-accurate and contradict Ego's statement of being alone in the universe, throwing some doubt into whether Ego actually is a Celestial. Him assuming he was simply because he was powerful and heard Celestials were powerful is in character for a megalomaniac like him.
Drax's interactions with Mantis; does he see her as a friend, a daughter figure to be protected, or a love interest? Word of God is that it isn't a romantic relationship, but the subtext is still there. Additionally, does he call her ugly because he wants to put distance between them and not allow himself to care about her (romantic or otherwise), because he really does find her ugly and is just being direct about it as usual, or is it his way of trying to be funny?
Mantis' comment that she "[doesn't] even like the type of thing" Drax is; some fans take it as a sign that she doesn't find members of his species attractive, while others have taken it as a sign that she's Ambiguously Gay or even asexual.
Despite being the first Hollywood production to be filmed entirely using 8K cinematography (ie, a resolution with four times the pixels of high definition), paving the way for further films to be shot with this resolution, the film received no Academy Award nominations for Best Cinematography.
Michael Rooker's fantastic portrayal of Yondu led fans, critics and even James Gunn to feel he deserved an Oscar nod (i.e., as Best Supporting Actor or another similar role). Rooker and Gunn's refusal to bring Yondu back solidifies their respect for his Heroic Sacrifice, but also means Rooker will sadly never have another chance to get this character his award.
Tyler Bates (the film's composer) was allegedly considered for more awards and missed out due to the soundtrack having too many unoriginal tracks. Nonetheless many fans were outraged, believing this to be one of the MCU's more powerful scores. Gunn himself prefers vol.2's soundtrack.
Well, less "character" and more concept here, but the point still stands with regard to Baby Groot. He's either a refreshing way of handling the character after the first movie or a cynical move by Marvel to sell merchandise of the character. Teen Groot gets this same treatment.
Broken Base: The Taserface gag. For some it is the funniest joke in the entire movie, with many loving it for Bradley Cooper's infectious delivery and the rest of the cast's hysterical reaction to it. For others, it is a forced, unfunny joke that gets dragged out and overplayed.
Watching Yondu, Rocket and Groot kill every last one of the mutinous Ravagers, who previously killed everybody loyal to Yondu in a needlessly sadistic and cruel way.
Similarly, Ego's ultimate demise is nothing but pure satisfaction once we learn he killed Meredith in the most heinous way possible and killed millions worth of his own children without a second thought; not to mention the other things he did throughout the film. The fact that he eventually shows complete fear to his demise just gives this bonus points.
Ego, Peter "Star-Lord" Quill's father, is an immortal Celestial, who once traveled the universe seeking companionship, but found that other life utterly disappointed him and lost any interest in them. Ego instead decided upon a plan of assimilating all creation into himself in what he termed "The Expansion". Lacking the power to do so on his own, he sired countless children—including Mantis, whom he treated as no better than a pet—hoping they would inherit his Celestial powers, killing them out of disappointment when they didn't. Traveling to Earth, Ego met Meredith Quill, whom he developed genuine feelings for. Unwilling to deviate from The Expansion, Ego gave her the brain tumor that killed her to ensure nothing held him back from his self-appointed purpose. After learning Peter might carry the Celestial gene, Ego tracked him down, playing the good father to him before revealing the true purpose of The Expansion, revealing his true nature when he believed Peter wouldn't care. When Peter turns on Ego, Ego enslaves him to his own power to use Peter as a battery for the next thousand years before kicking off The Expansion to consume every living thing in the universe, while spitefully destroying Peter's Walkman which was a gift from Meredith and his last link to his mother. When Peter attempts to stop Ego, Ego without care also tries to murder Peter's friends.
Alexander Irvine's novelization: Ego the Living Planet is a self-obsessed Celestial who spent millions of years pondering his purpose, and came to the conclusion that it was nothing less than the total absorption of all life in the universe, until the only thing that exists is himself. Unable to achieve his "Expansion" with his power alone, Ego set about seducing and impregnating countless women on countless worlds, hoping that one of his spawn would be gifted with his Celestial capabilities. All of his children, numbering in the millions, who have failed to have this power are quickly killed by Ego. When Ego discovers his son Peter Quill has Celestial potential, Ego tries to convince him to betray his friends and help the Expansion come to pass, revealing in the process that Ego was the one who killed Peter's mother Meredith with a brain tumor; Ego did it simply because his love for Meredith was too much of a distraction. Ego then breaks Peter's beloved Walkman and tries to forcefully convert Peter into a "battery" for thousands of years, willing to abuse and kill yet another of his children to satisfy his own twisted desires.
