Guardians of The Galaxy Vol. 3 Review: A Touching Sendoff of Sorts To Marvel’s Favorite Misfits
Ken Jones, OnScreen Blog Chief Film Critic
Back in 2014, Marvel made a massive gamble by introducing the Guardians of the Galaxy, expanding the scope of the MCU but doing so with a lesser-known Marvel comic book title. It was a huge success, and the gang quickly became fan favorites in subsequent MCU films. After a public divorce and reunion with director James Gunn, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 is a swan song for several people prominently involved in the franchise.
Vol. 3 picks up where things left off after the events of Avengers: Endgame and the brief appearance of the Guardians at the beginning of Thor: Love & Thunder. Nominally led by Star-Lord, Peter Quill (Chris Pratt), the Guardians have set up shop in Knowhere as peacekeepers in the galaxy, but Peter spends most of his days drunk and mourning the loss of Gamora (Zoe Saldana), who returned in Endgame, but from an earlier timeline and thus without the memories of being with Peter or being a part of the Guardians.
The rest of the Guardians, Rocket (voiced by Bradley Cooper), Drax (Dave Bautista), Nebula (Karen Gillan), Mantis (Pom Klementieff), and Groot (voice by Vin Diesel), pick up the slack for him.
As hinted at during the end credits of Vol. 2, the Sovereign sends Adam Warlock (Will Poulter) to take out the Guardians. Rocket is severely wounded in the process, and they cannot do anything to heal him because he has a kill switch implanted in his heart. This leads the story into flashbacks of Rocket’s previously unexplored origins and puts the Guardians at odds with the High Evolutionary (Chukwudi Iwuji), a cruel scientist interested in “perfecting” lower forms of creatures through rapid evolution.
The Guardians have always been a loveable group of misfits, a group where they were all maybe failures on some level individually but who coalesced into something that had the right chemistry to work together. They also had pasts that had made them flawed, damaged, or tragic in some way.
The audience knows how Quill, Gamora, Drax, Nebula, and Mantis (to a lesser degree) came to be who they are and what motivates them. Outside of Groot, Rocket’s backstory is the least filled-in to this point, and the film makes it the primary focus. His flashbacks to his experiments and captivity at the hands of the High Evolutionary are some of the most complex and uncomfortable scenes to watch in any MCU movie.
After a procedure to increase his brain function as a very young raccoon, Rocket finds himself in cages with fellow animals that have been experimented on and become his friends. Only the hardest of hard-hearted people would be unsympathetic to the story of these animals; at the same time, they never experience cruelty on-screen, their story is surrounded by trauma, and it may even be upsetting for some viewers, however deftly it is handled.
This makes the High Evolutionary a completely unsympathetic villain. He is as remorseless as he is zealous in his pursuits. He wants to create perfect creatures that can live in a utopia but keeps falling short and believes that what is in Rocket’s brain is the key to fixing the flaws in his designs. He is also willing to cast aside entire planets as failed experiments or hold hundreds of children captive for his next experiment.
Poulter’s Adam Warlock is a pleasant added element to the MCU. He is basically a newborn in a grown, superhuman body. He is launched out into life as a fully formed creature with immense power and a singular focus, lacking the ability to question or understand anything. His purpose changes, and he is left a bit directionless as the movie progresses, and he has trouble processing that, but that also sets him on a path of growth. It is a funny character but also one with some pathos.
While some discomfort comes with the lead villain, there are still a lot of laughs and enjoyable action and adventure; that is the franchise's calling card. The new version of Gamora adds a twist to keep things from being too familiar in the group. The film goes to great lengths to clarify that while she is Gamora, she is not the same Gamora that died in Infinity War; her path diverges in a different direction, and it is something that Quill must learn to accept. The banter and rapport between all the characters are so easy and natural and are a credit to all the actors.
Set aside all the action, set aside the villains, even set aside the comedy of the Guardians of the Galaxy, what has always been the calling card for these characters is their heart; as far back as the end fight of the first movie with Quill doing a dance-off against Ronan the Accuser. The Guardians are like a family. Quill and Gamora have a complicated relationship; Drax and Mantis are like brother and sister, and everyone in the group is emotionally invested in saving Rocket’s life.
They are friends, the family they have chosen. And that makes Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 somewhat bittersweet because some characters and director James Gunn are moving on. This film is not an ending for the Guardians of the Galaxy, but it is a transition, and it is a touching grace note to what has come before and some promise as to what lies ahead for those who stick around or who may return in the future.
Gunn proved a thousand times over that he was the right person to helm this group of misfits and that he understood them. With the greater MCU also in a transition period, here’s hoping the rest of it goes as smoothly and gracefully in the future as it has here.
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars