Vol. 2, the sophomore effort from our band of oddball galactic custodians, is a worthy compilation of riffs from the original backed by even more irreverent and humorous jams. And Baby Groot is immeasurably cute.

As our pals are earning praise as defenders of the cosmos, a certain rebellious trash panda cannot help but breach contract. This introduces us to the fantastic ineptitude of all facets of the Sovereigns under the guidance of Ayesha (Debicki). These bungling beings certainly advance the comedy of Vol. 2 and become a welcome ingredient to a narrative jambalaya started with a familiar familial roux.

Amidst the zany leadership of Quill (Pratt), an alternative comedic interaction of Drax (Bautista) with Mantis (Klementieff) emerged, complementing the interplay of Quill with Gamora (Zaldana) and Rocket (Cooper) with Baby Groot (Diesel) and everyone else. Yet, as much as we enjoyed this film, we questioned the casting of Russell (without an eyepatch) as Ego thinking the role deserved the curly locks of Robert Plant to strengthen the musical thread woven throughout the franchise.

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, and its spectacular imagery, defends 4.1 napkins out of 5, which includes our automatic 0.5 napkin deduction for prominently featuring a Cat Stevens tune.