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.
Read MoreThis is why it doesn’t make any sense to fixate on who lives and dies in Avengers: Infinity War (this review certainly won’t). The odds on who survives the titular battle have been argued over for years online, with armchair critics trying to guess the exit points of series regulars like Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) or Captain America (Chris Evans) based on vaguely defined employment contracts that every fan seems to know about without having actually read.
Read MoreThere’s something to be said for a movie that wears its heart (or its themes) on its sleeve. It may not be subtle, or even very original, but if a film has a confident sense of self, watching it can be just as engrossing as a hard-hitting awards contender.
Not a lot of movies have this kind of swagger. Audiences are sometimes assumed to be passive enough to distract with empty CGI, awkward exposition or monologuing villains. Thankfully, this isn’t true of the Guardians of the Galaxy films, which operate under the infectious belief that they’re pretty hot stuff, even without the bells and whistles. They welcome you into a corner (or corners) of the universe where there’s danger and opportunity in equal measure, and people don’t feel the need to hide who they are. They’re just as colourful and expressive as they want to be, and unsurprisingly, it’s one of the nicest places in the Marvel universe to visit.
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