Friday, 5 May 2023

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3

Official Australian release date: 4/5/23. Viewed: 4/5/23.
Director: James Gunn
Actors: Chris Pratt, Bradley Cooper, Karen Gillan, Chukwudi Iwuji
Genre: Action / Sci-Fi
Rating: M

‘Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 3’ is the fifth MCU trilogy to wrap up, but the difference here is that it feels like we’ve been waiting a long time, as it’s almost 9 years since the original film showed us how fun and unique a ragtag bunch of semi-superhero aliens could be. Following the events of ‘Avengers: Endgame’ (and, to a lesser degree, ‘Thor: Love & Thunder’ and the Holiday Special), we pick up with Peter (Pratt), Rocket (Cooper), Groot (Diesel), Nebula (Gillan), Mantis (Klementieff), Drax (Bautista), Cosmo (Bakalova) and Kraglin (Gunn) when they’re attacked by Adam Warlock (Poulter) and Rocket is injured, sending them on a journey to save him.

We see a lot – maybe too much? – of Rocket’s history via flashback and how he came to be. While a lot of this is emotional and builds his characters, the other characters – including the “new” Gamora (Saldana) – somehow seem to not have as much to do, or somehow just a little off. The “bad guy” they’re out to defeat is The High Evolutionary (Iwuji), who has undefined powers, but needless to say, likes experimenting on animals trying to perfect evolution.

There’s some cameos, another good soundtrack (including a nice call-back in the mid-credits scene), top-notch CGI and some funny moments throughout. But for all the good moments, they’re almost balanced with not-quite-right parts – the melancholy version of Radiohead’s Creep that sets an odd tone, Rocket’s whole arc, the organic space station, the High Evolutionary’s mask, Gamora’s character, Warlock’s near pointlessness and the inevitable ending. It’s not that it’s bad or that they don’t work, it’s just a lot darker and less exuberant than the other two films.

Overall: Bit of a different adventure to conclude the trilogy

Gav's Rating: 3.5 stars


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