REVIEW: ‘Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3’ may be my last Marvel outing for a while
Chris Pratt, Pom Klementieff, Karen Gillan and Dave Bautista return in the third Guardians film.
It’s no secret that the Guardians of the Galaxy movies are my favourites in the Marvel canon. There’s something about how they combine irreverent humour, sci-fi weirdness, and the best needle-drops in recent blockbuster filmmaking that help the films stand out among the other superhero ensembles. I’ll never forget the title card in the first film, paired with “Come and Get Your Love” by Redbone; I instantly knew the movie was on my wavelength, even though I was only a few minutes in.
It’s been 9 years since we were introduced to this team, and Vol. 3 is seemingly the last time around the cosmic block with this specific lineup of heroes, as written and directed by James Gunn. Of course, being a Marvel effort, the closing scenes take pains to establish that no ending is permanent. The characters will still be available for future filmmakers to take off the shelf and drop into a story every so often. But I can’t get over the feeling that even if the Guardians reappear later on, I’m not inclined to rush out to see them. Vol. 3 feels like as good a time as any to bid the Marvel Cinematic Universe adieu for a while - at least until it can recapture some of what drew me in.
Except for a brief appearance in the most recent Thor movie and a holiday-themed Disney+ special, we haven’t seen the Guardians since the events of Avengers: Endgame. Peter “Star-Lord” Quill (Chris Pratt) is depressed about losing his girlfriend Gamora (Zoe Saldana) in a complicated bit of sacrificial killing/time travel/memory wipe business. The other Guardians, meanwhile, are busy kitting out their new mobile base, Knowhere, when Rocket (Bradley Cooper) is attacked by a new foe, Adam Warlock (Will Poulter).
Will Poulter as Adam Warlock, a new adversary looking to kidnap Rocket.
Adam is on a bit of a fetch-quest: he’s trying to kidnap Rocket to bring him back to the High Evolutionary (Chukwudi Iwuji), the being responsible for Rocket’s cybernetic enhancements. Rocket’s friends fend off Adam, but Rocket is left mortally wounded. The Guardians embark on a mission to steal the software code they need to heal Rocket, an adventure that helps them realize that they all might need a little shakeup in their lives to cast off some baggage.
Gunn has been very upfront about wanting the movie to be Rocket’s story first and foremost. It might be an unexpected direction to take, considering that Star-Lord was notionally the lead of the last two films and the source of most of the drama. During that time, Rocket was the wisecracking, hyper-intelligent supporting character with some trauma in his backstory that we never heard about. But out of everyone in the original ensemble, Rocket’s story was the final one that needed substantial development. So in Vol. 3, we learn how he’s the result of brutal experimentation by the High Evolutionary, who has spent centuries trying to create a perfect society via forced evolution.
Through coma-induced flashbacks, we learn about Rocket’s upbringing on Counter-Earth and the friends he meets in captivity. The cybernetically-enhanced animals that the young Rocket befriends are disturbing, to say the least, with a rabbit that uses robotic spider legs and a walrus with wheels and metal eyelids. If you were ever creeped out by the mismatched toys from Sid’s room in the original Toy Story, these characters are in the same vein.
On its route to helping Rocket face off with his tormentor and heal from his experiences, Vol. 3 serves up plenty of familiar moments. We get a few too many slo-mo group poses and lots of stylish fight scenes set to 90s songs. Gunn gets to cast frequent collaborators in various bit parts and indulge in set pieces like a heist on a fleshy, biologically constructed space station. It’s all purely entertaining stuff, but it’s hard for it to be as exciting or special as it was back in 2014. At 2 hours and 30 mins long, it’s also baggy in places, with characters being captured and freed and captured again ad nauseam.
Chukwudi Iwuji as the High Evolutionary, a being building his perfect society.
In terms of villains, Vol. 3 is a mixed bag. The High Evolutionary is menacing when it’s just him torturing small animals, but he doesn’t appear to be much of a match for the Guardians, despite several characters warning about his godlike abilities. He’s shown to have explosive telekinetic powers that don’t factor into any of the action scenes; they’re mostly used to bully people when he monologues about his grand plans. Meanwhile, Adam Warlock, a character teased at the end of the second film, is hampered by his “himbo” characterization. He’s strong and fast and can fry people with laser blasts, but none of it matters much to the story. He just falls in with the good guys because he doesn’t have a purpose other than as fan service to the comics readers in the audience.
By the time the ending rolls around, Rocket barely gets to contend with the High Evolutionary face-to-face. It’s a climax that doesn’t match the drama of Peter Quill coming to terms with his Celestial origins in previous films. Nevertheless, the Guardians are triumphant and Gunn is left to find a way to ride off into the sunset. His solution is tacked on - just convenient enough to keep certain characters on hand for the future, but satisfying enough that you may not miss some of the actors (like Dave Bautista) who won’t return.
It left me wondering if the MCU has much else to offer going forward. With the Guardians taking a break and maybe returning in a different configuration under a new director, with Thor being overdone by Taika Waititi, and with the next phase of films relying heavily on Disney+ shows for continuity, the Marvel franchise finally seems like a habit I can kick without too much effort. Time will tell if the next cohort of filmmakers can draw me back.
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 gets three stars out of four.
Stray thoughts
Gunn decides to cash in one of the only F-bombs allowed under a PG-13 rating on a bizarrely unimportant exchange; you might expect it to be used in a more high-drama moment.
The film introduces a bunch of scary-looking animal-robot hybrid goons, but they barely get any action scenes before they’re quickly destroyed.
Is Cosmo the Space Dog secretly the most powerful member of the team?