The Guardians of the Galaxy. Three.

If there’s anyone left in the MCU who actually cares about his work and wants to create something out of love and devotion, it’s James Gunn. And unfortunately Gunn is leaving the MCU for DC and taking most of his love and talent with him. Well at least there’ll be one MCU film from 2022-2023 with a decent score here at How About Notflix. It’s the end of an era folks, what is likely the last really good MCU film has come and gone.

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 is the finale of the Guardians trilogy, wrapping up stories and bringing character arcs to their natural conclusions. It’s also the last time several actors and characters will be part of the MCU including Gamora (Zoe Saldaña), Drax (Dave Bautista), and one or two other people likely. With Chris Hemsworth, Jeremy Renner, Scarlett Johansson, and possibly Chris Pratt looking to make their exit soon, the MCU will definitely be a very different place. Assuming the films are even financially viable by the end of Phase 5.

Guardians of the Galaxy takes place after the holiday special when suddenly Knowhere is attacked by Adam Warlock (Will Poulter). They fight him off but not before Adam grievously injures Rocket (Bradley Cooper) leaving the Guardians at a loss on how to treat him. Realizing that they can’t heal him without disabling a kill-switch device in his chest, the Guardians go out on a big heist to find where Rocket was created and steal the code.

Everyone is back including Star Lord (Chris Pratt), Gamora (Zoe Saldaña), Drax (Dave Bautista), Nebula (Karen Gillan), Mantis (Pom Klementieff), Groot (Vin Diesel), among others. This is of course a James Gunn movie so the bad guy villain role of High Evolutionary is played by Chukwudi Iwuji. The High Evolutionary is great because it’s the first time in a while that Marvel hasn’t given a half-ass sympathy story for the villain. The High Evolutionary is a narcissist with a god complex and is just plain evil, experimenting on living creatures to create his idea of perfection and laying waste to countless lives in that pursuit. And Jennifer Holland has a role because she’s banging the director.

Maria Bakalova is also back as Cosmo. It’s nice seeing characters get their ending, even Kraglin (Sean Gunn) gets his time to shine in the sun.

As much as I know it won’t happen, Guardians 3 should be a learning tool for other MCU directors/writers. The film acts as sort of a passing-of-the-torch film without falling into the MCU trap of shitting on its legacy characters or severely altering their personalities to make them less competent so their female replacements can shine without any actual hardship. Unlike Ant Man, the 3D effects are actually really well done and serve a point in the plot with characters interacting with said sets, rather than being the equivalent of a fancy Windows background scene.

And I suppose most importantly; it lets the characters dwell on emotions. There is a lot of emotion going on in this film and Gunn once again isn’t afraid of letting people be sad for a little while and shut the hell up. And the film does have its silly moments, with jokes and charming banter between characters, they’re still the Guardians we all love. But there’s no Whedonspeak to really talk about, and Gunn clearly isn’t afraid of letting the audience feel the feels in the cockles of their hearts over characters he and they clearly care about.

The biggest character in this film is Rocket, who we finally learn through a series of flashbacks about his origin story. It does go to show how much good writing and direction can cover for what might otherwise be a bad trope. Where Dr. Strange did character origin exposition horribly, that being the creatively bankrupt Memory Store, it makes more sense that the mortally wounded Rocket would be having his life flash before his eyes. People groaned at Solo explaining everything from Han’s name to the stripe on his pants, but how Rocket got his name feels less cringeworthy.

And of course this is a James Gunn film so the soundtrack is spot on, the costumes are fantastic, and the fight sequences are engaging and enjoyable. There’s a lot more I can say about this movie, but just go watch it. It’s hard to believe this is only the second Phase 5 film, it feels like just yesterday I was groaning at Ant Man. Will The Marvels be any good? I’m going to guess no. There’s still Deadpool3 to look forward to in 2024.

Rating: A