Practically Perfect In Every Way

Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 3 is the best Marvel movie I’ve seen in years. I did enjoy Spider-Man: No Way Home quite a bit, but other than that, the MCU has felt a bit like a pale shadow of its former self. There’s fun to be had in bits and pieces in movies like Ant-Man 3 and Dr. Strange In The Multiverse Of Madness, but it’s all gotten a little stale, like a fifth course at a meal I filled up on long ago. For every WandaVision, there’s a She-Hulk to remind us just how lousy the MCU has become compared to its glory days.

Thankfully, James Gunn sticks the landing with the third and final Guardians movie. It’s an emotionally powerful, wildly inventive, often hilarious tour de force farewell for our ragtag band of intergalactic space heroes.

I admit to a special fondness for Guardians of the Galaxy. The first film came out almost nine years ago in late 2014 and I had no idea what to expect when I went. I wasn’t a fan of the comics (having never read them) and had next to zero knowledge about any of the characters. Unlike better-known MCU heroes like Captain America, Thor and Iron Man, I went into the first Guardians movie completely blind other than a single trailer. I knew Chris Pratt from Parks & Rec where he’d played a chubby, rather dumb (but lovable) loser and that’s about it.

I fell in love. I fell in love with the characters, with the music, with the sense of humor that felt so different from other MCU gags. The writing was different, largely because this was James Gunn and he brought his own unique spin to the characters and stories. Star-Lord saves the day through a dance-off. The soundtrack is an integral part of the story. I dressed up as Star-Lord for Halloween that year, and bought an original Sony Walkman on eBay for several hundred dollars (which I sold around when Guardians 2 came out for a tidy profit).

Speaking of Guardians 2, it wasn’t as good as the original but it was still a fun movie that managed to preserve its own unique identity within the homogeneity of the wider MCU, something that still feels rare. Oddly, the MCU has been in a bit of an identity crisis lately. I think part of that is what worked for a unified movie universe starring Thor and Iron Man and Captain America and Black Widow doesn’t work as well when those stars are gone, and new ones have to fill their shoes.

Guardians 3, then, exists as something of an anomaly now. It is the final act to a story that began way back in 2014. Its second act landed in theaters six years ago almost to the day. We’ve seen Star-Lord and Gamora (Zoe Saldana) and Nebula (Karen Gillan) and Groot (Vin Diesel) and Drax (Dave Bautista) and Rocket Raccoon (Bradley Cooper) and Kraglin (Sean Gunn) and Mantis (Pom Klementieff) between now and then, in Avengers movies and briefly in the latest Thor, but other than the fun holiday special, this is the first time the gang is back together.

It’s also the last, which is both sad and satisfying. Gunn does a wonderful job tying up these characters’ arcs and stories. Things get pretty emotional at times, but there’s always some comic relief around the next corner, which can feel a bit like whiplash at times, but in a good way.

I won’t spoil the story. Much focuses on Rocket’s backstory, which is pretty grim, and deals with the main villain of both that bleak past and this dire present: the High Evolutionary (Chukwudi Iwuji) an erratic, unhinged supervillain that embodies a classic sort of progressive thinking that’s led to noxious ideas such as eugenics: That the world can be made perfect if we just tinker with it mercilessly, without worrying too much about who gets hurt along the way. “He doesn’t want to make the world a better place,” Rocket says at one point. “He just doesn’t like it the way it is.”

Such is the nature of Utopia. Beneath every one is a dystopian reality curdling just under the surface. I can certainly think of plenty of people in today’s world who fit Rocket’s description.

I really only have one complaint.

Tthe 2.5 hour runtime might be just a tad long. For those of you who read my film reviews, this is me beating an old drum, thumpity-thumpity over and over again, but I intend to keep beating it until Hollywood listens. Movies do not need to be this long. Save something for the streaming and/or Blu-Ray release. I thought Gunn’s Suicide Squad was pretty good, but it also ran about 20 or 30 minutes too long and by its very bizarre end I was drifting. Even shaving fifteen from Guardians 3 would have made me feel a little less antsy while waiting around for the mid and post-credits scenes.

But this is honestly a fairly minor quibble. I enjoyed Guardians 3 from start to finish. I love how things wrapped up so nicely for all the different characters. Not everyone got what they wanted, but like the Rolling Stones remind us: Sometimes you get what you need.

It was a practically perfect ending to a practically perfect superhero movie that takes viewers along to weird alien worlds, through crazy action-packed fights, and into emotionally dark and redemptive places. Iwuji is terrific as the villain. Will Poulter, who plays Adam Warlock, was a nice addition if perhaps a little underused here. The whole cast is great. Cameos from Nathan Fillion and others are fun.

I laughed. I cried (more than I care to admit) and I bid farewell to some of my favorite of the MCU’s heroes. I’ll definitely see this one again, though probably not until it leaves theaters—not because it’s not great, but because it’s a little heavy to go back to. Not every movie can be as much fun as Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves.

Have you seen Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 3 yet? Let me know what you thought of the film on Twitter or Facebook. I’ll have a follow-up post discussing some story points with spoilers later on here on this blog so please do give me a follow. You can also subscribe to my YouTube channel and my Substack so you can stay up-to-date on all my TV, movie and video game reviews and coverage. Thanks!