Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2

The motley crew of space buccaneers from the 2014 original are back: Peter Quill, the half-alien leader of the pack (Chris Pratt); green-skinned Gamora (Zoe Saldana); Drax, the hulking comic relief (Dave Bautista); and the wisecracking varmint Rocket (voiced by Bradley Cooper), all on the run because of Rocket’s incurable kleptomania. Writer-director James Gunn inserts a new wrinkle in the form of Quill’s long-lost father Ego (Kurt Russell) and his servant Mantis (wonderful newcomer Pom Klementieff)—but the family reunion comes with ulterior motives. It’s all a barrel of fun, as delicious as a bag of melt-in-your-mouth cotton candy—albeit just as insubstantial, temporary, and lacking in any real nutrition. As in the first movie, Gunn spices up the soundtrack with a killer playlist of ’80s pop tunes. J.L.