Thoughts on Guardians of the Galaxy 3 · 3:51pm Jun 7th, 2023
Watched it back in the middle of May. Finally getting around to sharing my thoughts on it here. 
So. In a nutshell?
Glad to have seen it. Easily the best MCU movie since "No Way Home" or "Endgame".
It's kind of funny in one sense, how so much of this movie has to do with the character of Rocket Raccoon (Bradley Cooper), but it works all the same. There's some real pathos and power in the backstory that gradually unfolds for the augmented raccoon; particularly in the ultimate cruelty inflicted on him and his past friends by the High Evolutionary (Chukwudi Iwuji, playing a magnificently vile, narcissistic mad scientist). The various flashbacks that a dying Rocket has provide a lot of heart and dramatic punch for much of the movie's runtime... and also are where the movie really has some of its most no-holds-barred content. This is a movie that EARNS its PG-13 rating.
That's not to say that this movie is *just* the Rocket Raccoon special, though. Far from it. The other members of the Guardians, from Star-Lord (Chris Pratt), Nebula (Karen Gillan), Drax (Dave Bautista) and Mantis (Pom Klementieff) all have some fine material to work with in the course of the film's story: be it Peter/Star-Lord's coming to terms with the loss in his life and his desperation to save his friend no matter what; to Nebula and Mantis' own personal conflict about how they approach their work; and even Drax gets a nice reminder of his own past as a father and how that comes out in the sweetest of ways.
Gamora (Zoe Saldana) brings some nice new edge to the story. Thanks to time-travel nonsense from "Avengers Endgame" this movie gives us a version of the character who has not undergone the same developments from Guardians 1 and 2, and it is interesting to see her as the hard-edged mercenary/assassin who gradually softens, just a little, as she winds up dragged into the Guardians' mission. It may be familiar to the 2014 movie, but it is not a retread of that same plot, and for that I am grateful.
True to James Gunn's love of wild imagery (and grossout material, too) there's some truly inspired bits of mayhem in the first two acts. A particular standout to my view being the entire sequence at Orgocorp: a space station made entirely of grown biological material. It's disgusting and yet oddly fascinating to watch, and the infiltration (and inevitable dustup) that happens inside is a treat to watch.
Just as good, though sadly a lot briefer, is the planet of evolved animal people that the High Evolutionary has created - another step in many, MANY attempts at making "a perfect society". You laugh and chuckle at the absurdity of animal-headed people in what looks like classic suburban (and urban) America, and then feel horrified when you see how readily the self-proclaimed God of this place writes it all off as a failure to be cleansed.
The final battle of this movie is a lot darker (literally, it's much more subdued and with a lot less visual flair) than the previous acts, but I liked the content of it well enough. The characters and the theme of the movie - plus the Guardians and their allies' drive to be heroes and save as many lives as they can - made it all land.
If the climax may have wobbled, though, the resolution sure made up for it. It was just such a treat to see the characters get some happiness in the end, and also to see them start anew. Some of them may have gone their separate ways, but the parting was far more sweet than bitter, and after all the hell that Rocket and Peter and friends went through, you're happy to see them get to that point.
Very glad I saw this. Fine movie, and I look forward to seeing what James Gunn will bring to DC in the days ahead.
Glad you enjoyed the movie.
And yeah... holy shit, it's dark
5732237
It was a good one. I think that it *earned* that darkness, but all the same, I'm glad to have seen it.
Probably one of the darkest MCU movies in a while. And one of those that grasp bathos the best.
5732239
I've heard some people call this movie THE darkest of the MCU movies, and honestly, given everything to do with the High Evolutionary and his cruelty towards Rocket personally, I can believe it. But that darkness is pretty well earned, imo, and not there just for the sake of being there.
After all the hell that the characters go through, the sweetness of that ending is just all the more potent for it.
(And also agreed, regarding the use of bathos in this movie.)
5732240
It’s dark, but it isn’t unrelentingly and unpleasantly brutal. It does have some legitimately great jokes. And the MCU’s first F-Bomb from, of all people, Star Lord.
It's funny to think. Before 2014 the Guardians of The Galaxy were just a weird side team Marvel had that nobody outside the comic fans cared about. But now... people know the team. The aliens of Marvel. It's just crazy how this all worked out.
5732241
You said it.
And I was really impressed with Star-Lord in this movie and how far he'd come. He's still a manchild but nowhere near as buffoonish as moments from the earlier movies. (And the way he and Groot killed that one scientist who'd tortured Rocket and laughed about it? And how Quill carved the needed implant out of the guy's skull after offing him? God DAMN, that was cold as ice. Proof positive that you do not fuck with Peter Quill and his loved ones.)
5732242
When they first announced Guardians of the Galaxy and I saw who was going to direct it, I was appalled. "They're making this into a movie? And it's going to be made by the jerk who wrote those dreadful Scooby-Doo movies? Oh dear God no, this is going to be awful." And yet... I was proven wrong. And I'm glad of that.
5732243
Yeah. Peter Quill is broadly a nice man, but it would be unwise to push him on that. I’d you hurt his loved ones, I’d say “God help you”, but, Ego didn’t survive making that mistake.
Definitely a solid film, and a good end to the trilogy. And oh man, was that beatdown at the end cathartic.
5732245
Good mention there of Ego. I'm still awed by just how rapidly Peter snapped out of the blissed-out state that Ego had put him under there. And that barrage of blaster shots to the old bastard's face and body right after that.
Maybe it didn't kill him at the moment, and just pissed him off, but talk about message sent.
5732252
Plus, it couldn’t have been pleasant. Peter Quill may be a silly man who likes to joke around, but he is also fully prepared to put a blaster hole through your nearest vital organ if pressed.
5732251
You said it. After a whole movie of cruelty after cruelty, and all his pontificating about stepping in as God, seeing the High Evolutionary get beaten like a cheap drum by the whole team was just pure catharsis. And man was Rocket's parting words for him effective as well.
"You didn't want to make things perfect. You just hated things the way they are."
Like, wow. Talk about summing it all up right there.
5732255
It’s also very satisfying to have a villain who is just an absolute piece of shit whose existence serves as setup for his Villainous Breakdown.
5732255
And him talking about being a God is even funnier considering Knowhere fucking KICKED HIS SHIP'S ASS.
5732244
Hey the first Scooby Doo movie was actually decent-ish and sorta funny...... but we don't talk about Monsters Unleashed.
5732381
Yeah, no. They're both horrible.
You have a Scooby-Doo movie that depicts Scrappy pissing on Daphne, and Fred leering about getting swapped into Daphne's body because now he can look at her naked.
Who the fuck finds that funny?
5732430
To be fair. We did get the greatest Shaggy to ever Shaggy.
5732458
Matthew Lillard isn't bad, but to my view you still can't beat Casey Kasem. Or Scott Innes. Lillard won me over with his later work, but I still consider his introduction to the role in that movie to be a black mark.
(His Shaggy advises abandoning his friends to be eaten by demons. That's not Shaggy.)
5732469
I still prefer the first one over the second one alright?
5732479
Fine by me. I've argued the matter too many times with people to really want to go on this point further.
If you like the first one, all power to you. But I've never been able to see any humor or value in the live-action Scooby movies. That's all there is to it, as far as I'm concerned.
5732483
It's not that I UTTERLY LIKE IT. I'm saying compared to the second one it's better. Overall it's a crappy Scooby Doo movie.
5732490
Now THAT I agree on.