The Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (Blu-Ray, DVD + Digital HD) package has finally come out and I couldn’t be more excited. While I like the first Guardians of the Galaxy movie, I liked the second one even better. There were deeper character moments, more defined character arcs, characters whose motivations in the last film were baffling finally got explained (cough, Nebula, cough) and the theme of found family was both well-done and heartwarming.
The stunning visuals of the movie are clear even on the small screen thanks to the quality of the release. It’s available in a wide variety of formats for a relatively low price in this release package. You can see the full glory of the movie on regular DVD, Blu-Ray or digitally through Disney Movies Anywhere.
But what about the special features for the DVD release? How did they fare?
Well, there were definitely a few good ones attached to this release. The behind-the-scenes features are worth watching for any mega-fan.
The “In the Director’s Chair with James Gunn” feature was basically a big love-fest for the director as different members of the cast gushed about him. There wasn’t much new information, but the deep bond everyone had with the director was nice to see. His relationship with Michael Rooker (who plays Yondu) was especially sweet and funny. It’s amazing they’ve been on so many projects together.
The “Showtime: The Cast of Vol. 2” feature delves a little deeper into each cast member and it’s nice to learn a little bit more about each of them. Some nice little tidbits of information are dropped along the way, like the fact James Gunn cast Kurt Russell as Peter’s Dad after thinking about who he would have cast to play Peter if it was the 1980’s.
“Living Planets and Talking Trees: The Visual Effects of Vol. 2” really impressed on me just how incredible the visuals for this movie are. It’s easy to miss it when watching the movie because you’re so engrossed in the action, but they really did create a lot of beautiful new worlds in this movie.
Finally, we have “Reunion Tour: The Music of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2”, perhaps the most important “behind-the-scenes” feature of them all. The mix-tape 80's music soundtrack of Guardians is one of the most memorable things about the franchise and this feature really delves into it, talking about the process of choosing the soundtrack, the meaning behind individual songs and how the songs were incorporated into the script itself and form an important part of the movie. I did feel kind of bad how the original instrumental tracks featured in the movie were basically a footnote in the feature, but let’s face it, that reflects how the audience thinks of the soundtrack as well.
The real highlight of the features for me was the “Guadians Inferno” music video. It’s a truly trippy music video starring David Hasselhoff and an original rap about Peter Quill. There’s even a cameo from Stan Lee! The psychedelically weird 80s-style graphics and visuals for the video are on-point and hilarious. However, this video is not exclusive to the DVD release- it’s available to view for free online via Marvel Entertainment, which makes it a bit less impressive as a special feature. But at least everyone can enjoy this weird video even if they don’t get the DVDs.
For “Cast and Crew” features, the options are less impressive. The “Guardians of the Galaxy: Breakout” feature is basically just an extended advertisement for a ride at Disney World. More interesting is the audio commentary track by director James Gunn. It’s detailed commentary that’s sure to please hard-core fans. However, it’s too bad it’s only one person commentating and we don’t get to hear Gunn banter with anyone else.
There are severak bonus scenes, but most of them will only be interesting the most rabid of fans, as they’re very short and it’s easy to see why they were cut. “Adolescent Groot Extended” is probably the most interesting one, as Peter goes on an increasingly incoherent rant at grumpy teen Groot. The others (“Memorial to the War on Xandar”, “Kraglin and Quill Talk Tunes” and “Drax and Mantis Feel the Sadness Extended”) are either not very funny or cliched extra dialogue that makes the scenes in question drag more. The "Gag Reel" is also infinitely less funny than the movie it came from.
Lastly for effects we have the scene breakdowns with showcase different visual and technical aspects of three scenes in the movie : “Rocket & The Ravagers:”, “Eclector Escape” and “Gamora and Nebula”. The breakdowns are very thorough, with special sections for VFX Animation, Official Storyboards, James Gunn Storyboards, Dailies and Combination Layer with Commentary. A lot of people feel seeing this kind of stuff ruins the magic of the movie, but tech, art and visual effects geeks appreciate seeing it, so it’s a nice addition.
All in all, the special features for Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (Blu-Ray, DVD + Digital HD) are respectable. You won’t find anything mindblowing, but if you’re a fan of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, this package is definitely a worthwhile investment. So everyone who purchases it, look forward to some good galactic fun!
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