Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 3 – Review
150 Minutes, Rated PG-13
Written by James Gunn, Dan Abnett, and Andy Lanning
Directed by James Gunn
**NOTE: Read Mark’s review below, then listen or watch as he and Ryan discuss the movie in more depth. Remember, though, you can listen to all our discussions of this and every other movie directly over on ACAST. Stay tuned.**
Synopsis:
Our beloved band of misfits are settling into life on Knowhere. But it isn’t long before their lives are upended by the echoes of Rocket’s turbulent past. Peter Quill, still reeling from the loss of Gamora, must rally his team around him on a dangerous mission to save Rocket’s life—a mission that, if not completed successfully, could quite possibly lead to the end of the Guardians as we know them.
Well, James Gunn is back to complete the trilogy of Guardians of the Galaxy. A lot of folks weren’t all-in on Volume 2, and that’s not even taking into account Marvel’s box-office troubles (and general reception) of late.
A lot is riding on this movie. You might not like to hear it, but it’s true.
It’s been taken as a certainty that this movie would be great and perform well at the box-office, so little could be gleaned about the MCU from it, but in the un-up to release, some grumbling has started about how that might not happen.
Me? I agree that this should be a slam-dunk of a win at the box-office and with audiences, but now I don’t know if that’s actually going to be the case.
I’m not going to tell you this is a bad movie, by any stretch, but it’s…tough to nail down.
Gunn attacks all your heartstrings with this story of Rocket’s background and plight, showing us in incredibly disturbing detail the traumas he endured before we finally ran into him in the first Guardians of the Galaxy.
A genetic and technological experiment carried out by the High Evolutionary (an undercooked character here portrayed by Chukwudi Iwuji), Rocket liberates himself after, well… you’ll have to watch for yourself.
But damn, is it depressing and perhaps disturbing to some younger viewers expecting a happy-go-lucky Rocket and Groot movie.
Nope.
If you didn’t watch the Guardians Holiday Special on Disney+, you may want to. A couple minor plot-points and Easter Eggs in this one.
Speaking of Groot, this version of Groot (“swol Groot” if you will) is disturbing. I get that in many scenes they used an actual person in a Groot Suit for a real appearance, but it also feels weird.
The High Evolutionary continues the Marvel trend of forgettable villains with another one-and-done film that will likely have no bearing on the MCU moving forward.
The much ballyhooed introduction of Will Poulter’s Adam Warlock is similarly underwhelming, providing some comedic input that might otherwise have belonged to Kraglin, here trying to fill the void left by the departed Yondu.
Far more emotion and laughs are to be had here, and while that’s not a bad thing, the film sometimes lurches from one to the other clumsily, jarring the viewer from extreme to extreme.
The performances of the main cast all live up to what we expect to see, so the problems are narrative in nature, not on the cast. I will note the visual effects are pretty good, making me wonder if Gunn was just nicer to his effects team than other directors/producers in avoiding that criticism.
All in all, Vol 3 sends the crew off in not unexpected or undeserved ways, but it’s all pretty saccharine in any event.
Even “new/old Gamora” gets a quasi happy ending despite everything.
A perfectly adequate entry that fails to remove the pressure from Marvel and the MCU moving forward.
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 3 hits theaters on May 5 and stars Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana, Dave Bautista, Karen Gillan, Pom Klementieff, featuring Vin Diesel as Groot and Bradley Cooper as Rocket, Sean Gunn, Chukwudi Iwuji, Will Poulter and Maria Bakalova.
And remember, if the BEST thing you can say about a movie is that it’s “visually stunning,” then they’ve done something wrong.
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