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The Guardians of the Galaxy known for their lighthearted humor and dancing chops delivered an unexpected emotional and heartbreaking movie in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3. The entire cast and director James Gunn returned for the potentially final Guardians film, as Gunn is going on to head DC Studios. Gunn with every movie he directs, is able to always deliver with outstanding character-driven stories which leads me to be extremely excited for what DC Studios will have ahead. But as for Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 this movie diverted expectations and broke the MCU formulaic entries to provide audiences with something that felt entirely unlike any other Marvel movie. Check out the trailer below to get a small glimpse of this movie, but not the emotional impact it will leave on you:
The entire cast for Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, delivered in a huge way and all the characters saw their stories completed in a fulfilling way, with all the character arcs coming full circle. The way these characters interacted and played off each other was truly beautiful and the interwoven arcs was truly brilliant writing by James Gunn. Chris Pratt as ‘Starlord’, delivered possibly his best performance in any movie to date. He delivered emotional scenes that I had not come to expect from Pratt, but was able to do so flawlessly here and was the perfect person to play the role of ‘Starlord’ for the MCU. However, the star of the show whom this movie was all about, ‘Rocket Raccoon’ voiced by Bradley Cooper, and young ‘Rocket Raccoon’ voiced by Sean Gunn was truly outstanding. Rocket may have cemented himself as the best character still in the MCU. And his backstory that we receive in this movie is heartbreaking, yet it helps us understand the Rocket we have come to know throughout the MCU. The way his story makes you think and appreciate his actions in previous films is something that was frankly beautiful, as this whole trilogy has been about accepting who you are and Rocket is the embodiment of that.
The rest of the Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 cast also gave great performances as well, with Karen Gillan as ‘Nebula’ and Dave Bautista as ‘Drax’ receiving great arcs throughout the movie, that culminated in the characters growing. Karen Gillan grew into her role as ‘Nebula’ and gave better performances with each movie and this was her best yet, a fascinating character that is a great addition to the Guardians team. Pom Klementieff as ‘Mantis’ had her biggest part of the MCU in this movie and was fantastic in this movie, she hit her emotional beats and really transformed ‘Mantis’ from a side character to an important and meaningful member of the team. Zoe Saldana as ‘Gamora’ and Sean Gunn as ‘Kraglin’ had a smaller roles but was a really hard role for ‘Gamora’ considering what happened in Avengers Infinity War/Endgame. New characters, Will Poulter as ‘Adam Warlock’ and Maria Bakalova as ‘Cosmo’ had extremely small roles in the movie, and with the wait we had for ‘Adam Warlock’ I would have expected more from the character, but excited for his future in the MCU as we had a good glimpse of the character. ‘Cosmo’ felt like an unnecessary part of the movie and did not add much for me, but didn’t take away from the great performances elsewhere from the cast.
The villain of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, the ‘High Evolutionary’ played by Chukwudi Iwuji, is the best villain since Thanos and quite possibly the second best in the MCU. Iwuji plays this character so brilliantly and evil, it is a truly remarkable performance and makes you hate the character so much. The ‘High Evolutionary’ is just an evil character that takes animals and tries to perfect them into the perfect species instead of appreciating things for the way they are, which has been a theme throughout the Guardians of the Galaxy movies.
Overall Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 is a perfect trilogy ending story with all the character’s stories coming full circle. The CGI in the movie has no issues like some of the recent Marvel movies which is great, as that has been something that has taken me out of the previous Marvel movies. The pacing of the movie is extremely fast in the very beginning but is able to keep a fast pace throughout while progressing through the story. It is a long movie, with a runtime of around two and a half hours but does not feel that way due to the pacing. I do believe to truly appreciate Vol. 3 you need to know/watch the previous Guardians films and the Avengers Infinity War/Endgame.
I am giving Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 a 90/100, as it is a great story and may be the best character-driven story of the MCU. It is tough to compare to other Guardians movies because it is so different from the other films that were upbeat and humorous, while this was emotional and heartbreaking with sprinkles of funny moments. For me, this is a Top 10 MCU movie, and I truly appreciate the change from previous Marvel entries that we had come to expect as this was something different from other Superhero movies. If you plan on seeing Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 make sure to bring your tissues as the waterworks are sure to flow throughout the movie. Thank you James Gunn for giving us the story of the Guardians of the Galaxy and a bunch of characters we would come to love. Looking forward to more of this from Marvel and hopefully, this is a return to form from the franchise but it may be bright times ahead for DC with James Gunn at the helm.
