Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3: Film Review
I have not loved a Marvel movie for a good year or so but I had high hopes that James Gunn could turn things around. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 may not be a return to the highs of Infinity War or Endgame, but it has certainly woken me up from my Marvel fatigue.
This film follows our Guardians Peter Quill/Star-Lord (Chris Pratt), Nebula (Karen Gillan), Drax (Dave Bautista), Mantis (Pom Klementieff) and Groot (voiced by Vin Diesel) as they try to save Rocket (voiced by Bradley Cooper) from his old nemesis, the High Evolutionary (Chukwudi Iwuji).
Gunn has delivered the perfect send-off for the team as we currently know it. Just like all the other Guardians films, Vol. 3 is incredibly funny, with the family-style bickering among our heroes even better this time around. Everyone gets laughs, heartfelt lines and cool action moments, so it’s not just the Star-Lord show. I feared the new variant of Gamora (Zoe Saldana) would be given very little to do as she’s no longer a Guardian, but she’s included in a way that makes sense and doesn’t feel shoehorned in for no reason
Rocket is the focus of this film and we learn his backstory via flashbacks. This poor raccoon has been through a lot and his storyline is so sad. While the present-day story is fine, the heart of the film is in the backstory and I teared up twice during those seriously emotional flashbacks (and again at the end). I wasn’t that sold on the main story at first but it comes together in a great way and won me over in the second half.
Guardians doesn’t suffer from the same problems we’ve seen in recent Marvel movies. The writing is solid and very funny, it presents a story and characters we can invest in and care about, and the action scenes are exciting again (the corridor sequence is excellent). Also, this is the best a MCU movie has looked in a while. It’s not perfect, but it’s not murky, there are no glaring VFX errors and the CGI animals are so realistic that you forget they’re digital.
My biggest criticism would be that Will Poulter doesn’t get very much to do as villain Adam Warlock, and Elizabeth Debicki is rarely seen as his mother Ayesha. I’m sure this will disappoint diehard comic fans, but it made sense that the High Evolutionary, the main antagonist, had the most screentime. He is an excellent villain with a deep connection to Rocket. He commits atrocities for the sake of bettering the world (or so he thinks) and is rather volatile and unhinged.
I absolutely adored Cosmo the Spacedog (voiced by Maria Bakalova) and Lylla the Otter (Linda Cardellini). Out of the humans, I won’t pick my favourite Guardian because I thought they were all on top form, got their moments to shine and collectively made this into such a fitting farewell to the franchise.
I always had faith that Gunn would bring the goods with his final Marvel outing and he did not disappoint. What a way to bow out!
In cinemas from Wednesday 3rd May and on Disney+ from 2nd August