By Keith Walther | Rose Law Group Reporter
Finally, Disney and Marvel score a much-needed win with “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3.” After a series of disappointments, this comic book space adventure breathes fresh life into an ailing franchise. Despite being initially fired by Disney and then later rehired, writer/director James Gunn goes out in style capping off his trilogy with a movie that easily goes down as the best of the three.
Peter Quill (Chris Pratt) and his ragtag crew of Mantis (Pom Klementieff), Drax (Dave Bautista), Nebula (Karen Gillan), Groot (Vin Diesel), and Rocket (Bradley Cooper) are reunited to protect the galaxy one more time. Still dealing with the death of his true love Gamora (Zoe Saldana) at the hands of her father, Peter’s grief must be put on hold when a powerful being called The High Evolutionary (Chukwudi Iwuji) looks to recapture one of his greatest creations, Rocket Raccoon.
He sends his subservient champion, Adam Warlock (Will Poulter) to collect the diminutive Guardian and destroy any who gets in his way. The dysfunctional family that is the Guardians must pull together and face overwhelming odds to protect and save their furry friend. More is at stake than they realize, however, for The High Evolutionary is one of those narcissistic, irredeemable villains whose sole objective is to create the perfect being, ending all prior creations who don’t meet his standards.
Writer/director James Gunn has been building towards this cinematic moment, not only creating a terrific film but also the final piece of this trilogy that even elevates the stature of his previous two installments. He has been slowly cultivating these characters over the course of the trilogy, finally unlocking the beauty of each of them in “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3.” For instance, Drax has always simply been the one-dimensional, slow-witted comic relief character. While he still has his unfiltered one-liners throughout, Gunn supplies him with so much more depth that blossoms into a well-rounded character.
What sets this apart from most sequels is that Gunn also makes this movie an origin story for the Rocket Raccoon character while progressing the overarching Guardians storyline. He does this through a series of well-timed flashbacks that shows how Rocket came to be and his troubling connection to the main villain. While this adds a splendid level of complexity, it eats up time, leaving other scenes more of a frenetic jumble, but these are small issues that are few and far between. Smartly, Gunn keeps this story isolated from the story trajectory of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), so audiences don’t need to see all 31 prior films to understand what’s happening. The prior two Guardians and the last two Avengers movies are the only films recommended to watch in advance of this one.
With all this attention on character development, James Gunn effectively creates emotional attachment, which in turn raises the intensity and suspense of the action sequences. Quality visual and sound effects alongside a killer soundtrack of classic rock tunes that’s been a trademark of these films compliment this production perfectly, making for a truly enjoyable spectacle. Even the makeup was fantastic and could earn an Oscar nomination, with over 23,000 prosthetics used on more than 1,000 actors. Now that Gunn is no longer with Disney/Marvel, his next task will be to rejuvenate the DC franchise by helming the next Superman film.
Unsurprisingly, the returning members of the star-studded cast wear their characters naturally and comfortably like a pair of old jeans, shining even brighter when given the opportunity to explore more depth. New additions to the cast like Chukwudi Iwuji and Will Poulter deliver serviceable yet underwhelming performances in their villainous roles. Poulter is not a very good actor who looks downright awkward in this role, but this actually works at times, considering the mentality of his character being far younger than he looks.
All in all, “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3” is a wildly entertaining ride that will make you love its characters. In fact, this ranks among the top five best Marvel movies ever made and is one of those rare movies where you’ll be yearning to see it again. After pulling in almost $300 million worldwide opening weekend, this is the rejuvenation Marvel so desperately needed, and it will likely stay on top at least until “Fast X” releases in a couple weeks.
This movie earns:
