Film Review: Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 3

There is a spoiler in the first paragraph, although it won't really spoil it for you...

It is a known fact that I'm not a fan of the first two films and that I really don't rate Vol 2 very highly at all, so my expectations were always going to be low going in to this and when I discovered no one dies I sort of got a little annoyed. I don't know why, I just thought we might get some actual on screen MCU death - but I knew before I watched it that doesn't happen, so...

Fuck.

Fuck fuck fuck.

What a cracking film GotG3 is. It's probably the best of the three, but it's probably not the most enjoyable, because this is a bowing out a little too much heart and a story that will make you very angry. I have to admit to feeling very concerned when I found out about one of the main themes of the film, because I felt that it was most definitely not the subject for a superhero film that has many younger followers.

However, let's get some things out of the way first before we get on to the plot. The High Evolutionary is a proper villain. Forget all this Kang the Wankeror nonsense, here's a villain who isn't interested in destroying half the universe or taking control of it, he's interested in being God and creating the perfect lifeforms even if that means destroying everything that went before. He is also responsible for Rocket, but our plucky little racoon is something of a freak and does things the other 'experiments' don't do; he thinks outside the box and he comes to conclusions his creator couldn't, which makes Rocket both expendable and extremely important - well his brain anyhow.

There's a lot of shouting in this film, a lot of confrontational episodes and a lot of love, because this is a family now, not just a team and it's hurting because while Gamora is still alive she isn't the same one Quill is so blindly in love with. There are some excellent scenes in this film with Nebula - the stunning Karen Gillan is finally given some soul and she's very much a standout character in this Guardians line-up. Dave Bautista's Drax almost steals the show with some excellent scenes and Groot said something other than I (or We) Are Groot! And when he does you'll well up, I promise you.

That's the thing, there's a lot of possible tears in this finale. It's just a really good film wrapped up in a really nasty idea that doesn't really pull its punches and proves categorically that whatever you see in trailers is guaranteed to be obfuscation, deceit and pitched to lead your thoughts astray. It does have some moments when it treads water a little, but it starts fast and doesn't really let up even when it slows down. It has an almost satisfying conclusion and watching the team hand the High Ev his arse on a plate near the end was fucking fantastic; it's what you want to happen to every bastard villain. 

It is the best and most enjoyable Marvel film I've seen since probably Infinity War and James Gunn is a huge loss for the MCU and possibly the best thing that can happen to the DCEU. I hate admitting it but, it's out there now, no going back.

So, there you have it, despite being adamant that I was not going to like Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 3, I ended up loving it. It's very sad, it's incredibly loving, it has some really funny moments and some unbelievably touching ones. The scenes with Rocket, Lyla, Floor and Teefs are heartbreaking and the only thing that spoiled it for me was [spoiler warning, but you knew the Guardians would win even if you haven't seen it] they didn't terminate the High Evolutionary as painfully and slowly as possible (but you do get to see the mess Rocket made of the cunt's face*).

*Peter Quill says 'fucking' in a MCU film; it's almost unnecessary. I've never used the C word in a Marvel review, I think it is very very necessary. 

Don't be put off by it being a Marvel film; it's the third part of almost standalone trilogy that has its own audience who are not necessarily interested or invested in other MCU films. If you've seen the first two, this is well worth dipping into again as it's the best of the three, by a country mile. If you haven't and have no interest in this, no great loss, maybe apart from your own.

This hasn't changed how I feel about the MCU, but it has changed how I feel about the Guardians of the Galaxy.

9/10