The 8 Best Moments From The Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 2 Trailer

After a shorter teaser trailer landed a few weeks back, we now have our first proper look at Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 thanks to a brand new preview that dropped last night. Full of banter, Baby Groot and space monsters - all set to the soundtrack of The Sweet's "Fox on the Run" - the trailer promises that the sequel will be just as fun as we had hoped. The Guardians of the Galaxy brand has come quite a long way in just a few short years. Back in the early 2010s, Marvel's announcement that they were making a movie of a C-list space-based superhero team led many to either shrug or worry that the MCU would crash and burn. After the massive success of the 2014 movie, however, Guardians of the Galaxy is now one of Marvel's most popular franchises and its sequel is a guaranteed blockbuster. Original stars Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana, Dave Bautista - not to mention the voice talents of Vin Diesel and Bradley Cooper - will be returning, while supporting actors like Karen Gillan and Michael Rooker will be joined by new cast members Kurt Russell, Pom Klementieff, Elizabeth Debicki and Sylvester Stallone. Not that this trailer gives us any hint at these extraneous characters, however. What it does instead is remind us just why we love the franchise so much in the first place - because of those five unlikely heroes that make up the titular team. And so, on that note, we've gone back through the trailer several times now and picked out our favorite moments from it. There were certainly a lot to choose from, but here, are 8 of the best. 8) Guardians vs. Abilisk As we discussed in our breakdown of the Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 teaser, the Milano crew will fight a humongous tentacled space monster at some point in the movie. We first got a look at it in the form of concept art a while back, which named it an Abilisk, and then again in the teaser. Now, some more shots of the battle with the space squid have worked their way into the new trailer. The preview opens with another look at the alien platform adorned with golden orbs on which the Guardians fight the monster. We then cut to a shot of Gamora and Rocket charging at the beast - which seems to emit a psychedelic-looking sonic scream. There's also another cool slow-mo shot of Drax leaping at the monster's mouth. Put together with another later moment, where Drax is manically hacking away the Abilisk's insides, it looks like the character is going to get himself eaten and chop his way out from within. These few shots do a great job of teasing a big action sequence - which we're assuming will occur towards the beginning of the film. It also suggests - surprise surprise - that there will be some humour in the scene, thanks to Drax's unorthodox fighting techniques. 7) Baby Groot And The Button After Baby Groot's show-stopping cameo at the end of the teaser trailer, we couldn't wait to see the little twig again. Thankfully, he's all over this new preview - and he's as cute as hell. We first see him when he's failing to take in Rocket's instructions. "Don't push this button," the raccoon explains. "Because that will set off the bomb immediately and we'll all be dead." Little Groot stares at him with innocent eyes and goes to push the shiny red button anyway. Even after Rocket explains the situation again, Groot continues to believe it's the right thing to do. It's a funny scene that will entertain the children and any Groot-loving adult fans, but it also gives us a look at the new dynamic between Rocket and Groot. In the first movie, the pair were best buds and Groot's unwavering kindness often served to cool Rocket's short temper. This time it seems Baby Groot is the rogue one who needs to be kept in check by Rocket, who has become his caretaker rather than his pal. 6) Baby Groot Attacks Just because he's only the size of an action figure doesn't mean that Baby Groot isn't as useful in a fight as he used to be. After a brief moment featuring him whooping with joy on Rocket's shoulder as the raccoon goes all guns-blazing, Groot is seen roaring at a Ravager along a gangway. Comically, the Ravager is terrified of the little guy but it soon becomes apparent that he's right to be. The yelling Groot trips him up with some of his vines and swings him over the edge, presumably to his death. Warning to all Guardian enemies: do not piss off Baby Groot. From these scenes, it looks likely that Baby Groot is going to be even more of a breakout character in Vol. 2 than Big Groot was in GotG. We loved him before, but now he's ten times more endearing, what with his adorably tiny Ravager outfit and high-pitched voice. There is the bittersweet element, though: he doesn't seem to be entirely the same Groot we knew in the last movie. As such, it'll be interesting to see how this is explored in the film. 5) "Not A Single Person Has Tape?" Not all the humour in the trailer is derived from Groot-based sight gags. One of the highlights of the first movie was the banter between the different members of the motley crew. This trailer showcases one such example, which we hope will be followed up by several more in the full film. Following on from the previous clip of Rocket telling off Groot for trying to set off a bomb, Rocket asks Star-Lord - who seems to be in the middle of some kind of battle - if he has any tape to cover the red button. Peter responds that he doesn't, which makes Rocket angry. Running out of patience, Peter points out that if Rocket, who happened to have an atomic bomb in his backpack, doesn't have tape then the chances are the rest of them don't. It's the sort of domestic banter that keeps the film grounded in the humour of its characters, despite the cosmic setting. Of course, Baby Groot goes and steals the scene again, as he runs away with the bomb in his hands, gleefully yelling "I am Groot!" 