A lot of fans started shipping Drax and Mantis, despite the fact that he spends pretty much the whole movie calling her ugly. Or possibly because of it.
Kraglin and Nebula, of all people, became unexpectedly popular thanks to a one-on-one scene between them where she explains her backstory to him and Kraglin looks simultaneously terrified and turned on.
Nebula and Mantis is also well-liked, with many fans enjoying the potential of a rare female/female version of the Brooding Boy, Gentle Girl trope.
Creepy Cute: Mantis. Her antennae may seem a little jarring, and she does have literal bug eyes, but her No Social Skills antics and her dynamic with Drax are wholesomely endearing.
Yondu (with Rocket and Baby Groot's help) massacring his treacherous crew with his psychic arrow — extremely violent. Doing the aforementioned massacring while set to "Come a Little Bit Closer"? Extremely violent and utterly glorious.
Rocket and Peter's extremely juvenile argument while flying the Milano, culminating in Rocket threatening to put a turd in Quill's bed, is crude and sophomoric in the extreme. Rocket claiming that he won't use one of his own, he'll use one of Drax's, and Drax taking pride in this, ("I have famously huge turds") turns it from merely crass to screamingly hilarious.
Drax asking Ego about the mechanics of having sex with Peter's mom when Ego is a planet. If Ego responding in completely professional Sincerity Mode isn't making you laugh, then Drax explaining how his father told him the story of his conceptionevery winter solstice certainly will.
Drax (sensing a pattern here?) telling Mantis that she's hideously disgusting once is rather cruel the first time he says it. It stops feeling so wrong when he's telling her this every time they talk.
While Yondu retains this trait from the previous movie, Kraglin didn't previously have this trope. A combination of his Ascended Extra status, manylikablequalities, and emotional role in Yondu's storyline made him very popular among audiences, with many hoping he joins the Guardians as Yondu's successor. Yondu himself is even more popular than prior, with his many badass feats and memetic lines, to the point where many people have called his death and funeral one of the saddest moments in the entire MCU.
Gef became unexpectedly liked by people in the executive department, and his death was made slightly less explicit for it.
Epileptic Trees: After it was confirmed that Kraglin survived the ending of Infinity War, many fans expect to see him join the Guardians (or more accurately, join Rocket) as Yondu's successor, possibly even with his own Ravager clan.
Even Better Sequel: A number of fans feel that this movie takes everything that made the last movie good and improves on it with better storytelling and characters.
Fanfic Fuel: The original Guardians now exist in the MCU, as a bunch of over-the-hill space pirates.
Fanon: A small one, but the notion that Ego started Meredith's tumor with a kiss to the temple is a rather common one in fanworks, and turns the innocent one he plants on her in the car into a chilling bit of foreshadowing.
Ego begins his existence essentially as a Boltzmann Brain. From a biology standpoint, the bubble layer that Groot sticks the bomb onto corresponds to the meninges, an actual tissue layer separating the brain from the skull.
Another is the red and white ribbon on Yondu's face during the funeral. It's an American Army Good Conduct medal.
When the Guardians first land on Ego's planet, the song "My Sweet Lord" by George Harrison starts playing. While at first it may simply seem like an appropriate song choice (a song praising God as a theme for a Physical God), if you know anything about its history, you'd know that "My Sweet Lord" was accused of being a Suspiciously Similar Song to The Chiffon's "He's So Fine", and that Harrison was successfully sued by the band for "subconscious plagiarism". This hints that Ego's story with Peter and Meredith may not be as original as it seems.
Drax's comments on how Mantis is basically Ego's "pet". At first, this is played for laughs until it's revealed Ego doesn't give a damn about mortal life forms and the sole reason he doesn't just kill Mantis is because she can help him sleep. It gets even more horrible if you consider that The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special reveals that Mantis is in fact Ego's daughter. He killed all his children except for Mantis and Peter after they turned out useful for his goals.
Rocket watching Yondu sacrifice himself for his surrogate son was already tragic enough as is, but it's even more depressing with the knowledge that Baby Groot is actually the son of the previous Groot, not the same character, and Rocket has to watch Groot, his own surrogate son, disintegrate before his eyes in Infinity War and James Gunn confirmed that the translation of Teen Groot's last line is him desperately calling to Rocket, "Dad!"Yeesh.
