Guardians of the Galaxy Vol.3 Review: Time to face the music

 Guardians of the Galaxy Vol.3 Review: It is time to face the music

Ah Marvel, the film studio that was at the top of the world and every new film they had coming out was highly anticipated by many (personally I am still one of those people), but it became a bit noticeable last year that to many, the MCU had lost any excitement or hype after Avengers Endgame ended the 10 year long Infinity saga and most have been mixed at best with greats like Spider-man No way home, Shang Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, LOKI, Wandavision and Black Panther Wakanda forever, some decent like Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness and Falcon and the Winter soldier and some that were not as beloved such as Thor Love and Thunder, Eternals and to a good portion of the internet: She-Hulk Attorney at Law (personally I enjoyed that series and yeah there is problems but I found it to be entertaining). But now when all hope was dwindling to many there was one film that nearly could've been a disaster, affected from a director firing, delays from a pandemic and that growing unease of what became known as "Superhero Fatigue", Visionary director James Gunn has come back to give one last encore to the Marvel films that he helped to make a household name before he will be overseeing the entirety of the rival superhero label of DC comics with Guardians of the Galaxy Vol.3 and thankfully it ties up a great trilogy with a really great ending.

*There will not be any major spoilers in this review for this new one, only ones that were shown in released footage from trailers, but will be some for the previous films that involved these heroes and the recent Holiday Special, but just some minor recap of where things are by this films start.*

What is the story this time around

so to give some clarity of where things have built up from the beginning, let me give a quick explanation from when we last saw the Guardians:

The last time we saw them they had been brought back from the snap by the Avengers with the help of Rocket (Bradley Cooper) and Nebula (Karen Gillan) , defeated Thanos and had Thor join them on their journey to go and find adventure and find the past Gamora. After some escapades and annoying screaming goats, Thor was left to do his own adventure and find his own inner peace while the Guardians Jetted off to new adventures. In the process they then tried to help some civilians and species all over the Galaxy by purchasing Knowhere from the Collector and making it a refuge as well as their HQ. In the process before the film we see that Mantis (Pom Klementieff) and the other Guardians help Peter (Chris Pratt) with bringing him some Holiday cheer with the help of Kevin Bacon and Peter gets the best present ever when he learns that Mantis is his sister.

So that is where the story leads up to now but for the breakdown of the plot for this one:

"Still Reeling from the loss of Gamora, Peter Quill must rally his team and defend the universe and protect one of their own. If the mission is not completely successful, it could possibly lead to the end of the Guardians as we know them"

This is a good starting structure as they explain the dilemma of one or 2 aspects, there is a new threat, one of the Guardians Lives is at stake and another is trying to find someone dear to them and for there will build out to a very strong story that ties their films together well from the beginnings of them being on each others nerves to where you find them by the end of this feeling like a strong odd family dynamic and I think it works well for the journey we go on in this film. Sure there is a lot going on at once and can make it feel a little all over the place but by the end it all does come together one way or another and that's what matters

Score: 8

The Line up of Guardians

So now I am going to go in depth to each of the main players as well as give some insight to one or 2 side characters at the end of how they establish a part to the whole story, how much they effect the plot or how much they benefit the whole mission or what to improve:

Peter Quill / Starlord

Let's start with the Guardian we first met at the beginning of the trilogy with Star Lord. In this film he is mostly still reeling over the loss of his Gamora from the hands of the Mad titan and things don't get much easier for him when one of the other guardians is in a life threatening situation and he soon ends up having to team with the Gamora that doesn't remember him at all and trying to make sure that everything does not fall apart. In this film he does do a great job at the start of trying to be more level headed leader to everyone when everything begins to become a bit more serious and threatening and he does have a fair bit of development as well where at the start he is still pining over Gamora but as it goes on he learns to understand that it will no longer happen for him and learning to move on and it is done well, it can be a little forced but he tries his best and he does do a fair job throughout the film of trying to be the negotiator, the leader and the one that will help keep everything from turning into Guns a-Blazing and I think by the end of the film he is in a good place overall.

Rocket

Now for the character that is essentially the primary focus of this story and that is with Rocket. For most of the series we don't know much about Rocket's backstory as he wants to keep that to himself and will retaliate by being a jerk to others, but now in this 3rd film, this is really more a focus of his movie over the other Guardians as we learn through the entire film of his tragic and dark backstory of his creation, his purpose to the villain and the reason he is smart with creating things from bit and pieces and how he survived for that long and why he hides away his backstory or not get to opened to others and it is such a emotional perspective that he has been traumatized for years and does not want to open up about it. The performance of Bradley Cooper in this role is one of the strongest and is the top standout of the entire movie.

Nebula

The other character who has the biggest development in this film and over the series would have to be Nebula. She started out as a some-what secondary antagonist in the original, a little at the beginning of Vol.2 but by the Avenger films and Love and thunder she had joined the team as a new member of the Guardians. In this film she has become more opening to everyone and has been a beneficial help on Knowhere and even has embraced her cybernetic form with some new upgrades and besides Quill and Rocket, does does get majorly involved in a lot of the action and dilemma in this film from learning of the threatening outcome for Rocket if they don't find his creator, to kicking ass and helping to save the day and I think that Karen Gillan did an excellent job here with the performance.

