It’s All About Family: Our Review of ‘Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3’

Posted in Movies, Theatrical by - May 05, 2023
It’s All About Family: Our Review of ‘Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3’

All good things…need to spin off into something else….

With the trilogy coming to a close inside the madness that is the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 is easily the grimmest installment in the MCU that we’ve seen in quite some time but it’s also the most emotionally resonant film we’ve seen in the MCU since the drama of Avengers: Infinity War/Endgame.

Our beloved band of misfits are looking a bit different these days. Peter Quill, still reeling from the loss of Gamora, must rally his team around him to defend the universe along with protecting one of their own. A mission that, if not completed successfully, could quite possibly lead to the end of the Guardians as we know them.

While the plot and the narrative of this installment is admittedly pretty simplistic (and surprisingly dark); what James Gunn and his team has done hear is pretty beautiful as Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 more than anything actually acknowledges our emotional commitment and investment in these characters.  Its fan service but done in the most respectful way possible.

Before James Gunn hands off his beloved misfits and rebuilds the DC Universe he lets these characters where their respective flaws on the sleeves and highlights the WHY of why we’ve connected with these characters.  In many ways Gunn beat something like Fast X to the punch because this film is all about family.

That rings the truest through the prism and the eyes of our favourite raccoon in Rocket as Gunn takes us into the darkness that is his past which only hammers home the beauty of this ragtag group when they band together not only to save his life, but the subjects of the man Chukwudi Iwuji as The High Evolutionary) who created him and obsessively needs him back in order to complete his grand design.

More so then in any other installment of Guardians of the Galaxy (and honestly in the bulk of the MCU) we’ve never seen the characters take things that happen around them and ultimately too them as personally as we see it here and that just sucks us as an audience in even more and raises the stakes higher and higher.

Chris Pratt excels at being a sad sack AND an action hero, Bradley Cooper makes Rocket more empathetic then we’ve ever seen him before while Karen Gillan has embraced the anger of Nebula while not being afraid to embrace the characters burgeoning humanity as Pom Klementieff and Dave Bautista find the genuine hearts and souls of Mantis and Drax respectively.  While Sean Gunn steps up more as Kraglin and Will Poulter joins the fray as the mysterious Adam Warlock.

Even in some of its dark and grosser moments, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 is about having someone to love and the importance of family, especially when it comes to being a Guardian of the Galaxy.  And while it’s certainly not going to be the end for all of these characters it is a fitting farewell to this band of misfits that found their way into our hearts as they saved the galaxy (and maybe even an MCU that was hitting a creative wall) with some genuine emotion and hilarity.

  • Release Date: 5/5/2023
This post was written by
David Voigt is a Toronto based writer with a problem and a passion for the moving image and all things cinema. Having moved from production to the critical side of the aisle for well over 10 years now at outlets like Examiner.com, Criticize This, Dork Shelf (Now That Shelf), to.Night Newspaper he’s been all across his city, the country and the continent in search of all the news and reviews that are fit to print from the world of cinema.
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