Guardians of the Galaxy: A Spoiler-Filled Discussion

***As the title would suggest, full spoilers for Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 follow***

I have now seen Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 once and, admittedly, did not particularly care for it. Full disclosure, I had a similar experience with Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 back in 2017, but that movie ended up growing on me with subsequent viewings to the point where I could probably put it safely in  my top ten favorite movies from Marvel Studios. There is a lot to talk about though so let's just dive into the good and the bad.

What Worked

Following The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special, I was a little concerned that the characterizations from other non-Gunn writers handling the team would carry over. In the Special Presentation on Disney+, basically any emotional moment was undercut by some joke to an almost Age of Ultron degree which did kind of drag down the entire experience. Luckily, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 managed to work in humor while still maintaining the drama of the main plotline without undercutting anything.

There is also one action sequence in particular in the third act that works really well because it shows the whole team fighting together with their unique fighting styles set to the Beastie Boys "No Sleep Till Brooklyn." The music cue may not hit as well as say "Come A Little Bit Closer" in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 but it is pretty close.

A lot of the production design is also really cool, specifically around the Orgocorp Headquarters with the blend of organic matter in with the structure itself. The High Evolutionary's ship design is also unique and distinctly within the world of Guardians of the Galaxy while not feeling too out of place within the wider MCU.

In terms of the endings, some of the endings work and some do not. Specifically, Gamora's ending going with the Ravagers as her newfound family rather than rejoining the Guardians of the Galaxy makes a lot of sense for her character. Despite how often the movie asks her "do you remember what happened," she has no reason to remember any of it because she's an alternate timeline version, not an amnesia situation. Fortunately, the film does not follow The Flash's issues around Iris, namely that it never feels like she falls in love with Barry and more just relents to what fate says should be the case, and it gives Gamora the autonomy to make her own decision and not just go back with Peter Quill.

In the same vein, Nebula deciding to stay behind and help form the new society on Knowhere is a great send-off for her character considering the trajectory of her arc. Going from being a blunt object wielded by Thanos to help him try to collect the Infinity Stones to helping raise all the abductees that escaped from the High Evolutionary's ship is a fitting end to her character.

What Didn't Work

On the other hand, every other character's arc ending does not work. Drax is probably the least egregious of the bad endings because at least his past with his deceased wife and daughter gets solved here, even if the last two outings with Drax (and to a certain extent Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2) this is largely given the backseat to his role as comic relief. Mantis going off to explore space on her own is similar because she never expresses a desire to do so until the final minutes of this film and it kind of just comes out of left field.

The worst however is Quill's departure from the team and Adam Warlock joining because neither of these things are properly explained prior to the third act of this movie. Quill decides to go back to earth to spend some time with his grandfather which feels entirely out of left field with only two cursory references over the course of the film (especially considering how the second movie ended) and had he just stayed on Earth after Avengers: Endgame and that's why Rocket gets hurt, that would have worked a little better. At the same time, Adam Warlock's heel turn after the death of Ayesha could have been better articulated, maybe by having him fight alongside the Guardians during the third act. In fact, Adam Warlock's entire characterization is a little under baked in general, however this resolution just makes it all the more obvious.

While there are a few great action sequences, a good amount of them just come off as noise. They are hard to track at times and just end up wasting the runtime. If the action sequences in an action movie are some of the least interesting parts of the film, then there is a serious issue. For some reason, the entire sequence in Orgocorp looks a little washed out, though that could just have been the theater I saw the movie in.

It could just be that the amount of time hasn't passed yet (and on top of that, I own the CDs for both prior Awesome Mixes so they've had more time to grow on me) but the soundtrack in the movie is also not as strong as past movies. Moving Springsteen's "Badlands" to the credits seems like a waste, ending off on "Dog Days Are Over" from Florence and the Machine is a fine choice but nothing special and the same goes for the action sequence set to "No Sleep Till Brooklyn" and the use of "Come And Get Your Love" in the first post-credit scene.

The biggest misstep however is the portrayal of Rocket's backstory, something that will certainly be what people disagree with me most about. Everything about the backstory is explicitly to score cheap emotional points from his fellow captors all being cutesy animals to their deaths to Rocket's abused child dynamic with the High Evolutionary. This is coupled with the fact that these are memories that Rocket is seeing as he is dying so only the audience is privy to this backstory, not the rest of the team, so it is clearly just to tug at the viewer's heartstrings. At one point the team sees a video of the experiments, not the mistreatment after the fact, and Nebula gives the dialogue shorthand of "wow this is worse than what Thanos did to me" just to further drive home the point. Since it is mostly for the audience and the audience has known since the first movie that Rocket appeared in, its just wasting about 20 minutes of screen time when the same emotional impact could have been gained from the arrival of Adam Warlock, Rocket expositing the information about the High Evolutionary, them seeing what happened to Rocket in the files, and then facing off against him.

On a final note, some of the cameos fall flat and both pad the runtime and take the viewer out of the experience. A lengthy sequence with Daniela Melchior (Ratcatcher 2 from The Suicide Squad) goes on way too long and a sequence with Nathan Fillion tries to be funny but also goes on too long while breaking immersion. It's the same as the issue with the cameos from major actors in small roles on The Mandalorian where it just feels a little off at that point.

How Should You See The Movie?

While the movie may have some narrative and visual shortcomings, when the film works it really works. The audio and visuals can elevate it into something truly special at times and the comedic moments tend to land more often than they don't which makes it a great viewing experience in a theater, especially on the biggest screens possible. Compared to other recent Marvel Studios entries it is around the same level as Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings so above Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness and Thor: Love and Thunder but below Black Panther: Wakanda Forever and Spider-Man: No Way Home.

★★★★★