4) Meet Mantis We've known for a while that the Guardians would get a new member in Vol. 2. Namely Mantis, as played by actress Pom Klementieff. However, the character has been kept tightly under wraps, until now. The new trailer at last gave us our first look at her and it turns out that Klementieff is not hidden under as much make-up as her some of her co-stars. Apart from her antennae and insect-like black eyes, that is. In the comics, Mantis is green-skinned, which is obviously something that had to go, otherwise she'd be too similar to Gamora. Her most recognizable attribute - her antennae - are in tact, however, so they did still look to the source material for inspiration. As for how the character will fit in, Mantis seems to be a whole lot more innocent than the other Guardians, which could be fun. It'll certainly be nice to have a second female teammate. We also learn that Mantis has the power to sense a person's feelings if she touches them. Something that causes a lot of embarrassment/laughs for the team. 3) Star-Lord's Deepest, Darkest Secret In an unknown location, the Guardians meets Mantis who reads Peter's feelings. Unfortunately for him, she reveals that he feels love for someone. Trying to control the situation, Peter claims that she senses his "general, unselfish love for somebody," but Mantis corrects him: she senses his sexual love for Gamora. It's a fun moment but also one that shows Vol. 2 will continue to develop Peter and Gamora's relationship - but in unique, irreverent Guardians of the Galaxy style, of course. The best bit about this scene, though, is Drax's reaction. Never one to understand the nuance of conversation, Drax belts out a big laugh and explains what he finds so funny. "She just voiced your deepest, darkest secret!" he bellows at Peter. "You must be so embarrassed! Do me! Do me!" As well as being hilarious, we can gather that Drax has come along way since the first movie in terms of his personal development. In Guardians, he was committed to vengeance against Ronan for killing his family, but now he seems to have lightened up and is enjoying his time with his new family. 2) The Balance Of Humor And Action This isn't so much a specific moment, but one of the best things about the trailer in general - its grasp of tone suggests the movie is going to be just as big a blast as the first one. We've outlined the many instances of humour found in the trailer already, but it's clear that there's going to be a lot of action and peril in the movie, too. For instance, the Abilisk attack and the shots - some of which we previously saw in the teaser trailer - of the Ravagers going after the Guardians. Even if you had somehow completely missed the previous film it would be clear from this trailer that Guardians is a sci-fi action/adventure comedy. We've sadly experienced underwhelming superhero movie sequels many times in the past and it was feared that returning director James Gunn would fall into those old tropes of upping the darkness, losing the humour or tampering with the perfect mixture that made the first one so enjoyable. Thankfully - if we can believe the trailer - it looks like the director has managed to keep the magic in tact. In Gunn we trust. 1) It Didn't Give Us Any Plot Details This one might sound odd. Surely we want to what the movie is actually about before we go see it, right? Well, yes and no. On the one hand, as fans, we want to know all the information we can. On the other, many movies - comic book ones, in particular - are spoiling more and more about their contents through pre-publicity in an effort to sell tickets. While it might work, it does mean that the experience of seeing it for the first time in the cinema is affected. With a movie like Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, it's best to focus on the action and tone and leave the plot for us to enjoy when we finally get to see the whole movie. Thankfully, this is something that Gunn and his team clearly understand. Here's what the director had to say on how they put together the trailers: “With Guardians, people really go through every single little shot and try to figure out what the movie’s about. And there’s a lot of mysteries in Guardians 2. We were talking about how much to give away — and we’re not going to give away very much. With Guardians, it’s such an emotional and physical journey, going to all these different places. It’s like, ‘God, do I really want to show this planet we go to in the middle of the movie? Those are always hard choices to make.” So even though this new preview didn't give us any glimpse of Kurt Russell's Ego the Living Planet or Sylvester Stallone's mystery role or who the main threat of the film will be, we couldn't care less. It recaptures the winning tone of the original and leaves us hungry for more footage - exactly what a trailer should do. Roll on May 5th!