Film

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 doubles down on the first film's neon-lit space opera silliness while quietly breaking your heart. It's a sequel that trusts its characters more than its plot, letting bickering, mixtapes and Kurt Russell's golden glow carry scenes that could've been throwaway. Loud, sincere, and unafraid of a big swing into genuine sadness — for anyone who wants their blockbusters to actually feel something.

TMDb rating7.6

If you liked this

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 32023

James Gunn closes out the trilogy with the emotional gut-punch he'd been building toward, plus the best use of Rocket's backstory in the whole series. If you loved this cast, watch them get the send-off they deserve.

But The Rocket flashbacks are genuinely upsetting — animal cruelty content that some viewers find too much for a Marvel movie.

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 poster

Thor: Ragnarok2017

Same goofball energy, same willingness to let a superhero movie be genuinely funny, plus Jeff Goldblum doing exactly what you want Jeff Goldblum to do.

But The comedy sometimes undercuts stakes the story wants you to take seriously — tonally it's even more of a lark than this one.

Thor: Ragnarok poster

The Suicide Squad2021

James Gunn's other family-of-freaks mission movie, but nastier, gorier and even more gleefully committed to killing off characters you've just started to like.

But It's a hard-R gorefest — the splatter and body horror will be too much if you came for Baby Groot-level cuteness.

The Suicide Squad poster

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

2001: A Space Odyssey1968

Ego's plan to merge Peter with the universe, becoming pure cosmic consciousness, is the same idea Kubrick ends on with the Star Child — a father-figure's promise of transcendence that might actually be annihilation.

The most influential and strange spectacle in the history of science fiction, decades before anyone thought a movie could look like this — a slow, hypnotic vision of what 'becoming one with everything' might really cost.

But It's nearly wordless for stretches and moves at a glacial pace — if you came for banter and needle drops, this is the opposite movie.

2001: A Space Odyssey poster
More like this (8)

Avengers: Infinity War2018

See this exact crew of misfits collide with half the Marvel universe, played mostly for laughs until the movie remembers it's actually about loss.

But You need a working knowledge of about ten other films to get the most out of it — it's a payoff movie, not a starting point.

Avengers: Infinity War poster

Ant-Man2015

Marvel's other lighter, funnier, family-drama-disguised-as-heist movie — smaller stakes, a warmer father-daughter story, and Paul Rudd's easy charm doing a lot of the work.

But The scale is deliberately modest after a cosmic adventure like this one — it might feel like a comedown.

Ant-Man poster

Deadpool2016

For the same irreverent, fourth-wall-breaking, needle-drop-heavy tone but cranked up and aimed at an R rating — a superhero movie that knows exactly how silly it is.

But It's cruder in ways Guardians never is — constant sex jokes and gore that some will find exhausting rather than charming.

Deadpool poster

Spider-Man: Homecoming2017

A warmer, younger Marvel entry with the same knack for making you laugh right before it makes you feel something, and a genuinely great villain.

But It's a much smaller, earthbound story — no cosmic scale, no space battles, just a kid trying to prove himself.

Spider-Man: Homecoming poster

The Fifth Element1997

The garish, maximalist space opera that got there twenty years early — wild costumes, a ridiculous plot, and total commitment to its own strangeness.

But Luc Besson's sense of humour is broader and weirder — some of it plays as camp rather than charm now.

The Fifth Element poster

Big Hero 62014

Another found-family adventure with a squishy emotional core hiding inside bright, silly action — and a soft spot for a character you'll love as much as Groot.

But It's aimed more squarely at kids, and the stakes never get as messy or bittersweet as this film's do.

Big Hero 6 poster

Lilo & Stitch2002

Swap a raccoon and a talking tree for an alien fugitive and a lonely Hawaiian kid, and you get the same joke: the family you assemble by accident turns out to be the one that holds. 'Ohana means family, nobody gets left behind' is Groot's whole arc in one line.

Disney's scrappiest, funniest animated film about a genuinely broken family finding an unlikely fix — an alien experiment gone wrong who becomes exactly the family member nobody expected to need.

But It's a kids' film through and through — gentler, shorter, and without a single space battle.

Lilo & Stitch poster

Almost Famous2000

No spaceships, but the same engine: a ragtag surrogate family assembled on the road, bound together by music that means more to them than the plot does, quietly figuring out who actually loves who.

Cameron Crowe's autobiographical ode to a 70s rock band and the kid who tags along with them — funny, tender, and soundtracked as lovingly as anything Star-Lord ever cued up.

But There's no genre spectacle at all — it's a quiet, character-driven dramedy, closer to a memoir than a blockbuster.

Almost Famous poster

People

Cast

Directing

Writing

Production

Recommended by