Drax

Now Drax is still his sarcastic and humorous self and still has the method of finding his way to smash, throw and possibly kill whoever may get in their way. We have seen some of the range that Dave Bautista has shown from this from incompetent idiot, laughable goofball to even showing signs of humbleness and actual beneficial help as well. Sure he gets a little sidelined but it is not so much and we got a fair bit of him in the previous Holiday special to help add to the performance and I think his role here is still all around pretty good.

Mantis

The other comedic character and one that has that little bit of incompetence is Mantis. Now she also has that sense of being helpful in a fair amount of ways and I feel that they were building more on her character development from the Holiday special as well and it is still great all the same and shows the case that she will stand up against others after being used as a servant for most of her life by Ego and left to the sidelines as Drax's comedic partner, but still a great performance by Pom Klementieff.

Groot

I am Groot, I am Groot, I am Groot, I am Groot, I am Groot, I a Groot, I am Groot. I am Groot, I am Groot, I am Groot, I am Groot, I am Groot, I am Groot. I am Groot, I am Groot, I am Groot, I am Groot, I am Groot (Translation: Now Groot is somewhat underused in this film but he does have some use of purposes in this, he is used for some action scenes, he helps out in situations when it is called for and he makes sure that his longtime partner (and possible parent figure) of Rocket doesn't leave him and for what it's worth I think his role is perfectly fine) (there is a great moment at the end but I do not want to spoil it but if you have seen it and get it, then you know).

Gamora

Now this is the Gamora that we don't know too much about compared to the one we have seen over the course of the previous 2 Guardians films and Infinity War as this was the one that came from 2014. Now she is the other guardian that kind of gets underused in this film compared to the other films and most of the time is a bit aggressively defensive against the other members of the Guardians, even to her own sister. Now she does help a little here and there with some action scenes and other missions to help in some degree, for other parts of the film she mainly goves out about some stuff and then disappears for a little. I am sure that maybe this version might appear in the future Marvel film but I am sure we will see what happens. But either way Zoe Sladana does a great job nonetheless

High Evolutionary

Now for the villain of the movie and this one joins the rankings of some of the best MCU villains IMO. The High evolutionary mainly sees himself as some sort of god, as he is trying and has created his own form of the planet Earth made of anthropomorphic animals cross species and the success of how he made them was from his smartest creation of Rocket and he will do anything to get him back to create perfection. Now he is a mix of a villain that is evil for evil purposes, but also one that thinks and may have some form of a point to his evilness but overall he does a great job and is one of the better MCU Villains 

Group 89

Now this is the group that Rocket has been assigned with from the High evolutionary and consist of 3 other members, Floor, a small white Rabbit, Teefs, a giant walrus and Lylla, a otter and the acquaintance that Rocket grows the most fondest of, who all have some form of cybernetic robotic attachment to them after being upsettingly experimented on by the High evolutionary. While they may be seen as some side character, they would be seen more as the only hopeful peace in that dark and upsetting time for them as they had each other and hope to one day get out of there and blast off into the great unknown together and this is where a good bit of the wholesome emotional parts of the film come into play and for what it is worth they did a really good job of showing that while their situation is bleak, them having each other is that moment of peace and freedom they have together.

Adam Warlock

One of the newest members introduced to the saga that was teased in one of the 5 post credit scenes of Vol.2 is Adam Warlock, who in this is played by Will Poulter. Now I can't really talk much on him in this as he doesn't really have that much of a screen time presence. Technically he does set up the whole threatening dilemma of the guardians of Rocket being on the verge of death when he comes flying in and causing a problem on Knowhere. But after that he shows up here and there alongside the Sovereign High Priestess. Now I feel that the likes of this film set after the events of Infinity War and Endgame may have affected his role greatly (and the case of Gunn being initially fired from Marvel for some questionable tweets from a decade ago) as Warlock had a big part in the infinity war comic but was introduced at the end of  Vol.2 and the big Avengers films were out within a year from the 2nd films release. From what he has in this film from content it is good and I am sure he will make another appearance in the near future, possibly helping in the next Avengers movie. 

side characters

Not much side characters I can really else delve too much into. I know the likes of Group 89 are technically side characters but they play a focus in Rockets backstory and appear a slightly bit more then the other side characters. The only side characters I can talk on is Kraglin (Sean Gunn) and Cosmo the Space dog (voiced by Maria Bakalova). They appear a little bit here and there in the film but mainly near the start and end and most of their focus is on them trying to harness their powers (Kraglin is mainly focusing on trying to control the whistling arrow from his mentor Yondu) and one other one of a statement said to another that is a running joke for the film that is not in it overly long so it doesn't go to that level of annoying. Others one include the appearances of Sylvester Stallone's character and his group of ravangers that have a brief cameo, The high Priestess has a bit of an appearance but just as a parental figure to Adam Warlock and just giving some working method to the Evolutionary, and some other big names that may have appeared in other properties from Gunn do make an appearance here and they do a good job with the material they have.

