'Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3' Review: A Somber Sendoff to Space Outlaws

The MCU has struggled to find a purpose after the high point of Avengers: Endgame in 2019. There have been some high points, like Sam Raimi’s Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness and Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, but Black Widow felt five years too late, Eternals felt more like a live-action DC property, and the addition of several mediocre Disney+ shows (Hawkeye, Falcon and the Winter Soldier) has diluted what was once an unmissable collection of interconnected stories into homework that could be skipped.

What has been consistently reliable during all of that time has been the Guardians of the Galaxy franchise, which has successfully carved out its own corner of the universe within the greater Marvel universe. Much of that success can be attributed to writer/director James Gunn, who thrives at making you care about social rejects and misfits. After being fired from Marvel over trolls resurfacing old tweets, he took his talents to DC to make the equally successful Suicide Squad reboot and will soon take over the entire company as CEO. Before that transition, however, he was able to briefly return to Marvel to make the Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special, some Baby Groot shorts, and now, the concluding chapter of his Guardians of the Galaxy trilogy.

Vol. 3 begins with the gang on Knowhere as they attempt to build a new society. Quill is still broken up over the death of Gamora, Groot looks like he’s been working out with Vin Diesel with his tree trunk arms, Drax and Mantis are still a favorite pairing, and Rocket is moodily keeping everyone together with the help of Nebula. When Adam Warlock attacks their community, leading to a near-death injury for Rocket, it is up to the rest of the team to find a way to disable the kill-switch surrounding his internal organs in order to save him.

Some other new and returning faces are astronaut dog Cosmo (Maria Bakalova), Craiglin (Sean Gunn), who is now trying to take over the arrow abilities of Yondu, and Sylvester Stallone as Stakar Ogard. Will Poulter also makes his debut as Adam Warlock, with Elizabeth Debicki returning as his gold-skinned mom. While Rocket is neutralized for much of the movie’s 150-minute running time, we see flashbacks of the dark backstory of how the raccoon was transformed into the intelligent space outlaw and that he wasn’t the only animal experimented on. The results are grizzly, and viewers sensitive to animal cruelty should be warned that Gunn doesn’t shy away from depicting the violence inflicted by the antagonist.

The big bad this time around is the High Evolutionary, who is just as pretentious as his name suggests. Chukwudi Iwuji (Peacemaker) plays him with appropriate grandiosity as someone with a short fuse and an unwavering God complex. The rubbery-faced villain (Quill compares him to Robocop at one point) is the easiest to root against in this series as someone who practices eugenics and abuses animals. His scene-chewing performance is one of the highlights of the movie, as he vows to stop at nothing to create the perfect society and has no qualms about killing off entire planets and the beloved Rocket Raccoon in the process.

Zoe Saldana also returns to play Gamora but one from another universe, as the one that Quill fell in love with was killed by her father Thanos in Avengers: Infinity War. Chris Pratt’s performance as Peter Quill as he attempts to make this new version of Gamora fall in love with him again is particularly tragic, and Saldana’s cold, quick-tempered performance is reminiscent of her first appearance in Guardians of the Galaxy.

James Gunn’s warm writing and humor also shine once again. Dave Bautista’s Drax, in particular, got the hardest laughs from me—one involving the true purpose of a couch and another involving an argument over which button to press on their spacesuits to communicate. The production design is also impressive, with Counter-Earth being a utopian vision of Earth run by sentient animals created by the High Evolutionary and another planet made up of squishy biomaterial that they traverse in different colored spacesuits (Drax asks for a different color because it clashes with his eyes). The visual effects have also advanced with each movie, leading to photorealistic animals and immersive action sequences like an extended hallway fight, which is clearly an homage to Oldboy.

Surprisingly, the weakest part of the film for me was the soundtrack which still has a few undeniable hits, but the hip-hop choices and more modern selections aren’t as effective as the 70s pop rock that the series is known for. The runtime is also a sticking point that is a larger problem with Marvel movies and movies in general. Certain characters like Adam Warlock feel like an afterthought that could have been cut from the movie with no significant change to the plot—it seemed like he was only present because his appearance was set up in the previous Guardians movie.

Overall, James Gunn has made another superhero movie where something as simple as a talking raccoon and tree can elicit emotional reactions from the audience, whether that’s gasps of excitement or laughter from their quips. That in itself is a huge accomplishment. I will miss the series’ funny moments, like Quill saving the universe with his dance moves or baby Groot trying to set a bomb. But I’ll also miss the human moments like Quill charming Gamora with his taste in music or Yondu sacrificing himself to save Quill; the balance of these two wavelengths is what makes Guardians resonate more compared to other Marvel movies. Ultimately, they are a reminder that we can still be heroes despite our flaws and that the friends who accept us for who we are can become our family.