Review: The Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 Brings the Dog Days to an End
Clockwise from top left: Sean Gunn as Kraglin, Pom Klementieff as Mantis, Chris Pratt as Star-Lord, Dave Bautista as Drax the Destroyer, Karen Gillan as Nebula, Zoe Saldana as Gamora, Bradley Cooper as Rocket, Vin Diesel as Baby Groot and Maria Bakolova as Cosmo. Poster courtesy of Marvel Studios.
The hands that guide this film are overflowing with a confidence they didn’t yet have the day Star-Lord first danced to his Walkman in the twilight of Morag. It’s been six years since Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (2017), and like the crew of “A-holes” that fought its way through the death of half the universe, a time-travel epic built on their trauma, and a Christmas-special-as-prologue, James Gunn has put in the work to level up. He returned to his R-rated roots with The Suicide Squad (2021) and Peacemaker (2022), the latter of which pairs with Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (2017) and this newest entry to create a definitive trilogy of work on his major themes: searching for your people, reckoning with the sins of our fathers and with the intersection of evil, divinity, and free-will. Next, he’ll be reminding us what it’s like to believe a man can fly, but on his way out the door, James Gunn and his Guardians help the recently unsteady Marvel Studios back to sure footing with their best film in several years, and potentially one of the best in the superhero genre.
The Guardians films have always straddled a seesaw of tones, with great comedy and drama wrought from the found family’s argumentative dynamic, never shying away from the darkness that lies at the center of their various neurosis. The same guy that saved the galaxy with dance doomed it when the loss of yet another loved one drove him to the most ill-timed freakout in history. The target of his anger, a Titan who had committed genocide and patricide, just as Quill’s own father had. After the events of Avengers: Endgame (2019), critics asked how filmmakers would threaten the audience without losing them to boredom or abstraction. Chukwudi Iwuji’s High Evolutionary provides the answer by confronting The Guardians of the Galaxy and the audience with a monumental performance that reeks of real-world evil in a way that previous adversaries haven’t. There’s no off-screen zealous creed or maniacal logic here, the High Evolutionary is what Ronin, Ego, and Thanos were, distilled into its purest form: a man who thinks he is the arbiter of divine right, justifying his control over other’s world and bodies. History is full of evil men who wield the authority of God to justify mundane acts of evil, and here the Guardians meet a man who’s been at it for centuries and been rewarded for it. Rare is the villain as thrilling to hate as he is, yet all it takes is to hold a mirror to the stench.
In the face of a greater evil, the Guardians have become a greater good than they have before. They’re heroes on the top of their game, veterans of intergalactic conflict who’ve honed their weapons and compassion alike. If you liked them before, you’ll love them now. If you already loved them, you’ll find them inspiring. The family dynamic is there in word and gesture, motivating great drama, comedy, and even action choreography. It’s strange to say after the overwhelming technical excellence of John Wick Chapter 4 (2023), but Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 (2023) has the most satisfying action of the year, built around characters who fight as a genuinely cohesive unit. Standouts are Will Poulter’s Adam Warlock, a Superman-esque figure whose fights feel fresh, and Vin Diesel’s Baby Groot, finally getting new business to do after several years as a staid figure in fight sequences. Also catching attention is Maria Bakolova’s Cosmo, a fun factor in action and killer addition to the comedy of the film.
As with all of Gunn’s films, darkness is contrasted with bright laughter. There are sight gags that will have film-Twitter lurkers pointing like DeCaprio, punchlines set up back when Obama was still in office, and Drax (Dave Bautista) and Mantis (Pom Klementieff) elevating their buddy routine to a roaring new height. Between hamming it up and answering her role as the group empath, Pom gives one of the best performances in the film alongside Chukwudi Iwuji and Bradley Cooper, who owns this story totally.
Bradley Cooper’s Rocket is one of the most successful innovations of this silver-screen edition of Marvel Comics and one particularly personal to James Gunn. Once temporarily let go from Marvel Studios after detractors retaliated against his politics with long-disowned offensive Tweets, Gunn has “grown up” in the public eye, earning his acclaim by showing his self-improvement and evaluation largely through the journey of Rocket. Full of self-loathing and desperate for a loving family, Rocket has bettered himself as Gunn has, joining arm-in-arm with found family to face his own flaws and origin.
All of the Guardians reflect this journey, Gamora and Nebula most melodramatically, Rocket most personally, and Peter Quill most overtly. That’s why audiences have long connected with The Guardians. The act of finding and healing with your people, facing yourself and origins, that’s what growing up is, the kind of growing up that never ends, embodied here in dance and 30-ft myth. Music plays such a key part in the Guardians films because music never ends, it just keeps evolving, keeps growing up. The rock music of the ’80s becomes the grunge of the ’90s and the pop of the 2000s. Peter and Gamora’s slow dance grew into romance, music into love, love into family. But growing up means moving on, so DJ Gunn’s queuing up one last dance. I’d get moving if I were you, it’s a great one.
Final Score: 5/5
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 debuts exclusively in theaters May 4th, 2023
Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u3V5KDHRQvk
