Review: Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 3

 A send off that this team deserves.

Let’s talk Guardians of The Galaxy Vol. 3. The final chapter of the James Gunn Guardian’s films is a masterful way to end a trilogy, being full of heart, humor, and space guns! There are quite a few different little threads for them to finish up, but I think they’re tied up reasonably well. Let’s get to the final adventure of these rapscallions.

 

The movie opens with a massive of baby raccoons in a cage. A mysterious man walks up to the cage, opens the door and grabs the only baby racoon that didn’t have enough sense to huddle back with the others. We jump forward to the present, where it’s revealed that baby raccoon is indeed Rocket. The Guardians are continuing their work restoring Knowhere from the Holiday Special. He’s listening to Radiohead’s “I’m a Creep,” as he goes around checking on everyone. Drax and Mantis are doing some painting, Nebula and Groot are hanging up their Guardians of the Galaxy sign, and Cosmo and Kraglin are fighting over something. Rocket enters he bar area where he finds a very drunk Peter Quill. It seems he’s relapsed from the happy high he was on at the end of the Holiday Special, where he learned that Mantis is his half-sister. He sees Rocket has his Zune and is irate. He yells at Rocket to keep his grimy Raccoon hands off his stuff. Rocket grabs a drink, saying he’s not a damn Raccoon before Peter passes out on the ground. Rocket flags down Nebula and the crew gathers as they take a passed out Peter to his room to sleep it off. Nebula tucks him in and turns the lights out for him.

 

Rocket asks Nebula what she plans to do with Peter, and they fight over who has the least emotional damage to handle that. Cosmo the space dog shows up Kraglin by hitting targets with his arrow better than he can, and Kraglin being mean and saying Cosmo is a bad dog. Cosmo, like I assume any dog that has ever heard that phrase, is furious and demands he take it back. This is going to be kind of her whole thing this movie. The crew gathers and try to discuss what to do about Peter. They don’t settle on a solution, unfortunately.

 

We cut to the space just outside of Knowhere where a man of gold is flying through the void towards it. Rocket heads up to his own room to get some sleep, looking at a keycard of some kind just before taking off his shirt to wind down, when a bright light barrels into his room and knocks him clear across the area. This alien is clearly a Sovereign. Remember the Sovereign? They were the golden aliens that the Guardians helped in Vol 2 at the start but ended up swearing an oath of everlasting vengeance against them after Rocket stole some of their batteries. A huge brawl takes places across Knowhere as the Guardians try to stop the Sovereign from taking Rocket. Nebula tries to shoot him with a cannon but is knocked aside, Groot wraps him in vines but the Sovereign flies off with him, slamming him around Knowhere until he breaks Groot’s head off. Kraglin tries to hit him with the arrow but it bounces off his skin. He finds Rocket as he’s about to ready a cannon to shoot him and gets blasted. He breaks Mantis’ arm and almost attacks Rocket again, but is distracted by Peter’s Element Gun shots and Drax throwing him outside, saying to pick on someone his own size. While Drax fights, Nebula pulls herself back together and Peter and Mantis rush to get Rocket a medpack to help him recover from his gun shot wounds. Nebula sneaks up behind the Sovereign as he beats on Drax, stabbing him through the chest and making him drop. Peter gets a medpack on Rocket but it seems to induce a stroke rather than fix him. The Guardians recover from their various wounds as the Sovereign flies off into space again. Guess his species can handle stab wounds. They rush Rocket to the ship and their med bay.

 

Rocket seems to have a dream about his… procedure. We don’t get many details besides his fur being shaved in places to allow for the cybernetic and brain augments, being tattooed with the serial number 89P13, and injected with various chemicals. He’s thrown into a cage with several other altered animals, a female Otter, a Male walrus, and a male bunny. The otter’s body has been modified into an approximation of a bipedal shape with robotic arms, but the Walrus has wheels connected to his rump to help him move and the Bunny has had spider-like legs attached to his back. Rocket’s first words are Hurts. And my heart breaks a little. The Otter gets a cloth, tells him to not be scared and helps clean the blood off him.

