Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 (2023)

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 (2023)

6/10

 

Starring

Chris Pratt

Zoe Saldaña

Dave Bautista

Karen Gillan

Pom Klementieff

Vin Diesel

Bradley Cooper

 

Directed by James Gunn

 

There’s a place for movies like this. It’s not in the league of Captain Americas or Thors films, but rather a fun family movie about a group of misfits trying to make their way in the world. Personally, I prefer the movies featuring this crew over what we get with the Ant-Man movies.

This is the final Guardians of the Galaxy movie, and they did a great job of tying up the characters’ stories. While the plot may not be one of the finest in the MCU, it’s solid enough and feels more like the kind of story you’d expect from a TV series than a blockbuster movie.

As the thirty-second film in the MCU, this marks the last adventure for the Guardians crew as we know them. The future of the franchise remains uncertain, though there’s speculation that more stories from this universe could be made down the line.

One significant aspect of this film is how it redefines Rocket’s backstory, making everything we saw in the Guardians of the Galaxy animation no longer canon. The movie follows the trend of recent MCU films (Black Panther: Wakanda Forever and Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania) by not quite reaching the heights of earlier installments.

The plot centers on a new villain, the High Evolutionary, who is obsessed with Rocket. As Rocket’s creator, he has spent years crafting intelligent beings and civilizations, none of which have lived up to Rocket’s level of intellect. What’s worse, Rocket has proven himself to be even smarter than the High Evolutionary, which fuels the villain’s desire to capture him. The High Evolutionary plans to study Rocket’s brain by removing it, aiming to uncover the secret of his intelligence—and, in doing so, end Rocket’s life.

To achieve this, the High Evolutionary uses one of his creations to hunt Rocket. Enter Adam Warlock, who attacks the Guardians’ new home in an attempt to capture Rocket. However, during the fight, Adam Warlock severely injures Rocket with a life-threatening blast before retreating after getting injured himself. The Guardians realize they can’t heal Rocket with their med packs because of a kill switch embedded in his design.

Nebula manages to extract critical information from Rocket’s robotic implants, revealing where he came from and pointing the team to the High Evolutionary. The crew sets off on a mission to confront him and retrieve the code needed to save Rocket’s life.

As mentioned earlier, this film provides a fitting conclusion for the Guardians and is an enjoyable watch overall.