Little Look: Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3
Gonna try this smaller format for films I want to share my opinion of but don’t have anything specific to talk about in terms of theme or overall topic. Spoilers for Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, and perhaps the other two as well. We’ll see.
It took me a while to actually get around to watching Guardians 3. Not out of any negative feelings about the films or the MCU, but rather a weird choice paralysis likely I’ve had for a couple of years now where I just don’t get round to any films or televisions for a while but I finally got round to it and wowzers. This is the best Guardians of the Galaxy film. No doubt. Time to end there, right? That’s probably enough and it explains my thoughts pretty clearly.
Of course not. We need to go deeper. Probably because I’m still crying about the film the day after watching it. It deserves some diving into. I’ve always been torn between the first two Guardians films as to which I prefer. Whether it comes to their funniest moments or their saddest, I’ll spend a month thinking the first is better with superior one liners from Drax and its bigger impacts with Peter’s relationship with his mother. But then I watch the second one and suddenly I am reminded of the inclusion of Mantis and the fantastic comedy that comes with her, as well as the just as big impact of Peter’s relationship with his surrogate father of Yondu. Both have this great balance that entertains you throughout the entire film whilst then punching you in the heart before you leave the cinema. In the end they are both on the same level and essentially do the same thing without tiring itself out or making the other redundant. With this third and final one in the trilogy, that’s what it makes it: A solid trilogy that has a great beginning, middle, and end. Each film provides its own emotional core and drops enough comedy throughout each to stop you from collapsing to the floor from heart ache. Though that brings me to the main topic. Guardians 3 doesn’t have as much of that comedy sprinkled throughout the film. It still has enough to keep you from the aforementioned ailment if it didn’t, but the film definitely takes a more serious tone than the other two. And, surprisingly, this is what takes it above the other two to make it the best Guardians of the Galaxy film.
Story-wise it is, again, the Guardians of the Galaxy at its best. The reduction in comedy and inclusion of Rocket’s background scenes are absolutely fantastic. Rocket is given a much needed weight behind the hints of his past in previous films and perfectly builds the villain without them seeing each other again for the majority of the film. It follows the usual Guardians formula of ‘We need something, let’s go there, oh shit something is stopping us, oh well, we’re the Guardians of the Galaxy’ which works well and has no standout issues. Whether this is a good or bad point, I’m not sure. But the film constantly has moments where I could see the film ending there and then. The ending would be fairly satisfying and make me eager for the next film. This may be due to how the film is filmed, or perhaps that I’ve been watching more television recently has infected my mind into expecting cliff hangers and having to wait a week for the next instalment. Either is possible. But I never felt the film dragged in any way and I never took a look at the time to see how long was left. The story itself closely interlocks with Rocket’s character arc and is filled with themes of hope, usefulness and uselessness, and belonging. Most of the characters go along an arc of discovering whether they are where they should be and what changes they need to make in their life in order to be where they should be. There are a few small issues I had, but most were forgivable or were so small that it amounted to nothing by the end of the film. For example, it was fairly obvious that all of Rocket’s friends were going to die within the flashbacks, especially as it adds even more weight to his already tragic background. Another example would be the hallucination — or whatever else you want to call it — when Rocket nearly dies and sees all his old friends. I think it would have been a little more impactful if we saw the outline of the old friends, but he was revived just before being able to see those friends. Maybe that’s a little too dark and the audience wouldn’t get quite as big an emotional release as that scene provides but I think generally it would work better for Rocket’s overall character. But, as I say, it is only a minor thing.
The film is absolutely gorgeous. Even without the great camerawork, and small touches with the lighting, the costumes and set design simply blow most other MCU films out of the park. There is a fantastic scene that ends up being the last fight with all the Guardians in one room and they make a wonderful fake one-shot hallway scene that works incredibly well. Everything feels unique whilst also fitting into the world they’ve set up perfectly; it all comes together to create a look for the film that works separately from the rest but then joins the other films for a collective feel. That collective feeling spreads to other areas where this trilogy of Guardians films is now the most distinctive series amongst the MCU films. This trilogy of Guardians of the Galaxy films is the only ones where I would feel fine not watching anything else MCU around it and enjoy it as a separate experience. Potentially there’s also Thor: Ragnarok but that’s a bit of an exception and it is only one film unto itself that I would watch by itself. The question is, will there be more Guardians of the Galaxy films? Knowing Marvel, certainly yes. But this is the final Guardians film from James Gunn and the final film with this set of characters that Gunn has spent growing and fleshing out in this phase of the MCU. Now he’s off to DCU I doubt we’ll see something similar in the MCU for a while — if not ever. There may be something made from the last scene with Rocket and his new Guardian teammates but I doubt it’ll be up to this standard and will likely not even be made to begin with.
The soundtrack is up to its usual standard and, like how the first two films used mostly music from the 70s and 80s respectively, we get a whole bunch of 90s songs with even a Florence + the Machine song towards the end. There’s not really much to say about the soundtrack that hasn’t been said a million times already by others. It works well, James Gunn knows how to take songs he likes and integrate them with his story and the important moments throughout the film.
So yeah, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 kills it and makes a great wrap up to James Gunn’s trilogy. Go watch it if you haven’t already, enjoy it, have a cry. The only MCU things I’m really looking forward to now are Loki Season 2, Ironheart, and the Avengers films. Maybe Deadpool 3 if that’s up to the same standard but there’s not much exciting me in the upcoming slate. And who knows what will stay in its current slot depending on the ongoing strikes.
The story’s been yours all along.
-Boad
