Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 Review: A Film Overflowing with Life Capable of Concluding The Trilogy Perfectly
Cast: Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana, Dave Bautista, Karen Gillan, Bradley Cooper, Vin Diesel, Pom Klementieff, Sean Gunn, Elizabeth Debicki, Will Poulter
Director: James Gunn
Where to Watch: In theaters (from May 5th, 2023)
Filmyhype.com Ratings: 4/5 (four stars) [yasr_overall_rating size=”large”]
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 closes an era. It’s one of those watershed films in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), one of the few that marks the end of a moment. A bit like History with a capital S, certain changes do not take place in a precise and easily identifiable moment but are remembered by synthesizing them in a symbolic event that represents them. James Gunn’s farewell to the MCU is one of those events that mark a before and after. The third feature film starring Chris Pratt as Peter Quill directed by James Gunn is indeed the unofficial but undeniable end of an era. Much more than the film that Marvel has decided to use to close the last of the MCU phases in which it divides the slow evolution of the history and continuity of superheroes. It is also a farewell with no return for many elements of the team that brought this group of characters to success, unknown or almost unknown to the general public before 2014.
It’s not just James Gunn who was fired and then brought back in, only to later decide to take creative control of other superheroes, in another cinematic universe. Even some interpreters have decided to publicly announce the end of their involvement in Marvel. Other actors for age or narrative issues will occupy different positions within the great Marvel universe. A bit like for the first nucleus of the Avengers, so also for the first formation of the Guardians of the Galaxy, the time has come to say goodbye. But not before giving us a final fireworks display. And then, really, how do you greet them? Well, with a movie like Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, the perfect closure of an embrace, the one that Gunn gave to the world with his trilogy, a truly great authorial triptych within the MCU machine. A film capable of keeping all his promises, and at the same time overturning them, especially having seen the trailers or having imagined how Gunn would have closed his creature. Once more, with feeling, some would say. Because James Gunn has always done this: he buries you with a laugh, saving you.
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 Review: The Story Plot
As already anticipated by the promotional material of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, Gunn’s film sees the center of the story, not Peter Quill, but Rocket. He will be the true soul of this feature film. The third chapter will shed light on Rocket’s personal story, making us understand a lot about his character and why he has bonded so much with the human protagonist of the story. Guardians of the Galaxy Three opens in the heroes’ headquarters and rediscovers them in pieces. In the beautiful sequence shot that opens the third volume, Rocket is the one who accompanies us to rediscover the remaining guardians of the team, still shaken by what happened to Gamora. Knowing her death was devastating for everyone, as she was an effective member of the team.
Finding her alive but completely oblivious to her past as a Guardian has dealt the final blow to Peter, who decides to drown his paranoia of causing the death of every loved one in his life in alcohol. Just as he tries to take care of his friend, Rocket is attacked by a mysterious new character. This is Will Pouter’s Adam Warlock, who seems intent on kidnapping Rocket himself. The attack on the headquarters of the Guardians and the wounding of Rocket sets in motion a dizzying turn of events that brings Peter, Nebula, and the rest of the team to confront The High Emissary and his OrgoCorp, in a desperate race against the time to save your friend’s life. The search for crucial information to save Rocket will lead the other Guardians and the public to discover the dramatic genesis of his character, revealing whom he was before meeting the other Guardians. Through a series of flashbacks, the film gradually reveals what made him a Guardian, highlighting his status as a crucial and charismatic member of the team.
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 Review and Analysis
Will Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 be able to reverse the negative course that Marvel seems to have taken since the start of this Phase of the MCU? Difficult to say, but it certainly provides a lot of excellent narrative material, which confirms James Gunn’s talent as a storyteller and director. Like the previous films dedicated to this group of heroes, Volume 3 makes its own story, focusing on the fates of its protagonists. As a film, it suffers less than others from the pressure of continuity and the great timeline dictated by the long-term design of Marvel Studios. Prepare to be moved at multiple points in the film. In addition to being more dramatic and more violent than usual, Volume 3 of Guardians of the Galaxy tackles a series of scenes from which only the most detached will leave dry-eyed.