Overall most of the characters do get a fair bit of screentime and have a purpose and while some feel underutilized, it is only a small amount and can be easily excused, especially with some of the other entries to build on them as a character and round them all out in the end

Score: 9 or 9.5

A large galaxy presentation

Now, with a cosmic setting like GOTG, you do have a lot of ideas of creating some unique and interesting parts of the universe to explore then with most other superhero films on Earth where you try and make it work on a grounded level and they really make some really cool places to explore in this film. Like the benefits of Knowhere has seen a lot of development of a location as it was dark and dingy and then by the special and this one it is more lively and feels like a proper community live here now. Or even some of the new places in this film like the planet that is like a giant creature where the outer part is a skin/muscle like substance, so it is all fleshy and you wonder if it is a living thing or if it is deceased and has been made into it own new planet. But a lot of the worlds are just so great to bear witness to and even we may see some glimpses of some other ones, you can feel that they had been fleshed out and built upon to make it feel like a living breathing galaxy of worlds beyond our own.

As for the visuals, they are excellent and up to snuff with the others in the series and some of the best too. Sure you may get the odd little bit here and there but compared to the others of recent memory with use of visuals, this looks super great, especially when you need to have a lot of visuals just for 2 of the main leads and they make them feel like living breathing creatures and things.

Lastly in the elements of respect to the source material, they seem to keep it close as they can of what was established from the first 2 from the comics and added onto the ones here including comic accurate team outfits, character designs and some world and all of it comes together to make it feel respectful to the origins and help to bring people into the world created for our entertainment and escape from the real world.

Score: 10

The ancient Writings

Now on the writing side of things, usually I do have some good faith with Gunn's scripts and for anyone he works with to make some solid scripts and his scripts is very good in this one. His writing for the characters does feel very comic book style writing and also feels a fair bit human from the more darker tone compared to the other 2 films (but to be fair they both had some moment of a dark moment, I mean the first film started with Peter's Mom dying from a tumor in the hospital) but it is not all dark. There is quite the fair balance of serious and humorous tone in the film as well and personally it feels more tonally balanced compared to Love and Thunder that had a pretty dark villain but got overshadowed by the tone imbalance as it was more cartoony slapstick then balance of serious and silly when they worked it better for this one. Does every joke land, no, there is some that may be funny to others but I can see as being a good attempt but a good few are funny and that is more then enough I can ask for to help against the upsetting or darker moments with that bit of lighthearted goofiness.

Score: 9 / 9.5

The Awesome mix, front and Back of the tape

Now if there is another thing that Gunn superhero films know how to do well and implement properly is with the use of the music in his movies with blending of old classics of the last 6 decades and work them in well. On it's own the music for this is great, against the other Guardians films and the special, I am not sure where I rank it. To me personally the first films soundtrack is the best one of the music choices and are some of my favourites, but it is not saying that this films soundtrack is bad as there is some good songs in this like "Creep" from Radiohead, "Reasons" from Earth, Wind and Fire, "No sleep till Brooklyn" from the Beastie Boys, "Dog Days are over" from Florence and the Machines and many more and they all use the scenes placed for them well (2 of them being placed in the best scenes of the movie to me personally) and they all sound good. Do I wish there was some other songs I knew in the soundtrack like the others, sure, but having some more I may have forgotten about and some new ones to add to my music library is not a bad thing in my eyes

Score: 9 

Some Minor Missteps

Now of course as with any film no matter how perfect there is always 1 or 2 things that can be a little bit of a nitpick of this could be improved or some things could be changed or removed and I will go through them here

Characters: This is only for a small group of them but I felt that they underused Gamora, Adam warlock and a little with Drax and Mantis, but mainly more on the first 2. Now granted they have been affected by the likes of the last 2 Avengers movies and the firing and rehiring of Gunn on the project and I am sure that if the 2 other Avengers films were still to release shortly before or after this films release then it may have helped it but I am not entirely sure on that front

Writing: small one but not all the jokes going to land but honestly this is just a small nitpick and can be easily overlooked

Story: The last one I will focus on is story and that is the case that while it makes sense and does have an interesting narrative, it does have that case where there is so much happening at once that you could end up having some form of whiplash near the middle part but after a while it starts to connect together better and all works out well by the very end.

Blasting off or crashing and burning

Overall at the end of the day, James Gunn has created one of the best if not the best trilogies of the MCU and some of the top content out of the newer stuff (not to say that the newer stuff of this saga has had its share of decent content) and if you have the chance and haven't seen it there is still a chance to of some very small amount of screenings for it or I am sure that it will eventually come to the streaming service by the holiday season. Seeing this film now does give me some high hopes for what he will do for the new DCU film and I think a bright future is ahead for superhero film hopefully and I hope to see this Guardians take off once again.

Scores

Story: 8    Characters: 9    Presentation: 10    Writing: 9.5    Music: 9.5

Total score: 46/50 or a 92% or A grade

I hope you enjoyed reading my ramblings of a review and I would love to know what your thoughts are about the new Guardians of the Galaxy film and the trilogy in general, is it a great series or can you give or take them. Let me know down below and let us start a discussion everything. Until the next time I hope that you stay being wonderful people and have a great day

Signing off

Sam H