 

In the present, the Guardian’s learn that Rocket has a kill-switch in his brain that is set to go off if  anything tampers with his body. The switch is on his heart. Mantis asks about Rocket’s past, wondering if they can figure anything out from there on how to save him. Peter just says that Rocket won’t talk about it. Nebula, who is plugged into him and doing most of the scanning, sees most of the tech is copywritten for a company called OrgoCorp and they have his 89P13 serial number. Nebula says he’s got maybe 48 hours. Peter tells the team to get ready, they’re going to head to OrgoCorp and save Rocket. Peter leaves Kraglin and Rocket in charge while they’re gone. Nebula says she might have a contact near OrgoCorp that can help.

 

While they fly, we get another memory of Rocket’s. He’s playing along with his other prisoners in their cell. They are playing tag or something. They all end up on the ground, laughing, the otter saying it’s good to have friends.

 

In the present, we jump to Counter-Earth, the headquarters of our villain.  Ayesha, the head of the Sovereign, is weeping over the injured Sovereign that tried to grab rocket. Her boss comes in, the High Evolutionary. He demands to know if her minion has what he wants, but she says no. She blames the High Evolutionary for releasing the “Warlock” from his maturation pod early. When the boy, Adam, complains about his chest wound, High Evolutionary uses his own gravity powers to slam him against the wall and torture him until Ayesha begs him to stop. He orders them to get 89P13 back, NOW, and storms off. He asks one of his attendents, Theel, how 89P13 could still be alive after all these years, Theel saying he was always clever. The High Evolutionary wants Rocket specifically for that cleverness, he wants to examine Rocket’s brain. Theel asks if it’s wise to leave this up to the Sovereign and the High Evolutionary says they’re a backup plan as he knows where the Guardians are going.

 

We cut to the Orgoscope, headquarters of OrgoCorp, a giant organic planet. It’s just as horrifying as it sounds. Nebula is scanning the area and sees that there are three shields protecting the Orgoscope. Peter prepares the ship to penetrate the shield, lamenting the fact his drunkenness is what lead to Rocket getting hurt. Mantis and Drax try to get him to cheer up. After lamenting the deaths in his life, his mom, Yandu, Gamora 1.0, while Mantis reminds him his grandpa might still be alive. Peter is dismissive of the idea, as he remembers a hard man and isn’t interested in reconnecting with him even if he’s still alive. This causes a mild panic in Mantis when she learns humans can die at 50. They punch through another shield and Peter sets the third shield. They head to the bridge, just before the ship shorts out and they get boarded. It’s a Ravagers fleet lead by Sylvester Stallone… I mean Stakar Ogord. They Ravagers board via a lizard guy’s sling ring portals. Nebula stops a fight from breaking out by saying they have an appointment… with Gamora.

 

Stakar gives the group OrgoCorp uniforms, saying they’ll need them to get through the base. The Guardians get into their uniforms while dealing with the weirdness that Gamora is alive but much meaner than they remember. Stakar says that OrgoCorp has some of the most important Genetic IPs in the galaxy in their system. They need to get in, grab the code and get out.

 

Groot goes to check on Rocket and we get another memory. At some point, the High Evolutionary began tutoring Rocket. He impresses the High Evolutionary by solving complex equations. Outside the ship, they see Counter-Earth. It’s a planet that the High Evolutionary is preparing for his experiments. Rocket, or P13 as the High Evolutionary called him then, likes the blue sky and seeing rockets fly by and the music that the High Evolutionary is playing. He wants to turn what things are and turn them into what they should be, his words. He takes Rocket to see something, the little Raccoon grabbing something before following. We learn that the High Evolutionary is working on trying to create the perfect lifeform and society. He says that Rocket is part of Batch 89, but Batch 90 will be animals he puts though rapid, controlled evolution that he guides in moments. To demonstrate, they stick a turtle in the chamber and mutate it into a humanoid form. The thing screams at Rocket and tries to attack him. The High Evolutionary says this is the one flaw, for some reason every animal they put through the process gets extremely angry. High Evolutionary has Theel to kill it. Rocket points to a part of the machine, saying that the filters are suppressing glycosylated salts and are causing the build up of the chemical that are making the animal-people violent. His observation clearly blows all their minds.

