Watch: James Gunn Narrates A Scene From 'Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 2'

If there's one department where Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 tops its predecessor, it's the action. The set pieces are more creative, more propulsive, and often more personal in the sequel. James Gunn's superhero pic's most exciting set piece doesn't involve crowds running in terror or buildings crumbling; it's just two sisters, Gamora (Zoe Saldana) and Nebula (Karen Gillan), going at it and showing little mercy.

Below, hear Gunn provide commentary in a Guardians of the Galaxy 2 scene breakdown.

Originally, the standoff between the two didn't involve spacecraft, a cave, and a big 'ol gun. While speaking with The New York Times, Gunn said he rewrote Gamora and Nebula's fight after watching North by Northwest. Another film the action scene was inspired by? Furious 7.

As I wrote in my review, the action is a considerable step up from the first Guardians of the Galaxy. The sequel's action isn't better because it's bigger. It's better because it's a little more playful and, like in this scene with Gamora and Nebula, more character-driven. We don't get the payoff to this scene or their relationship without this fight.

The sequence, like the rest of the movie, is also just incredibly appealing to the eye. Gunn, cinematographer Henry Braham (The Golden Compass), and all involved must've had an unlimited number of colors to paint with. At times, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 looks like a wondrous candy store you'd never want to leave.

Here's Gunn's explanation to the New York Times how they created some of these extravagant visuals, which I recommend experiencing in 2D, not 3D:

Everything in the movie was completely planned out ahead of time in terms of the colors of the various locations And as we have Gamora being chased into this cavern, which is actually a bunch of levels of caverns, I didn't want the design to be too monotonous. So every single level has its own distinct color. On the outside, we have the teals and oranges that we have through much of the movie. We go inside to the reds and the burnt siennas, which then fall through to the deeper blue colors below. And we actually did this. There are a lot of visual effects in the movie but there's also a lot of sound stages [where] we created sets with huge rock formations. We shot the different parts of this scene at very different times because we had to recolor the rock formations every day when we were shooting the different levels.

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 is now in theaters.