The Guardians of the Galaxy end off with a big bang in
the final film in Marvel’s funniest franchise about a group of space misfits.
Written and directed by James Gunn (currently, the only person to direct a
complete trilogy through Marvel without dragging it to the ground), “Vol 3”
picks up sometime after what transpired in “Avengers: Endgame.”
The Guardians have lived on Knowhere, the galactic base
built inside the head of a dead Celestial. Sarah Marrs said in her review, “The
visuals of Vol. 3 are constantly amazing, ranging from beautiful to whimsical
to deeply gross—lots of body horror in this one, folks—and I’m happy to report,
the VFX crunch problems that have plagued other Marvel productions recently are
not in evidence here.” This film looks amazing.
However, the Guardians themselves are down in the dumps.
Peter Quill, reprised by Chris Pratt, has fallen into depression, drinking to
deal with the loss of Gamora. Rocket, reprised by Bradley Cooper, has also
sunken, tormented by his past. Nebula (Karen Gillian) can’t keep it together,
and Drax (Dave Bautista), Mantis (Pom Klementieff), and Groot (Vin Diesel) are
still the same. Marrs commented, “Well, Groot’s more grown up, he seems to be a
teen or young adult with a big time focus on working out—Swole Groot is here. The
Groot effects are so good, at times he appears to be a person in a suit, not a
work of motion capture and CG.”
Meanwhile, Gamora has teamed up with the Ravagers, the
space pirates led by Sylvester Stallone. She does not remember her time with
the Guardians, and she would really like Quill to stop bringing up the past that
she doesn’t share with him. Zoe Saldaña is still good as Gamora, but she isn’t
given much to do other than yell and be snippy with Quill. Similarly, Karen
Gillan doesn’t have a lot to do but scowl, but then, Nebula’s character arc was
resolved in “Avengers: Endgame” and Gunn thankfully does not mess around with
it. However, that does mean the emotional weight of “Vol 3” is on Quill and Rocket
and they really make you feel the sad moments.
Marrs noted, “The aggressive 1990s soundtrack does a
lot of heavy tonal lifting to keep things from becoming a complete drag, and
there is a steady undercurrent of comic relief, largely provided by new
characters Cosmo the Spacedog (voiced exceedingly charmingly by Maria Bakalova)
and Adam Warlock (Will Poulter), a space himbo man-baby engineered to be a
perfect specimen of the golden Sovereign people. Poulter is hilarious as
self-absorbed Adam, though fanboys will undoubtedly complain about rendering an
all-powerful character as comic relief in the film. Still, he’s very funny, and
a much-needed counterbalance to Quill’s anger and Rocket’s…whole deal.”
There’s a lot going on. “Vol 3” needs the break given
by Cosmo and Adam, and to a lesser level Drax and Mantis, but this film is too
long with a lot going on, a common problem with Marvel sequels. Marrs
rebuttals, “It isn’t messy, everything hangs together, and the plot is a
relatively straightforward “get X to save Y” setup, but you cannot help but
feel the story bursting at the seams, trying to do justice to so many
characters at the conclusion of their arcs, while introducing new characters to
move forward in the larger MCU. Stuffing Rocket’s entire backstory into one
film is also a little overwhelming, not only because of the graphic cruelty and
animal body horror on display, but also because it’s just SO much going on in a
film that is already very busy.”
However, that’s the summary of the film, Rocket is
finally knowing where he came from, which has to do with a villain called the
High Evolutionary. Chukwudi Iwuji is really outstanding as the High
Evolutionary, really one of the most hateful villains ever in the MCU. Marrs
credited, “He’s not the biggest or the grandest or the most ambitious, but he
is unquestionably the evilest, and clocks high on the “someone punt this jerk
into the sun already” meter. It is emotionally cathartic to root against him,
the sign of a great screen villain.” The actual, instinctive enjoyment of
watching Rocket come for him is one of the most satisfying emotional resolutions
int the MCU.
There is so much to like about “Vol 3,” so many individual
moments of great humor and wonder and enjoyment (a corridor fight with all of
the Guardians is extremely fun and cool) and the emotional moments involving
Quill and Rocket all work out well, but it is just so much. Is this the best
MCU film ever? No, that’s still “Avengers: Endgame,” but “Vol. 3” is undoubtedly
one of the most ruthless MCU films, in both scope and narrative format. This
really works, and Rocket makes a great protagonist (even if he does spend half
the film unconscious and having flashbacks) but how this film plays will depend
on other’s tastes and how much they like the “Guardians of the Galaxy” trilogy,
overall. If you already feel antsy with long films, “Vol 3.” Will just make you
even more antsy. However, if you’re a fan interested in seeing how everything
resolves, “Vol. 3” is a very satisfying conclusion to this chapter of outer space
comedy in the MCU.
Spoiler alert: the mid-credits scene shows the new
Guardians, which includes Rocket, Groot, Kraglin (Sean Gunn), Cosmo, Adam,
Phyla (Kal Zen), and Adam’s pet Blurp (Dane DiLiegro), take on a new mission.
I know that the last few MCU movies have lost people’s
interest, but this one is actually better than the last few we have gotten. I
thought that I wasn’t going to like this one as much, but once I got into it, I
started to really love and get into it. The emotions are high, it is still very
humanizing, the humor still works, and all of characters are still engaging and
relatable. The action scenes we got were great and I think this will get people
back into the MCU. Check this out on Disney+ if you didn’t see this in
theaters. I’ll say this is another one of my favorite comic book films.
Thank you for joining in on my review tonight. Stay
tuned this Friday for the continuation of “Child Abuse Awareness Month.”
No comments:
Post a Comment