At The Movies: With Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 3, the space outlaws get a strong send-off
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(From left) Pom Klementieff as Mantis, Dave Bautista as Drax, Chris Pratt as Peter Quill/Star-Lord and Karen Gillan as Nebula in Marvel Studios' Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 3.
PHOTO: THE WALT DISNEY COMPANY
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Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 3 (PG13)
150 minutes, opens on Thursday
4 stars
The story: In the third and final film of this space fantasy franchise, the bounty hunters and scavengers known as the Guardians Of The Galaxy are resting after the events of Avengers: Endgame (2019) and Thor: Love And Thunder (2022), when they are attacked by a technologically superior force. To defeat the mysterious new enemy, the team – comprising Peter Quill/Star-Lord (Chris Pratt), Drax (Dave Bautista), Nebula (Karen Gillan), Mantis (Pom Klementieff) and Groot (voiced by Vin Diesel) – must come to grips with the origin of their raccoon-like teammate Rocket (voiced by Bradley Cooper).
Even hardcore Marvel fans are saying that the quality of superhero films peaked with Avengers: Endgame, and new releases have struggled to rise above being generic Marvel mush.
Recent Ant-Man, Thor and Doctor Strange movies feature a uniform ratio of comedic quips, battles with faceless villains followed by wholesome reunions, all of them set against giant gloopy spires and psychedelic polygons.
The Guardians franchise has never suffered from brand anonymity. One could argue that it has a leg up in the identity department because unlike do-gooders Shang-Chi and Captain Marvel, the main characters are antiheroes.
But, in this reviewer’s opinion, that has mattered less than another factor: their nastiness.
Think about the opening scene in the first Guardians movie (2014), in which Quill is introduced as a Walkman-wearing guy who, as he dances to the pop rock of Come And Get Your Love, kicks harmless rat creatures for fun. The cruelty is mildly unsettling, but that is the point. It sets up writer-director James Gunn and the franchise as outliers.
Or consider the whistle-guided Yaka Arrow, the personal missile seen in previous Guardians films and which also appears in the new one. Its violence, and the joy it brings its users, is a Gunn signature.
Other Marvel directors let the bodies of bad guys crumble or vanish tastefully. In Gunn-world, bodies continue to exist as objects, to be pierced, popped, flattened or cartoonishly yanked out of sight.
Vol. 3 retains the Gunn edge, channelled through the perfectly cast troupe of actors making up the Guardians.
Quill is an especially good Gunn vehicle. Pratt imbues him with the selfishness and vanity of an antihero, but undercuts it by being goofily mediocre. The gang keeps him around not because he is smart or powerful, but because like the audience, they find him likeable.
Without the trail of meanness blazed by Quill, Rocket and gang in 2014, moviegoers would not have had the ironic hyperviolence of Deadpool in 2016 and 2018, with a third film coming in 2024.
Hot take: This is a strong, if overlong, send-off. The gang will persist in various forms on Disney+, but for now, they will leave Marvel’s cinematic output without its most mean-spirited – and therefore uniquely interesting – franchise.