Another one for the film. Ego warns Peter that killing him will make Peter an ordinary mortal. Peter's Armor-Piercing Response is pretty cool at the time, but it ends up Tempting Fate come Infinity War, Peter's one of the first casualties of the Gauntlet, that bit falls here fast. As a bonus, look at how Ego goes down. His physical body crumbles to dust. In Avengers: Infinity War, Peter dies this exact same way. In a way, Ego got the last laugh. Like Father, Like Son, we guess.
On top of that, Peter's Hair-Trigger Temper moment where he immediately turns on Ego and attacks him after the living planet admits to murdering his mother is a Moment of Awesome here. In Infinity War he has the exact same reaction when it becomes clear that Thanos killed Gamora. Not so awesome in that case.
The characterization of Ego is that of a godlike powerful being hurting people out of his own twisted sense of love, unable to comprehend the harm he's causing. This exact same kind of person would kill Gamora soon after.
Kraglin is the only currently serving Yondu clan Ravager left by the end of the movie, other than Star-Lord, who's long since left the Ravagers behind. Come Avengers: Infinity Warand Star-Lord's death in that movie, Kraglin's the only Ravager left period.
The last shot of the movie is a close-up on Rocket Raccoon's grieving face. This is even more poignant considering that by the end of Infinity War, he's the last Guardian left alive.
Continuing the Infinity War train, Gamora and Nebula in this movie grapple with how Thanos's abusive practices turned them against each other, and ultimately learn to get along as sisters in the end. Fast forward to Avengers: Infinity War and Thanos uses this renewed bond between the two to force Gamora into coughing up the Soul Stone's location by torturing Nebula until she did, ultimately leading to the death of Gamora and half the universe, with Nebula left in the surviving half to wallow in guilt and despair.
It's chilling to see the moment when Nebula leaves, right after hugging Gamora, knowing that her exact decision is likely what kicks off Thanos finally making the move to start the Infinity War. When she goes to assassinate Thanos, and he captures her instead, Thanos watches her memories with Gamora and confirms that the elusive Soul Stone - the only Infinity Stone he didn't know the whereabouts of - is within his grasp...
Gamora begs Nebula not to go after Thanos, but Nebula ignores her warning, being so consumed with revenge against her kidnapper/adoptive father. In the future, Nebula will have to live with the knowledge that this one decision of hers leads directly to Gamora's death, in spite of Gamora warning her not to do it.
Early in the film, Star-Lord offhandedly comments that Nebula is a Bad Liar, but it never comes up again. A few films later, this becomes a much harsher thing to watch, as it's revealed that Thanos deliberately raised both Nebula and Gamora to never lie to him as part of his abusive parenting.
Nebula at one point loudly complains about being left behind with "that fox" (Rocket). Also, when Drax makes a rousing speech to the Guardians about how they are not friends, they're family, and no one gets left behind... except maybe Nebula. Rocket and Nebula are the only two characters from this film to survive Infinity War and silently mourn the loss of their comrades together in Endgame.
Read this line from The Stinger knowing that Stan Lee passed away before Marvel Studios wrapped up the Infinity Saga, and consequently doesn't appear in its last movie:
Stan Lee: Ah, geez... I've got so many more stories to tell.
Mantis breaking down in tears upon feeling Drax's grief for losing his family hits a lot harder after The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special reveals that she's actually one of Ego's many children. Mantis likely finally realized that after years of his abusive parenting that her father is a horrific monster who cannot feel empathy for anyone, herself included.
Early in the film, Rocket partially justifies stealing from Ayesha and the Sovereign because of how obnoxious and pretentious they are. With Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 revealing that the Sovereign were made by the same man that created him, Rocket's disgust with them and their culture is far more understandable.
During Yondu's scathing "Not So Different" Remark towards Rocket, he offhandedly mentions how he knows "them scientist what made you never gave a rat's ass about you", with Rocket reacting in hostility in response. This was already a pretty tense moment, but it becomes even sadder after Vol. 3 introduces the High Evolutionary, whoestablishesjust how right Yondu was.
Rocket stuns Gamora to prevent her from getting herself killed trying to save Peter, stating “I can only afford to lose one friend today”. It’s a lot harder to hear when Vol. 3 reveals that Rocket lost all his friends once.
