This text is a part of MCU Rating Week on ScreenRant, throughout which we’re rolling out our official rating of all 37 Marvel Studios’ motion pictures. We’re additionally diving deep into the MCU franchise and the movies themselves. Take a look at our MCU Rating Week launch article to seek out out extra!
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 isn’t the primary film within the Marvel Cinematic Universe, nor the Guardians trilogy, that involves thoughts when considering of standout installments. To me, although, that may be a crying disgrace. This week, my colleagues and I at ScreenRant have been conducting our official MCU film rankings.
Every of us submitted our personal particular person rankings, which had been then aggregated right into a definitive checklist. When trying on the lists my fellow writers submitted, I used to be, in some way, each shocked and unsurprised to seek out that I had ranked Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 the best out of everybody concerned.
The shock got here from the love I’ve for the film, but I’m additionally conscious that many don’t take pleasure in it as a lot as I do, therefore the equal lack of shock. Even inside my very own private rating of the Guardians of the Galaxy trilogy, the second film is my “least-favorite”. Nonetheless, I nonetheless rank Guardians of the Galaxy 2 because the Eleventh-best MCU film.
After being mixed with different lists, although, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 ended up twenty sixth in ScreenRant‘s MCU rating. Naturally, I’m right here to delve deeper into James Gunn’s 2017 sequel and discover its defining MCU moments, performances, soundtrack, character work, and, most significantly, intense emotion.
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 deserves higher, and I intend to discover precisely why.
Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 2 Is The Most Emotional Of The Trilogy
It’s price mentioning that the broader components of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 all work, typifying the MCU on the peak of its powers. Section 3 of the Marvel Cinematic Universe is the unequivocal king of the franchise, with Marvel Studios firing on all cylinders.
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, like the remainder of Marvel Studios’ Section 3 motion pictures, proves precisely why the MCU was the king of all franchises for a number of years within the 2010s, throughout numerous ranges of franchise filmmaking. It appears to be like lovely, sounds even higher, has unimaginable appearing, and does not function the manufacturing/CGI points prevalent within the MCU of late.
That is all properly and good, however it’s diving deeper into Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 that my love for the film is really discovered. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 is emotionally charged in lots of facets, and the primary film typically brings me to tears at a number of factors. Regardless of that, I believe Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 is the trilogy’s most emotional installment.
The third film focuses so much on Rocket, as the primary does with Quill. In Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, although, each single character will get a heightened emotional arc that solidifies the group as a household. James Gunn overtly wears his coronary heart on his sleeve on this film, and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2‘s a number of hard-hitting, memorable traces make that clear:
- “Typically, the factor you are trying to find your entire life is true there by your facet all alongside.” – Star-Lord
- “While you’re ugly and folks love you, you understand they love you for who you might be.” – Drax
- “He says, ‘Welcome to the frickin’ Guardians of the Galaxy!’ Solely he did not use ‘frickin’.” – Rocket
- “I do know who you might be, boy, since you are me.” – Yondu
- “You had been the one who wished to win, and I simply wished a sister.” – Nebula
- “Simply… some unstated issues.” – Gamora
- “He might have been your father, boy, however he wasn’t your daddy.” – Yondu
This checklist might go on and on, however these are just a few standout moments that really exemplify how unabashedly emotional Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 is.
Each character will get a significant second, both alone or with one other, to indicate their deepest, most weak sides. The Guardians had been among the many most beloved characters within the MCU’s Infinity Saga. Guardians of the Galaxy established why, but it surely was Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2‘s overwhelming emotion that solidified it.
Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 2 Feels Like James Gunn At His Most Honest
This never-ending emotion is a testomony to James Gunn. In 2025, I take into account Gunn as maybe the perfect superhero film director of all time. His high quality by no means wavers, and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 was once I first began to contemplate Gunn among the many greats. Greater than every other venture in his filmography, Gunn feels at his most honest in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2.
The aforementioned emotional moments show as a lot, however the movie’s comedy does, too. Not each joke works, however all of them really feel straight from the thoughts of Gunn. In a franchise that has lengthy been criticized for not permitting administrators to actually show their voice and imaginative and prescient on-screen, it is a huge profit for Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2.
A component that has at all times been synonymous with James Gunn is his alternative of soundtrack. I really like the songs Gunn chooses in all of his motion pictures, however Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 takes the cake as the perfect. Any movie with two separate needle drops of Fleetwood Mac’s “The Chain” mechanically has my coronary heart, the second being immensely cathartic.
Past that, although, a number of motion sequences are dropped at vibrant life towards the backdrop of songs like “Southern Nights” and “Come A Little Bit Nearer.” Then there’s using “Father and Son,” fantastically concluding the movie’s emotional arc. Nonetheless, using “Brandy” by Trying Glass is the shining instance of Gunn being unleashed in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2.
Tying “Brandy” so inherently to the story being advised about Quill, his father, Ego, and his mom, Meredith, was a stroke of genius. It sums up Gunn’s greatest strengths: his skill to compose an emotionally resonant story with unbelievable characters, all held collectively by thematically related music.
That is with out mentioning Gunn’s overt love of filmmaking. Nebula and Gamora’s confrontation on Ego’s planet emulates Stanley Kubrick’s crop duster scene in “North by Northwest,” notably with no music in any respect. Not often does the MCU embrace such specific shows of inspiration, proving how Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 typifies Gunn’s sincerity.
Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 2 Is An Underrated Gem
General, I believe it is clear what my opinion is: Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 is extremely underrated. The daddy-son dynamic resonates with me on a degree no different MCU story ever has, solidifying Yondu as one in all my favourite characters within the franchise.
Once more, there are components, like some jokes that undercut emotion or go on too lengthy, that don’t work for me within the movie. I nonetheless assume there are 10 MCU motion pictures higher than Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, however when evaluating that to how there are 25 motion pictures above it in ScreenRant‘s remaining MCU rating, I felt the necessity to defend a movie that resonates so emotionally with me.
Gunn continues to seek out methods to talk to me as an individual. Be it the love I’ve for my mom being mirrored in Guardians of the Galaxy, my animal-loving tendencies in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, or the kindness I prefer to embody in Superman, Gunn’s movies merely work for me. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 has all of that in a single, and I’ll by no means cease loving it like I do.
Vulnerability, care, and love for each other won’t ever be one thing to miss in life. Quill’s reply to Ego’s comment that if he kills him, he’ll be similar to everybody else is, “What’s so mistaken with that?” As Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 repeatedly teaches us with its beating human coronary heart so firmly on its sleeve, completely nothing is mistaken with that.