 

Back in the present, the Guardians take off in color coordinated suits for the Orgoscope. They land on it and make for the hatch. While they cut into the station, Peter hits the blue communication button and tries to talk to Gamora. She’s really not interested in learning about her other self, and it’s clear that Peter has tried this tactic before without success. Then the others point out that they can hear all of this because Blue is open communication, not closed line to blue suit. After a comedy bit about which buttons connect to which suits, they slice into the station and slide inside. The main station gets an alert, and the security team calls Master Karja to check it out. Oh, hey, it’s Nathan Fillion. The team has just enough time to stow their suits before Karja and his team arrive. Peter plays it off, saying that they’re a maintenance team that just happened to be in the area when a Neutro Quark punched a hole in the station. While Peter and Karja bond over having stupid teammates, Mantis notices their spacesuits floating out in space. Turns out the bin they used was the decontamination bin and it jettisoned the suits. Shoot. They’ll need to find another way out.

 

They split up, Mantis and Drax to try to find a way to get Groot to fly the ship in for an extraction while Nebula, Gamora and Peter find the data to save Rocket. While walking, Peter bumps into a guy that we know as Theel. Shoot. Mantis and Drax enter the lobby of the building, Mantis making a security guard fall in love with Drax to get them through. While they search, we hear a message about OrgoCorp, how it was founded by the High Evolutionary 300 years ago. Unfortunately, security gets a look at Mantis and Drax’s faces, recognizes them from a report they got earlier and call in their troops.

 

Peter’s team make it to the records area. Peter goes to seduce Ura the record keeper, but Gamora doesn’t have time for this and comes in and threatens her with a gun. They get Ura to show them the records area and the species tag for Rocket. While Ura works, Peter and Gamora fight about their non-existent relationship. There’s a funny moment when Gamora says that the other her sounds more like Nebula than her and Peter and Nebula have a weird moment. They get the file, a slimy ball thing as a security alert goes off. Mantis and Drax are surrounded by guards in the lobby as guards surround Peter and co. Drax and Mantis start throwing guards around, while Gamora holds Ura hostage. Gamora says to kill an alien that looks like a carrot to show they mean business. Peter says no, and that past Gamora is so mean. Nebula points out she was always like that and yet Nebula was always the bad guy. Nebula radios Groot to get their ship, the Bowie into position. On an awkward elevator ride down, Peter gives Ura a super summarized version of Gamora and his relationship, Nebula saying that he skimmed over some key details but that’s the gist. They leave the elevator and Peter and Gamora head for the security hub while Nebula goes to help Mantis and Drax.

 

Drax takes a shot from Karja, badly injuring him. He tells Mantis to run but she doesn’t listen.  Nebula gets shot running to them. Peter begs Ura to give him access to the security system so he can give an impassioned speech and try to get things to calm down. Ura lets him in and Peter says he was lying to get access to their system. He then has all the guards’ jets to go off and make them fly around in circles. Peter heads out, telling Gamora that Ura was totally into him. Groot crash lands and they head out.

 

Another flashback and Rocket is laying in his cage with his friends. They are imaging what the new world will be like. The Walrus says he’s been thinking, about nothing in particular but thinking. The otter says that she’s been thinking about names. Her designation 89Q12 isn’t much of a name. She dubs herself Lylla, the Walrus names himself Teefs, and the rabbit says he’s Floor. Rocket names himself and says that he’ll build them a rocket and they’ll all fly off together forever and beautiful sky. They all laugh as they talk about their names.

 

Stop breaking my heart, James Gunn!

 

The Guardians watch the video in the orb. It’s a video of the procedure Rocket went through to become Rocket. They find out that the passkey was gone, 1 million characters long, and it was deleted by Theel. They realize that he works for the High Evolutionary and how he’s worshiped as a God in some parts of the universe. They realize the computer on Theel’s head has the code, so they’re going to rip it out and save him. Peter rallies the crew to head out and save Rocket, Gamora wants to be dropped off. Peter starts talking about his Gamora again, setting this Gamora off. She throws him into a wall and asks what’s so wrong with him that he needs her to be someone else. Nebula tells her to back off, Rocket’s family and she’s not risking him to make her life more convenient. Gamora says screw all of them as she heads out.

 

Karja grabbed a Ravager from earlier and brough him in for questioning. Ayesha tells Adam to show the Ravager they mean business, and he incinerates him. Whoops. Adam says they can interrogate his pet thing because he’s dumb. Thankfully for them, Gamora radios the Ravager and requests a pickup. She sends them to her coordinates because she’s dumb for this scene, I guess.