At the end Gamora offers Nebula a chance to stay and fight alongside the Guardians, helping out little girls who've been through the same things they have. Nebula turns her down and leaves to hunt Thanos, but still ends the movie on better terms with her sister than before. Takes a few years but she then well and truly mellows out and not only joins the Avengers in their efforts to undo the Snap but finally takes Gamora's place among the Guardians (and a loving surrogate family like the Guardians is pretty much all she ever wanted), and even manages to convince an alternate version of Gamora to betray Thanos.
Ego allowing Mantis to live on his planet and treating her relatively well means a lot more in retrospect after the Holiday Special revealed that she's one of his biological children as well, and by extension Peter's half-sister. The fact that Ego didn't kill her immediately after she didn't have the Celestial gene suddenly goes beyond him just keeping her around as a way to help his body fall asleep.
Kurt Russell's acting talents have never really been doubted, but even his most faithful fans were impressed by his performance as Ego, effortlessly wavering between wise, caring Cool Old Guy to psychotic and narcissistic monster with a surprising amount of subtlety.
Chris Pratt already received this response in buckets after the first film, but his character's emotional moments are turned up to eleven in this film. In particular, his breakdown when Yondu is dying holding Quill is utterly devastating to watch. The latter is quite possibly a case of Reality Subtext: Chris Pratt's dad died from multiple sclerosis in 2014, and Pratt has said that Vol. 2 helped him cope with his grief.
Michael Rooker's funny yet poignant performance as Yondu is often praised as the biggest, yet most surprising, scene-stealing part of the whole film.
Similarly, for such a relatively minor character, Sean Gunn wowed many critics and fans alike with his performance as Kraglin, delivering some moments of powerful emotion throughout the movie, especially his cheering, chest-pounding display of mixed grief and adulation at Yondu's funeral.
Dave Bautista is only involved in one fight scene in the entire film (specifically, the opening credits). He spends all his other screen time being the comic relief, displaying surprising and impressive versatility as a thespian. And when the scene requires it, he's fully capable of playing Drax's serious emotional beats with complete sincerity. Special praise should be given to both him and Pom Klementieff in the scene where Drax allows Mantis to feel his grief over his dead family — Klementieff's broken sobbing contrasted with Bautista's gently stoic smile makes the scene amazingly effective and heartwrenching.
At one point during Rocket and Star-Lord's bickering over who's the better pilot, Quill threatens to shave Rocket if he puts a turd in his pillowcase. In a Deleted Scene in Avengers: Endgame, Tony Stark actually does this, in response to Rocket cackling at the revelation of the Avengers fighting the Chitauri for three hours.
Ego's entire reason for going through with his expansion plan in this movie is because he believed himself to be the Last of His Kind, and so decided that assimilating other planets, including Earth was the only reason for his existence. Eternals reveals that not only do other Celestials exist, but their ultimate objective is to help humanity thrive as a species, the exact opposite of what Ego's objective is. Although like Ego, the Celestial Arishem's ultimate goal for Earth ultimately ends in the destruction of Earth and its inhabitants, albeit for a far more Well-Intentioned Extremist cause than Ego's was.
Seeing Kraglin eagerly spending time with one of the golden sex robots on Contraxia becomes funnier after watching Thor: Love and Thunder, where it's shown that Kraglin has a habit of engaging with and getting marrying to alien women on every new planet he touches down on. Guess this has been happening for a long time...
Mantis was by far one of the least popular guesses for who the new Guardian would be, but a small group of fans correctly called it.
Fans have speculated for years that Stan Lee was playing Uatu the Watcher in all of his cameo appearances. While the Watchers retain their original look, he is still shown to be affiliated with them and credited as "The Watchers' Informant". Possibly the closest thing to Ascended Fanon we'll get.
When the first film revealed that Quill's father was an unknown but very powerful alien, some fans speculated that his father was responsible for Meredith's death, though they hadn't expected it to be intentional on Ego's part.
After seeing Yondu as a Ravager, many suspected that the other OG Guardians of the Galaxy might show up as Ravagers, too.
Some viewers, after watching the first movie and noticing how incredibly aggressive Yondu was when his authority was even slightly threatened, couldn't help but wonder if the long-term stability of his Ravager crew was already decaying. Just two months later in-universe, their concerns were proved right.
It's the Same, Now It Sucks!: While the overall reviews have been mostly positive, the most frequent criticism that pops up in almost all of them is that the first two acts needlessly retread jokes and story beats from the first film, and it's only in the third act that the film really breaks away and does its own thing.
Jerkass Woobie: Rocket and Yondu, in a manner so similar that they are able to bond over it. Both were mistreated and unloved by the people who brought them into the world, and it drove them to chronically push away the people they care about.
Memetic Loser: Taserface is often the subject of mockery — in universe and out — due to his ridiculous name and the fact that he's clearly not as cool or threatening as he thinks he is.
Baby Groot trying to push the button on a bomb instantly became a hit.
Drax's line at the end of the second trailer ("She just told everyone your deepest darkest secret! You must be so embarrassed! Do me! Do me, do me!") very quickly took off, frequently being used as a reaction on message boards or simply heavily quoted.
Similarly, images of Drax and Mantis laughing and pointing at Starlord/the viewer with some mocking text added.
"IT'S METAPHORICAL!!"Explanation Taserface's explanation for his Red Baron name, which functions as little more than a Hand Wave, but then became a Forced Meme of sorts when post-release trailers used it as a reaction shot to some of the positive reviews. It still ended up as the go-to reaction to certain comments.
Another one from Drax, courtesy of the Super Bowl spot: "I tried, guys."
"I'm Mary Poppins, y'all!"Explanation Peter compares Yondu to Mary Poppins when the latter uses his arrow to slowly descend down to the gang. Having no knowledge of who she is (or that she's even a she), Yondu takes the comparison with pride when told that it's a great compliment. The fans quickly latched onto the meme because of who was saying it and the delivery of the line.
When the trailer of Mary Poppins Returns came out, people expected Yondu to appear when Poppins did.
It's become common on YouTube for people to create faux opening credits for large-scale fight/battle scenes from other movies in the style of Vol. 2's own opening title sequence using "Mr. Blue Sky." Complete with freeze-frame main title!
Meredith Quill has GREAT taste in music.Explanation This is likely a reference to The Martian, a 2015 science fiction movie with a similar retro-themed In-Universe Soundtrack. In that film, astronaut Mark Watney is stranded alone on Mars after a botched evacuation, and the only music he can find to listen to is a bunch of disco MP3 files stored on a laptop left behind by Commander Lewis. Near the end of the movie, after reuniting with his crew, his first words to Lewis are, "You... have terrible taste... in music!"
"It broke my heart to [insert evil deed here]." "...What?" "N-now, alright, I know that sounds bad-" (BLAST)Explanation Peter Quill's reaction to hearing the true story behind his mom's death, and him shooting Ego as he frantically tries to justify it. It's been a meme since 2020 but especially took off in 2021, and is usually paired up with a caption indicating that Ego has done some Faux Horrific thing. Had another resurgence in 2021 after Chris Pratt's casting as Mario, usually depicting Ego as Bowser.
"He may have been your father, but he wasn't your daddy."Explanation Yondu's last words to Peter, used often to establish the difference between a parent and parental figure.
"Well of course I have issues, that's my freakin' father!" Explanation This scene quickly became memetic with many quotes and memes with Peter and Rocket being replaced by other characters, usually involving characters that have Abusive Parents or an Archnemesis Dad
Drax and Mantis laugh at Fate/Grand Orders log-in bonus.Explanation A photoshop that has other mobile games with generous giveaways as Drax and Mantis laughing at Star-Lord as FGO's paltry giveaway quickly became viral and gets used in comparison whenever FGO and other mobile game campaigns coincide.
Ego has multiple points that can qualify as his MEH. He was revealed to have been a monster who murdered all his children who didn't have his powers. He also intentionally gave Peter's mother, Meredith Quill (whom he actually came to love), a brain tumor so that it wouldn't distract him from his plan. If that wasn't bad enough, he turns Peter into a battery and then destroys his Walkman out of spite. Not to mention everything about the "TheExpansion".
The Ravagers crew cross it when they betray their leader and kill almost everyone loyal to Yondu while making him watch. It makes it easier when Yondu ends up massacring everyone on the ship, except for his loyal crewmate Kraglin.
Most Wonderful Sound: Drax's hammy laugh, especially when Mantis reveal Quill's interest of Gamora.
Narm Charm: Bet you never thought comparing a living planet to David Hasselhoff could evoke so much genuine emotion.
Obvious Judas: Ego being evil doesn't come as much of a surprise given Yondu called him a "jackass" in the previous film, the lack of screentime of the advertised villains compared to Ego and the fact that his name is well... Ego. In fairness, though, how evil Ego ultimately turns out to be still comes off as a genuine shock.
