Guardians of the Galaxy, Volume 3
Guardians of the Galaxy, Volume 3 is playing in theaters at the time of writing. Rated PG-13. Common Sense says 13.
STORY: B+
I know what to expect when I sit down with a Guardians of the Galaxy movie. I expect laughs (which Vol. 3 has). I expect wacky spaceship designs and bizarre planets ripe for exploration (which Vol. 3 has). I expect juvenile potty talk (which, thankfully, Vol. 3 also has).
The trilogy’s finale sends the Guardians on a mission to save one of their own, even if it means risking all of their lives. I’d be lying if I said I expected to get struck squarely in the feels by this movie. But struck square, I most certainly was. The story does a great job of making space for emotional moments while not losing any of the qualities we’ve grown to love about these movies.
PEOPLE: A-
Fans know the Guardians well. So do the actors. For the most part, they are who they’ve always been. But each Guardian gets one moment to flaunt some genuine emotion before the trilogy takes its final bow. And every single one of them delivers the sappy, sentimental goods.
Our familiarity with the awesomely goofy and lovable Guardians also makes their well-established corner of the MCU not an easy thing for a newbie to parachute into. Chukwudi Iwuji (John Wick: Chapter 2) plays the villain, High Evolutionary, with equal parts lunacy, rage, and arrogance. He more than holds his own as the new baddie.
FILM NERD STUFF: A-
Most of the fight scenes are fantastic. The camera spins, jumps, buzzes, and zips wildly around the actors. It dizzies us, making it feel like we’re right in the middle of the melee with them. Feeling that connection to the characters fills the fight scenes with a sense of madcap thrill - never more so than during the finale’s extended and (seemingly) one-shot hallway brawl sequence.
A highlight of any Guardians movie is its soundtrack. Legendary for opening their films with bangers (Redbone’s “Come and Get Your Love” & ELO’s “Mr. Blue Sky”), Volume 3 opens with a stripped down version of Radiohead's "Creep ". I can’t imagine “Creep” ever becoming associated as closely with the Guardians as either of those other two songs, but it manages to do the heaviest lifting of the three. Musically, it’s a drastic shift in tone. It signals Vol. 3 will have a different tone than the previous two films.
COMMUNITY (Elective Class): A
My parents dragged their feet taking me to see Star Wars. Once I saw it, I finally understood why so many kids at school had named our rusting jungle gym the “Death Star”. Those indecipherable syllables that had been floating across the playground for weeks (sounds like “Ta-too-ine” and “Chew-bac-ca”) finally had meaning. At long last, I knew why my fellow kindergartners refused to stop playing lightsabers with the meter sticks, despite Mrs. Cromwell’s constant screams for them to stop. It was because Star Wars, and everything associated with it, was awesome. And it was awesome to feel like I was on the inside of something big, important, and fun.
Marvel has created a similar sense of community for this generation. More than anything, I see Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 as a celebration of community. An evil egomaniac drives the film’s main conflict. He’s obsessed with creating a perfect society. His theory? Build perfect people, and a perfect community will follow.
If he had watched the Guardians movies, he’d know he’s doing it wrong. The Guardians prove that perfect people aren’t necessary to create a meaningful, worthwhile community. They all have their flaws (which they love pointing out to each other). Yet they are a shining example of how a group can exceed the sum of its parts.
It’s nice to see the MCU take a pause from the whole interconnected world-building thing they’re so famous for. By focusing on the characters, we get to see why their tiny, little perfect community works. The movie becomes a mirror that reflects Marvel’s greatest accomplishment back at us: the creation of a community made up of imperfect human beings, who gather together a few times a year for an often perfect storytelling experience.
FINAL COMMENTS:
Everyone who’s seen this movie seems to feel the need to rank the three Guardian films. I won’t do that here, but I will say it’s neither my favorite nor my least favorite of the trilogy.
One of my favorite things about the first Guardians movie is that it broke away from Marvel’s massively successful algorithm. It didn’t completely ignore it, but the movie definitely did things differently and created a new mini-algorithm in the process. Volume 3 feels so refreshing because, like the original does, it breaks away from the first two Guardian films without ignoring what makes their mini-algorithm special and unique in the first place.