Guardians of the Galaxy vol. 2

A pretty great movie that I thoroughly enjoyed. It's got the fun, adventurous heart of the first film without being burdened by following conventional "superhero" plot - which is to say it's not another origin story (which is getting pretty worn out these days) and it's not really a second installment where the hero falters and questions everything before re-embracing their role. Rather it's more about family - some literal and some more figurative/adoptive.

The banter is great. Young Groot is cute. Rocket is still my favorite, even if he does cause some serious trouble. I feel like I don't have a lot to say about Gamora, yet she doesn't feel so underused as last time. My only real complaint gets a little spoilery, and that doesn't actually take away from the movie much for me.

Let's see if I can do a spoiler cut here...

My complaint: Ego kind of devolves rapidly to mustache-twirling levels of evil at the end in order to give the group a reason to fight him. Now, I get the seed was planted (literally) for this in the beginning of the movie. But his interactions with the main group up until the end leave me seeing two possibilities:
1) His being nice was just a facade while he found if Peter could use celestial power. If that's the case, it shows an understanding of social interactions and emotions enough to bother manipulating people, which means it should have been sooo obvious everything would go smoother for him if he didn't admit to killing Peter's mom.
2) Being a celestial being, he doesn't "get" people enough to see that would piss Peter off and make him an enemy. If that were the case, it would have been better conveyed by a few "cracks" in his mask earlier on.
As presented in the movie, it feels like the shift from playing nice to being evil was enforced by a narrative need and time constraints, which takes away from a natural feel of the characters and their interactions. But... for all the thoughts and words I've devoted to it, that's actually a fairly minor quibble against the movie as a whole.

What else?
- I loved the beginning fight, with Groot still hiding his dancing from Drax and the "main battle" being a background element.
- Taserface! Ahahaha!
- The twist in the Gamora-Nebula relationship and reconciliation is something I appreciate, casting the "good guy" Gamora as the one who really stoked their conflict in their youth - it gives her something to think about and makes it more complex.
- So many end credits scenes. Aiee, teen Groot! Does this prove Stan Lee is a Watcher reporting to the others, or is he just a person there telling them stories?
- I'm a bit surprised at the timing of Adam Warlock's "first appearance," as it probably means he won't really appear fully until GotG 3 and probably miss the Infinity War movies, when he was a big part of the story line in the comics.
- Yes, Ego lives up to his name.
- I guess Rocket told the Ravagers only what Yondu told/hinted to him, since from what Ego said, it sounds like Yondu still delivered all those other people to him, so he still broke the code.
- And a Zune! That gives us another 2-3 decades of possible songs to pull from! Yay! ;) I also find it amusing that Rocket seems to be into the music as much as Peter, even if he doesn't admit it.