Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3
Director: James Gunn
Writer: James Gunn
Based on: Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning‘s comic
Sequel to: Guardians of the Galaxy, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2
Cast: Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana, Dave Bautista, Vin Diesel, Bradley Cooper, Michael Rooker, Karen Gillan, Pom Klementieff, Chukwudi Iwuji, Maria Bakalova, Sean Gunn, Will Poulter, Linda Cardellini, Asim Chaudhry, Mikaela Hoover, Elizabeth Debicki, Judy Greer, Sylvester Stallone, Michael Rosenbaum, Nathan Fillion
Part of: Marvel movies
Seen on: 10.5.2023

Content Note: animal cruelty

Plot:
The Guardians – only without Gamora (Zoe Saldana) – have rebuilt themselves and many others a home with Knowhere. But their safe haven is attacked by Adam Warlock (Will Poulter) who is supposed to find Rocket (Bradley Cooper). While Rocket isn’t taken in the attack, he is left incapacitated, and the only way to help him is to uncover his painful past. This mission is also the only thing that can shake Peter (Chris Pratt) out of the stupor he fell into after losing his Gamora. So the Guardians set off together to save rocket.

Guardians of the Galaxy has always been my least favorite part of the MCU, and Volume 3 doesn’t change that, though it does improve somewhat with turning away from Peter a little more. Still, it falls more under “I watch it for completionism than for actual joy”.

If there is one thing I really like about the Guardians it’s that they stand a bit on the sidelines of the MCU that has recently become too streamlined, making the various characters almost interchangeable. Guardians is certainly different from that. But Volume 3 is very little different from Volume 1 or 2. In that sense it is a good sequel and you will probably like it as much as you liked the first two films.

But I couldn’t help but hope to see a little more development. And there is some with Rocket who gets the bulk of the attention here. And, as I said, it is a bit of a relief for me personally that Peter just wasn’t that important here. He is just not my kind of character (which is a different issue from the fact that Pratt is a Christian fundamentalist who seems to get worse with every new detail I learn about him). But Rocket – Rocket is great and the backstory revealed here is heart-breaking and so full of cruelty, it’s pretty hard to stomach. At least I can completely agree with making the eugenicist the Big Bad, but I really had to steel myself to go into the film. Thankfully I was warned about the copious amounts of animal cruelty.

But the other characters are shortchanged as usual. And it doesn’t feel like a coincidence that the film, when it finally turns away from white guy as the main event turns to the other guy voiced by a white guy in a group that is otherwise almost entirely made up of women and/or people of color. Why not try to find more to say about Mantis (Pom Klementieff) or Drax (Dave Bautista)?

Musically, the film sticks with its trademark older pop/rock songs, a quirk, if you will, that I found already a little annoying in the first film, but at least it was new then. It hasn’t grown on me since. And neither, I have to say, has this particular franchise, though arguably, this is the best of the three films.

Summarizing: Rocket is almost worth it.