Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 (2023) review

Directed/written by: James Gunn (The Suicide Squad, The Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 1 & 2, Slither)

Starring:
Chris Pratt
Zoe Saldaña
Dave Bautista
Karen Gillan
Pom Klementieff
Vin Diesel
Bradley Cooper
Will Poulter
Sean Gunn
Chukwudi Iwuji
Linda Cardellini
Nathan Fillion
Sylvester Stallone

My rating: 4.5/5 stars

If the Guardians trilogy were released as something outside of Marvel, its own thing, it would probably be heralded as one of the best trilogies of all time. it’s a million light-years better than the Star Wars Sequels.

Guardians of the Galaxy vol. 3 finds our heroes living in Knowhere, a place that has been quite prevalent in the Guardians movies (and Infinity War). Knowhere was once the head of giant celestial or god. Not quite a planet, not quite a ship, Knowhere was once owned by a man known as The Collector, real name Taneleer Tivan (played by Benicio Del Toro in past films). The Collector has sold the giant’s head/planet/ship to the Guardians who live there now.

Drax (Dave Bautista), Star-Lord/Peter Quill (Chris Pratt), Mantis (Pom Klementieff), a now adult Groot (Vin Diesel), Kraglin (Sean Gunn), Nebula (Karen Gillan) and Rocket Racoon (Bradley Cooper) live in relative harmony in/on Knowhere. They also have a new member, Cosmo the space dog (Maria Bakalova).
Rocket is as moody and angry as always, now he is taking care of Peter Quill, who has taken to drinking heavily. Peter is depressed as his former love Gamora (Zoe Saldana) died in Infinity War, but was brought back from a past where she was still the angry, obedient daughter of Thanos, and doesn’t know Peter, nor the rest of the Guardians. Its Confusing, and I can’t believe my brain retains it all.
In Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, the Guardians had troubles with a group/species called The Sovereign, a gold-skinned, highly advanced, engineered people. Then In the mid credits scene of Vol. 2 we see that The Sovereign have made some sort of secret weapon named Adam.

In this movie, Adam Warlock (Will Poulter) shows up at Knowhere, on a mission to capture Rocket Racoon and bring him to a man know as the High Evolutionary (Chukwudi Iwuji).
Why? That I will leave for you to find out, as the movie delves into Rockets past. Rockets past has been a discussed quite a bit over the last two movies, and now all is revealed; and it is heartbreaking. Bring tissues.
I dislike flashbacks, yet in Vol. 3 I couldn’t wait for the next flashback, to learn more about Rockets past.

James Gunn (writer/director) is a master storyteller, Marvel probably regrets firing him, where he went over to DC and made the best DC movie yet. Marvel rehired him, but he has now gone back to DC as the CEO and will more than likely not work with Marvel again.
It’s no secret that this is being touted as the final Guardians movie, and the way Gunn handles each characters arc and final outcome is perfect, and completely fitting to the characters he’s created (aside from maybe one, but I’ll get to that in spoilers).

The production design and costumes are astounding in this, in a world where we have Dune and 10+ Star Wars movies, the crew behind GotG3 created new and exciting planets, with incredible detail and care.

Chris Pratt gives his best performance yet, Bradley Cooper has always done great voicing rocket, and kills it here. Pom Klementieff and Karen Gillan give their best performances as well, I didn’t like Gillans Nebula at first, yet she won me over. Bautista does more than Joke around in this one, there is heart there. Among all these great performances from the actors we know, it’s shocking that the best performance in the movie comes from the villain played by Chukwudi Iwuji (Peacemaker, Dr. Who). A performance that could have been over the top, but instead is menacing, a character you can really hate.

I remember seeing the trailers for the first Guardians movie and thinking then (2014) that Marvel was nearing the end, scraping the bottom of the barrel with a talking raccoon and a sentient tree, now they’re some of the best characters to grace the big screen. A top five movie in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Guardians of the Galaxy 3 is an emotional, action-packed, incredible send off to characters we have loved for almost ten years.

Spoilers:
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Where Star-lord ends up is understandable, but it was the only part of the movie that felt rushed a bit shoehorned in, and quite predictable. As soon as Mantis starts talking to Peter (in a high-pressure situation) about how he left his grandfather on earth, you knew that’s where he would end up. By the end, it works, but those beginning parts felt very awkward.

I think how they handled Gamora was perfect, I expected them to have her fall completely back in love with Peter, and rejoin the Guardians. I was worried they would try and shoehorn A relationship that took two+ movies to attain, into one movie. They didn’t do that, but they did allow us to watch her grow a little from the daughter of Thanos, to someone who learns empathy. I’ve heard some who disliked it, and I’m sure they would have rathered her rejoin the guardians, or fall back in love with Peter, but they kept it realistic.

It was difficult for Adam Warlock to work in a stuffed movie like this, and hopefully he will be given a second chance to flesh out his character if he is brought back in a sequel.

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