Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 3 review

Guardians of the Galaxy was the MCU's big risky homerun swing back in 2014. Largely unknown characters, weird settings, definitely not a safe movie. But it hit. Big. And was hugely influential towards what the MCU became. 

I'm one of the few, I guess, who actually liked Volume 2 more. I just thought the jokes and emotion hit more. 

Then it took 6 years to get this trilogy capper. There was the foolish (and temporary) firing of James Gunn over some old tweets. Gunn ended up doing The Suicide Squad. Then the pandemic delayed everything. But now Gunn, in his last Marvel gig before taking charge at DC, gets to close the trilogy.

So how is it? Well, it's an MCU movie so of course it's good. Even really good at times. After one viewing I would rank it 3rd in the trilogy, but it hits some emotional high points that few franchise entries have touched.

Vol. 3 does take a little while to get rolling. I was a little unclear of the timeline. It's established quickly that Peter is drinking a lot to drown his sorrows over the loss of Gamora. But he wasn't in this state in the holiday special or the last Thor movie, so I don't really get that. 

That's ditched quickly anyway when the Guardians are attacked at Knowhere by Adam Warlock, who was hinted at in one of Vol. 2's 500 post credit scenes. The attack leaves Rocket on the verge of death, and the only way to save him is to retrieve a maguffin that can allow the team to operate on him. 

The first third or so of the movie is a lot of stuff just to get characters into place. Gamora returns when the Guardians have to break into a planet that looks like raw meat. 

The film really clicks once the main plot kicks in, pitting the Guardians against the main villain, the High Evolutionary (Chukwudi Iwuji), a sort of mad scientist who is always experimenting on lifeforms in a quest to create the perfect society. One of his experiments years ago was Rocket, and he wants him back (he sent Adam Warlock after them). 

As the current day plot goes, we get a flashback narrative showing Rocket's experiences with the HE. The heart of the film is the friendship Rocket has with some other experimented animals, primarily an otter names Lyla. It's not a surprise that this part of the film goes where it goes, but it is a surprise just how dark and emotionally brutal some of this gets. This is some Endgame level tearjerking.

The whole ensemble is handled extremely well. None of the core cast gets shorted. They all get full arcs and highlights. My MVPs here are Nebula and Mantis. Love those characters. 

The Peter-Gamora stuff here is excellent, and ends really well. I was actually surprised how good Chris Pratt is here. Felt he had just coasted in some recent performances, but here he pulls out some real pathos. Zoe Saldana is excellent as always. Her Gamora arc here is really compelling. 

The whole last hour or so of this film is pretty great, juggling numerous settings and groups of characters. And that big hallway fight scene set to the Beastie Boys is an all timer.

Surprisingly, no major characters die. But this is no doubt a final film for the Guardians as is. A couple of the actors have more or less said they are done with their roles, but we'll see if Secret Wars bring them back. The Guardians are always an evolving group anyway. There.will be more Guardians of the Galaxy someday. 

So James Gunn landed the plane. Vol. 3 is imperfect, but a hugely satisfying conclusion to one of the MCU's biggest success stories.