After the first Guardians film left us hooked on a feeling, Vol. 3 grabs those feelings and multiplies that by a hundred. James Gunn returns to the director seat for one final journey with the Guardians before making the permanent move to DC and he leaves Marvel by giving us one of the best entries into the MCU to date.
All arguments that may have surfaced after the slightly disappointing Thor: Love and Thunder and Ant Man and the Wasp: Quantumania are completely obliterated now with Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3.
After The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special served as a fun little palette cleanser, Vol 3. dives straight into the action as Will Poulter’s shiny gold Adam Warlock turns up on the scene and immediately almost takes out all of the Guardians in one hit. What follows for the rest of the film is a deep dive into Rocket as the Guardians must fight to keep him alive.
The amount of love and charm that Marvel have put into a little CGI raccoon is incredible and it manages to drive the whole film. And Chukwudi Iwuji’s High Evolutionary, the mysterious God-like person that created Rocket proves a worthy foe for our Guardians in their final outing.
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 has everything we’ve come to expect and love from a Guardians film. From a great soundtrack that’ll have you tapping your toes and nodding your head along in the cinema, to great humour and cool action set-pieces. But what elevates Vol. 3 up to being one of Marvel’s best is how much heart and emotion Gunn puts into this film.
Vol. 3 relies on how perfectly these characters have been built up over the past 9 years, and as a result, almost every single emotional beat in this film lands perfectly. Zoe Saldaña’s Gamora – not the one that was thrown of the cliff in Infinity War but an alternate version from Endgame that never met or fell in love with Star Lord- feels a bit forced into the film. There was no real need for her to be in it and every scene she’s in seems to diminish some of the importance of her sacrifice in Infinity War, but at two and a half hours long, Vol. 3 never outstays its welcome.
With some great laughs, mainly from everyone’s favourite loveable idiots Drax and Mantis, and awesome action scenes- including a great single shot fight sequence set to Beastie Boys’ No Sleep Till Brooklyn– Vol. 3 is an enjoyable romp through the galaxy giving the perfect conclusion to the Guardians films. But it really is down to the tons and tons of heart and emotion that James Gunn puts into the CGI animals that make this so impactful.
Despite not really ever going anyway, Marvel are well and truly back as Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 takes us right back to what we loved about this rag-tag group of heroes reminding us that if anyone’s going to make you cry over a talking raccoon, it’ll probably be Disney and Marvel.
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 is in cinemas now.