 

While flying Peter listens to sad music while wearing a new Guardian’s uniform. The rest of the crew put them on too. Mantis sends Drax to talk to Peter, to say exactly what she said, as no one listens to her. Drax gives him a speech about life being a pond, that he spent his life leaping from lily pad to lily pad and that maybe he needs to learn to swim. He then ruins it by going off script because Drax. They get an alert as Rocket’s vitals are flatlining.

 

He has another flashback to when an irate High Evolutionary came to Rocket’s cage. He grabs Rocket and takes him to see another set of animals be hyper evolved and asks how he knew about the proteins. The High Evolutionary seems to be having a nervous breakdown at the thought that Rocket knew something that he didn’t. He reveals that the procedure works now, and because of that, he doesn’t need Rocket and batch 89 anymore. He calls Rocket a “Medley of mistakes that we could learn from and be applied to the creatures that truly matter.”  He orders batch 89 incinerated tomorrow, but that he’ll have Rocket’s brain removed from his body first for additional study.

 

In the present, Nebula tells Peter that they don’t have long just as they arrive on Counter-Earth. It’s weirdly close to what Earth was like circa 1950-60. They land in the middle of suburb populated by the High Evolutionary’s Humanimals, highly evolved humanoid animals. Diplomatic relations hit a snag almost immediately when Drax throws a ball back at a child too hard and knocks her down. A riot almost breaks out but Nebula orders Groot to go Full Kaiju to scare them off. Peter goes to talk to a Bat-lady that got hurt in the initial scuffle and offers to help her fix her scraps in exchange for help. I’m amazed she was able to get all that, as the Humanimals don’t speak Galactic Basic or have a translator or whatever handwave the Guardians settled on to how every species speaks English in space.

 

Adam and Ayesha fly in, Adam petting the creature he took from  the dead Ravager. He says he’ll train him in the ways of the Sovereign. They reach the planet and prepare to land.

 

The Guardians are brough into the Bat’s house and do their best to communicate despite the language barrier, Nebula and Mantis fighting, and Drax insisting he should be able to laydown completely on the couch. They’re able to explain enough to her to figure out that people like Theel are at a large pyramid nearby, which is the High Evolutionary’s, base. Peter, Groot and Nebula take the Bat Lady’s car to drive to it, Peter ordering Drax and Mantis to stay back and watch Gamora and Rocket. He also gives Groot his Elemental Guns and tells him he knows what to do with them. They drive off, sort of Peter has no idea how to drive stick, as Gamora watches from the cockpit. We take a few minutes with Gamora. She wanders the base, talks to the comatose Rocket, saying that he must be a very loyal pet for them to do all of this for him. She looks through Peter’s old backpack full of 80s stuff, his photo of his mom and grandpa. At the same time, we see Peter and co driving through town and seeing the Humanimals have a crime ridden city filled with drugs and violence. Oh no.

 

We cut to the High Evolutionary examining one of his latest experiments, the “Star Children.” Theel comes to talk to him, but he ignores Theel for a few minutes as he lists off the Star Children’s specs. The one he’s watching has been running around in a circle for nearly 2 hours without breaking a sweat, they can survive on 30 calories a day, a week of sleep, are always happy, and can rewire complex machinery in under two minutes. He asks if she’ll be ready for the new colony. Theel finally tells him that Peter and company are there. Peter pulls up to the compound and meets the hellspawn, heavily modified humanimals covered in weapons. They let Peter and Groot in, keeping Nebula back because of her robot arm. Peter and Groot meet the High Evolutionary.

 

Another flashback and we see Rocket being brought back into his cage. Knowing that they don’t have much time, he quickly searches his cages and body for parts he hid. He assembles a skeleton key to open their cage while telling his friends what happened. He says that just down the hall are ships, he can pilot one and the four of them can fly off together just like they always said. Floor is happy while Teefs and Lilah seem more apprehensive. He opens the cage and then goes over and frees Lilah and Teefs. Lilah comes out and the two hug for the first time. She almost says “It really is good to have friends” but is shot at “have” by the High Evolutionary. He orders Rocket back in the cage as Lilah sighs out “Sky” before dying. Floor starts screaming that “Rocket, Teefts Floor go now,” as the High Evolutionary reports the escape attempt in and Rocket screams bloody murder. The High Evolutionary orders him back in the cage again, Rocket tackles him and starts slicing up his face with his claws. Guards arrive, Rocket grabs a gun and kills them. He goes to get the others only to find Teefs and Floor dead too. Rocket runs off, steals a ship and flies away… and I guess never really stops until he hooks up with the Guardians and Groot.