The beauty is that these are not specious goodbyes or artfully studied deaths (as expected by fans of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3) to shock the public. Gunn writes and shoots more than a touching confrontation between characters, forced by events to face uncomfortable truths or to admit unmentionable ones. The hardest to digest is that they are over and the days of the Guardians as we know them. The film tells us about the unofficial disbandment of this group, suggesting what will happen next. However, the most significant and impactful farewell remains that of James Gunn behind the camera. His removal will have no small weight. You can tell by looking at Volume 3, its beautifully choreographed fight scenes (and very, very violent for a film with this rating), the brilliant comedic timing that punctuates a very dramatic film with perfect lines, and the imperious but always very effective pop music.
Guardians was shaped by his charisma as a filmmaker and comic book enthusiast. However, time has also changed them: there are a few more wrinkles on the faces of the interpreters, as well as on ours. Gunn himself has not recently faced personal events and mourning, the reverberation of which is felt in a more melancholic film of the past Not everything works, it must be said. The insertion of Warlock is rushed and poorly developed, the villain played by Chukwudi Iwuji turns out to be the usual speck villain. Furthermore, not everyone will appreciate the surprisingly dramatic tone of this film, which is also capable of taking strong political positions (primarily its clear anti-specialist message).
However, James Gunn manages to say farewell to his Guardians at the height and will not fail to excite the audience in the room. Some of the tough choices he makes will probably displease some audiences, but Peter and the others taught us that often the hardest decision to make is the right one. Gunn lets his heart guide him, but he doesn’t give up on being honest and direct. He will be missed in the MCU house, that’s for sure. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 goes even deeper (mostly with Rocket) but really with everyone. Like a child’s game where a child runs in circles touching each other’s heads: every Guardian is ready to rise and shine, no matter how much space they are given. And we struggle to hold back the tears, lost in harrowing memories of Rocket, knowing that anything could happen and that Gunn’s love for his creature will always go that extra mile, no matter the direction.
And Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 walks all over the place, creates worlds, and rekindles that cinematic inspiration from an MCU event that only the hall can give: the colors overflow, the hands grip the armrests of the armchairs, and the musical culture of James Gunn hold us tightly in his fist without ever leaving us. Everything is calibrated in his superhero gramelot madness, even the management of Adam Warlock in full James Gunn-style irreverent style, with scenes from applause to open scene: there is a combat sequence shot that plays masterfully between slow motion and Beastie Boys, almost like James Gunn singing the No Sleep till Brooklyn line “My job ain’t a job, it’s a damn good time”. Because just as he enjoyed shooting that scene, we went crazy watching it. And in doing so he always conveys his message once again, with all possible feelings: perfection does not exist, and that’s okay.
It almost seems strange that at the end one feels so alive. And the more Gunn confronts us with the inevitability of this being his last Guardians of the Galaxy film, the more we realize how much life bursts from every crevice of him. Everyone struggles to hold on to the group, to this family of friends they’ve fought to bleed for, that they’ve built piece by piece. A family of outcasts, of weirdos, who feel they don’t belong. If the monsters saved del Toro, then the creeps did it to James Gunn. And by saving them he also did it with us. But the extra step of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 is also a love for oneself that shuns toxic individualism, it is a personal search for who one wants to be, one’s place in a world that seems increasingly bad and inscrutable, but that it must not make us like him. Being a Guardian now has a specific weight, even in madness and jokes: we are not like the ones we fight; we are better than them. Indeed, we are better than whoever made us this way.
And we demonstrate it by taking that step further to save as many living beings as possible. Because even just one more makes the difference. Even in the face of the end of everything. And to quote Boris, which James Gunn would surely love, a man knows when the end is coming. Some go to meditate in front of the sea, others find solace in the family… James Gunn instead makes Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3. Drenching us with melancholy with our gaze turned towards tomorrow anyway, because there is always hope for everyone. Even for all the weirdos in the world. And change terrifies, yes, but it is in the imperfections of what hasn’t gone as we imagined that we find strength. After all, the dog days are over, right?
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 Review: The Last Words
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 closes James Gunn’s triptych perfectly. A film overflowing with life despite the end has come, capable of bringing the greatness of the Marvel Cinematic Universe back to theaters even if it remains almost a separate element, a bit like the whole trilogy. The director lets us immerse our eyes in the absolute love he feels for these characters, for the family they have created, and for the changes, they inevitably have to undergo. Everything screams James Gunn, from the mixing of genres to crazy directorial gimmicks, through to the music that brings everything together, never letting you go. Because, as Nesli sang, the end will come, but it won’t be the end. And sometimes it’s nice to leave the hall with the desire to dance, even if you are left speechless.
