A One Mann’s Movies review of “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3” (2023).
After the recent duds of “Thor: Love and Thunder” and “Ant Man: Quantumania“, Marvel need a stabilising hit for the summer season. Fortunately, “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3” seems to meet that brief, being a loud, brash, funny crowd-pleaser of a movie. It’s not without its faults – with a run time of two and a half hours being one of them. But at least that time seemed to pass by pretty quickly for me.
Bob the Movie Man Rating:
Plot Summary:
We focus here on the tragic back-story of that hard-nosed raccoon Rocket, developed as a cub using genetic engineering by a villain with a God-complex: ‘The High Evolutionary’ (Chukwudi Iwuji). But in the present day, Rocket is critically injured and the only thing that can save him is for the Guardians to retrieve a secret code held in a highly fortified research lab.
Certification:
UK: 12; US: PG-13. (From the BBFC: “Moderate violence, injury detail, threat, infrequent strong language”. Some of the gory aspects of the action make this, I believe, a “high 12 bordering on 15” so parents beware. What lies behind The High Evolutionary’s slightly puckered facial skin is likely to be particularly nightmare-inducing for younger children).
Talent:
Starring: Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana, Dave Bautista, Chukwudi Iwuji, Pom Klementieff, Karen Gillan, Bradley Cooper, Vin Diesel, Elizabeth Debicki, Sean Gunn, Sylvester Stallone, Will Poulter, Maria Bakalova.
Directed by: James Gunn.
Written by: James Gunn (Based on the comic books by Dan Abnett & Andy Lanning).
Twitter Handle: #GotGVol3 .
Almost like a Suicide Squad mission, but without the rats. Daniela Melchior, in white, joins the usual gang of Nebula (Karen Gillan), Starlord (Chris Pratt) and Gamora (mk. 2!) (Zoe Saldana). (Source: Marvel Studios)
“Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3″ Review:
Positives:
- With “Guardians of the Galaxy”, you know what you’re going to get: big, bold and brash action; a movie up towards the “comedy” end of the Marvel spectrum; and a soundtrack pumping with classic tunes. And on the whole, GotG 3 delivers that. I can’t imagine the franchise’s legion of fans will be disappointed with this one.
- In terms of comedy value, it is very funny. As well as the usual one-liners and the comedy interplay between the likes of Mantis (the excellent Pom Klementieff) and Drax (Dave Bautista), there are also some new characters that delighted me. I particularly loved Cosmo the Soviet space-dog voiced – unexpectedly – by none other than Maria Bakalova of Borat and Bodies, Bodies, Bodies fame.
- Will Poulter appears here as Adam Warlock – the superhero ‘mommy’s boy’ to Elizabeth Debicki’s High Priestess Ayesha. And he’s very entertaining in the role, in a “We’re the Millers” comedic style. A scene where he goes a ‘bit too far’ with interrogation is very funny.
- The film also has the ability to be genuinely moving at particular points. The fact that you can feel some gut-wrenching emotion in relation to the experiences of a CGI-raccoon is a big credit to the special-effects guys here! You may need tissues for a few of the scenes!
- Animal lovers will love some of the messaging in this one!
Negatives:
- The action in the ‘Guardians’ films has always been pretty extreme and unbelievable, and this outing is no exception. Unfortunately, as I’ve talked about before, the lack of realistic scenarios saps all of the tension out of a film like this for me. If I don’t believe it can even remotely happen, I can’t get concerned about whether the participants will survive or not. In this film in particular there are numerous occasions where the Guardians get ‘fatal’ injuries, but then moments later (sometimes with the application of a magic McGuffin medical belt) they are back and fighting again. (Of course, with this “final” film in the series, there was always going to be the question as to which of our heroes lives and which will face a noble death. But you won’t find any spoilers here!)
- The plot doesn’t seem to stand that much scrutiny. At one point The High Evolutionary orders the death of a particular character but then later in the film the character becomes the most important thing to him than sliced bread.
- At two and a half-hours, it’s yet another Marvel bladder-tester. At least this one didn’t SEEM like a 150-minute film.
Monkeys?
It’s a Marvel film – of course there are monkeys! There’s one mid-credits scene that is good fun, and one rather random end-credit scene.
Summary Thoughts on “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3”
It’s a fun Marvel outing that will please the fans I think. And it’s certainly a more watchable Marvel movie than we’ve had of late.
By the way, on our “Flickering Dreams” podcast, recorded last night and available later today – search for “Flickering Dreams” on Youtube or your favourite podcast platform – we debated the news that this movie has been made in more than 600 different ‘versions’. But before leaping to the same conclusion that I did (you see a different movie story every time you go!), the differences relate to the ‘cut’ of the film to suit different sound, local languages, aspect ratios and screen sizes (as reported here). So don’t go again, expecting a variant Disney “Star Tours”-like experience! (Although, Disney, there have been worse ideas to get yourself to the very top of the chart of the biggest worldwide box-office of all time!)
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Trailer for “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3”
The trailer is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JqcncLPi9zw .
