Guardians Of The Galaxy 3 Is Really Good…But A Little Too Safe

Disney really isn’t going to give us a really gritty Marvel film again, are they? The final instalment of the Guardians of the Galaxy trilogy wrapped up in GOTG 3, and even though the movie was a little too safe for a final installment, it’s the best MCU film since 2021.

It’s a shame one of the last best aspects of the MCU is being retired for good, but such is life.

Guardians of the Galaxy 3 is probably one of the last good Marvel films we’ll see in a while as even though it has some glaring flaws (especially with the plot), it has some of the best character development, visuals, CGI, acting, and general care for the story and characters involved in the MCU since 2021’s Spider-Man: No Way Home. And, that’s something to be happy about in its own right.

Anyways, without going into spoilers as the movie is only a few days old, the best feature Guardians of the Galaxy 3 does is giving its iconic heroes, Star-Lord, Rocket, Groot, Drax, Mantis, Nebula, and Gamora (who may be the weakest part of the cast given her character’s reversion back to her 2014 self), a chance to shine once again as they all undergo taxing, emotional, and honestly some of the most introspective journeys throughout this movie.

Especially Rocket and Star-Lord.

Rocket’s really tragic and sad backstory, which may be the most demented/twisted in the MCU (and that’s saying a lot), carried the plot (which I’ll get to in a second) of this movie as it not only gave a lot of insight into what fuels Rocket as a character, but it also provided far more depth about the greater lore of the MCU.

Director James Gunn, who wrapped up his time in the MCU with this film, brilliantly chose the High Evolutionary as the primary antagonist as his mad-scientist, crazy evolutionary, and utopian ideas for the perfect society and species (slight spoiler: he was the one who made Rocket into the cybernetic racoon we see in the Guardian movies) are a great contrast against the misfit Guardians and our own Earth.

As for Star-Lord or Quill, depending on what you like to call him, the return to him being an actual hero instead of a buffoon that can barely get out of his own way (similarly to how Marvel has destroyed Thor in the recent years) was a much-needed refresher as it made his role in this movie that much more special.

Seeing as how this could be his (and actor Chris Pratt) final appearance in the MCU, I really liked how he took charge of the Guardians when it really mattered, put his life on the line when it mattered, and the resolution of his romance storyline with Gamora was really well done.

Sure, this might have been my least favorite rendition of Gamora (Zoe Saldana is still great, I just don’t really like how her character has panned out given), but the chemistry between Quill and Gamora is still there and how their story ended (given this is probably the two actors’ final appearances in their, respective, role) was one of the best resolutions Gunn could have come up with these two.

Oh, and I was really happy to see…MINOR SPOILER WARNING…Ayesha, the Sovereign High Priestess, and her “son” (I think he is?) Adam Warlock return as I really liked the golden weirdness of Sovereign people from Guardian of the Galaxy 2.

I don’t want to get anymore into these characters as that would spoil their arcs and the plot as a whole, but these two (along with the High Evolutionary) were the stars of the movie for me.

Before I get into what I didn’t like, let me just also praise the visual effects, CGI animators, and set designers on what was the hands-down best-looking Marvel movie of the last two years, let alone in 2023. Marvel has really fallen short of its visual and CGI-creation excellence of years past since the end of the Infinity War saga, so I’m glad Gunn and his crew were able to reverse that trend for this extremely important movie.

Nonetheless, I couldn’t stand some of the humor of this movie.

I’m praying to the entertainment gods that James Gunn won’t bring this over-the-top, slapstick, and bordering childish humor found in abundance in this movie to the new DC saga as the humor brought me out of the moment way too many times.

Guardians already was a rather self-parodying franchise to begin with, which is perfectly fine as it wasn’t trying to be anything else, but this movie’s dark tones really clashed poorly with this over-the-top humor. And I meanly badly clashed.

And how about the plot in this film? Was it me or did this movie jump from one pointless McGuffin to another?

I don’t hate the use of MacGuffins in principle as it can be used to craft a more character-focused, character-driven story (i.e.: Casablanca, The Big Lebowski, The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring to be exact, Pulp Fiction, Saving Private Ryan, Star Wars: A New Hope to be exact, etc.), but the use of these MacGuffins as the sole thread of a movie plot is a recipe for disaster.

Thankfully, this movie had great actors, characters, visuals, and director for this story to not fall off the deep end (aka: like a certain Rise of Skywalker).

Plus, as I said in the title and intro, this movie was a little too safe for my tastes given this is the final Marvel rodeo for a lot of these Guardians actors. The movie’s dark tone was very much appreciated, but the lack of real consequence for some of these characters was a little bit disappointing.

Still, if you want to watch a (near) return to the classic Marvel we all knew and loved, then I highly recommend you go out and watch this movie. I give Guardians of the Galaxy 3 an 8.5/10.

Images Source: Featured Image: (Disney/Marvel) (Marvel Studios’ Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 | New Trailer – YouTube)

In Text Image 1: (Disney/Marvel) (Marvel Studios’ Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 | New Trailer – YouTube)

In Text Image 2: (Disney/Marvel) (Marvel Studios’ Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 | New Trailer – YouTube)

In Text Image 3: (Disney/Marvel) (Marvel Studios’ Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 | New Trailer – YouTube)