Warning: This review contains spoilers.

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, the sequel to Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy, was released on May 5th. The movie was an immediate success, and since its release date has achieved a box office total of $441 million.

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 opens with a young couple driving in a car listening to “Brandy (You’re a Fine Girl)” by Looking Glass. The couple then goes into a forest behind a Dairy Queen, and the man shows the woman an extra-terrestrial plant that he claims to have planted.

“Soon there will be tons of these,” He tells the girl.

“I love you Meredith Quill,” he adds, which leads us to believe that she is the mother of  protagonist Peter Quill (Chris Pratt), and the man is his father.

Then we cut to a scene of the Guardians of the Galaxy fighting a fifty-foot tall monster. The movie continues like the last one. A large group of people are chasing after the Guardians of the Galaxy because of their mistakes. The Guardians end up crashing onto a planet where a ship lands near them and a man named Ego (Kurt Russell) appears. Ego then tells the Guardians that he is Quill’s father, and invites them to his planet. Ego’s planet contains beautiful luscious plants and forests. The scene is one of the greatest uses of CGI I have ever seen in a movie.

Ego tells Peter that he is a Celestial and a god. He created this planet just with his mind. His ultimate goal is to go across the universe and create more and more life with different women, Peter being one of his offspring. Ego tells Peter that since he is the offspring of a Celestial, he also carries divine genes. Ego went to every world to plant seedlings, which were revealed in the beginning of the movie, for the purpose of spreading his power around the universe.

Ego tells Peter that his love for Peter’s mother distracted him from his purpose and that in order to get back on track, Ego “put a tumor in her brain” to kill her. This moment instantly reveals Ego’s malevolence and changes the tenor of the scene. Quill tries to kill Ego, but can’t because Ego is a god.

The rest of the movie is very predictable. The Guardians of the Galaxy must attack Ego’s soul from inside the planet. No one is able to help at that point, but of course the main characters can not be killed off. I immediately assumed only one person would be able to save them: Yondu (Michael Booker).

My criticisms of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 were that it was very predictable and incredibly cliche. Throughout the entire movie, I knew exactly what was going to happen. I knew that somehow Ego would turn out to be the villain, and I knew Yondu would be the one to save everyone. I also disliked the anticlimax of lines like “it killed me to put a tumor in her head.” The dialogue should have been stronger in this part especially since it was a major turning point in the movie. Essentially, Ego revealed that he was the one who killed Peter Quill’s mother, an event that had shaped Peter’s entire life.

However, the strengths of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 significantly outweigh its weaknesses. The CGI in the movie was incredibly realistic.

One of the most enjoyable things about Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 was that I felt like I was watching two separate movies. There was the original plot line, described above, and a  separate plot line in which Rocket (Bradley Cooper), Groot (Vin Diesel) and Yondu were taken by the Ravagers and had to escape from prison. This plot line intertwined very nicely with the main plot as they both ended up converging at the end.

Although I was able to easily predict that Yondu would be the hero, I also really wanted him to be. Yonda was a misunderstood character who was rejected by his own people, and he had to take in Peter Quill and raise him since Peter never had a father. Spoiler: Yondu ends up sacrificing his life, making him the true hero of the movie.

On a side note, I also liked how Groot came back as a small little plant, essentially like a baby.

Ultimately, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 was a fantastic movie despite its predictability. I recommend it to everyone as long as you have watched the first movie…  not because it is a continued storyline, but because you might not understand most of the characters. I would give  it 4.2 stars.