Older Than They Think: Some fans complained about how Mantis basically looks like an Asian woman with black eyes and a pair of antennae, in contrast to the comics, where she has green skin and looks more bug-like. Mantis's cinematic appearance is actually how she originally looked (sans the black eyes) when she first debuted in The Avengers back in the '70s, and she only got the green skin much later.
Questionable Casting: Miley Cyrus having a cameo at all got this reaction from a bunch of people, but the reactions were even more confused over the fact that her character is traditionally a masculine android in the comics.
Rescued from the Scrappy Heap: While certainly not hated, Gamora was considered by many to be the blandest of the Guardians in the first movie because of her somewhat thankless role as the Only Sane Man and The Heart in the team. This movie significantly warmed up fan reception toward her by revealing that she is just as flawed as everyone else in the team (most notably her relationship with Nebula) while her role as The Heart is handled much better and more integrated into the story.
Retroactive Recognition: Chris Sullivan plays Taserface. He would later go on to portray Toby on This Is Us, which retroactively became a Disney production once they purchased 21st Century Fox.
Special Effect Failure: In the scene where Peter and Ego play catch with the orb, the background behind them is obviously green screened in.
They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: Mantis and Peter have little to no interaction aside from a brief gag involving Mantis exposing his feelings for Gamora. In a film that focuses heavily on family relationships, many consider it a wasted opportunity as Ego raising Mantis makes her and Peter adoptive siblings (and a deleted scene, along with the Holiday Special, confirm that Mantis is actually one of Ego's children, making her and Quill half-siblings), though no meaningful moments come of this.
Among the many theories speculating who the new Guardian would be, Mantis was among the least expected. Much less Mantis with her '70s comic appearance, that she never had while she was with the Guardians.
Among the many theories speculating Peter Quill's father, nobody quite expected Ego the Living Planet.
Sylvester Stallone's character came as a shock to quite a few fans: he's Stakar/Starhawk. Not only that, but a few characters appear in association with the surprise character — the original Guardians of the Galaxy.
It's safe to say no-one expected The Watchers to show up. Much less in Stan Lee's obligatory cameo, where Stan seemingly talks to them about his previous cameos, all of which amounts to a certain form of Ascended Fanon.
Apparently, the "Living Planet" is the biggest effect Marvel Studios has attempted. And it truly is awesome. We even get to see Ego's planetary form, and it is just as awesome (and menacing) as the comics depict him.
As in the previous film, Rocket and Groot are entirely CGI yet portrayed with such a tremendous depth of emotion and realism that it's really, really hard to remember that they do not exist in real life. This one's even more awesome considering the fact that four different VFX companies had to work together to produce the Rocket and Groot visuals, up from just one needed for the first film. Successfully coordinating the work of Framestorenote who did all the work on Vol. 1, Method Studios, Weta Digital, and Trixter Film to produce a mostly consistent result is a testament to the commitment of the movie's visual effects directors.
Here's an interesting article on both the fractal designs of Ego's planet as well as Rocket and Groot mentioned above.
Yondu's murder of the mutineers. The falling body shot is beautiful enough, but then he uses his arrow to knock out the lights in a corridor and send the glowing arrow zipping around. It ends with the camera pulling back into an overhead shot of him and Rocket on the bridge, the arrow carving gorgeous geometric patterns of red lines around the whole ship around them.
What Do You Mean, It's for Kids?: This movie ramps up the sexual, crass humor of the previous film, up to Drax and Ego openly discussing the latter's penis. The movie is still viewable for all ages but some complaints have been had about just how explicit the script gets.
Mantis is an orphan who was "rescued" and taken care of by Ego. She has lived her entire life without any meaningful interaction and watching Ego kill his own offspring for who knows how many years. You can feel the poor girl's fear and helplessness as she's basically Ego's slave.
Kraglin. What he intended as a simple What the Hell, Hero? speech to his boss snowballed into a mutiny that, by his own admission, killed all his friends on the crew.
By the end of the movie, Peter himself. Not only did he find out his father was an Omnicidal Maniac who was also directly responsible for the death of Meredith Quill, he tried to use him to basically destroy the universe and he had to wind up killing him, and moments after that, had to watchYondu, whom he thought to be a father figure, sacrifice himself right in front of him. So, really, Peter lost his mother, biological father, and adoptive father, the latter two in one day. Damn.
"Come a Little Bit Closer"? Extremely violent and utterly glorious.Jelle (YouTube Commenter): Ahh, the Marvel Feelgood Mass Murder Scenes.