 

Back in the present, Drax and Mantis steal a motorcycle. Drax says he has a bad feeling about this and wants to go help. He tricks Mantis onto it and they drive off.

 

Peter sees Theel and demands to get the passkey from him. The High Evolutionary starts talking to Peter, his other assistant Vim ordering one of the hellspawn from outside (Warpig) to head out. The High Evolutionary says that he visited Earth years ago and was impressed by our culture and tech, and how he wanted to model his perfect society off of it. Like old Earth without bigotry or corruption, or so he says. Peter, already tied of this, says that he doesn’t need another speech from another whackjob whose mother didn’t love him trying to rationalize why he needs to conquer the universe. While they chat, Gamora hears the ship alarm going off. She exits the bathroom to see Warpig trying to steal Rocket. They start fighting. The High Evolutionary reveals he’s not happy with Counter-Earth’s development and that he’s going to raze the planet and start again. Warpig gets Rocket and calls it in, the pyramid starts to take off.

 

Gamora tackles Warpig to try to stop her, gets thrown off, but then Adam flies in and knocks her over. He orders his pet to stay. Warpig asks him why he’s doing this when they have the same boss. He says he needs the credit to save his civilization and tells her to backoff. Peter orders Groot to kill them all, but the High Evolutionary pins them with Gravity for a minute. When she doesn’t, he rips her head off. It’s only then that he realizes Gamora got up and ran off with Rocket. She circles around to the front of the ship just as Counter-Earth starts exploding. Adam flies off to try to save his mother but can’t get there in time and is tossed back. Nebula radios Drax to bring the ship around, only to discover they had just arrived at the pyramid. Gamora tries to take off, gets knocked back, gets up and finds a burnt and injured Adam had returned to the ship just before collapsing. Nebula radios Gamora and tells her to take off. Theel mocks Peter for walking into an obvious trap, Peter once again calls it a face off and tells Groot again to kill them all. Groot grows bigger and reveals he stored weapons within his chest cavity. They use a grenade to keep the High Evolutionary from them, Groot pulls out like 8 guns for himself and Peters two and they all start blasting.

 

Gamora gets the ship powered on and starts trying to take off. Nebula, Drax and Mantis dive at the Pyramid ship and get on the bottom most level as it takes off. Theel begs for his life, Peter gives it, but says thanking him would be premature. He runs and tackles Theel out of an open window, Groot leaping after a minute later. The High evolutionary says it’s a novel escape plan, jumping onto an exploding planet. Groot larches onto Peter and grows wings to let them glide down. Nebula and co try to get inside, believing Peter and Groot are still inside just as they shoot past them. They crash and Peter rips the computer out of Theel’s dead skull before almost getting crushed by Gamora and the ship. Drax just gets the door open by slamming into it just before they freeze to death or suffocate. Inside they find a ton of Star Children in cages, Nebula groaning “Oh piss off.” Peter and Gamora race to get the key to Rocket as the ship takes off.

 

Inside, Nebula flips out at Drax, believing Nebula and Rocket are dead because of him and that his excuse of being a big dumb idiot has worn on her last nerve. Mantis tries to defend him and Nebula yell at her too, and Mantis yells back at her. Mantis says that Drax has sadness but he’s the only one of the group that doesn’t hate himself. Drax asks if she thinks he’s stupid, she says yes but then makes him forget. They start freeing the kids as Nebula tries to reach Peter and Groot.

 

Peter and Nebula start trying to get the passkey into Rocket’s killswitch. As they do, he mentally enters a white room and sees Liliah, Teefs and Floor. The key is uploading but Gamora says that it’s uploading too slowly. He apologizes for failing them. She forgives him, saying that the sky is beautiful and forever. He asks if he can fly with them too, she says yes. Rocket starts to flatline, but Peter won’t let him go. He pulls the wires out and tries to give him compressions. Rocket goes to follow his friends, Liliah stops him and says not yet and that he still has a purpose. He asks for what, saying they’re just experiments made by a freak to be thrown away. She says there are the hands that made us, and the hands that guide the hands. They nuzzle, she calls him her beloved raccoon and tells him that the story has been his all along, he just didn’t know it yet. He has just enough time to deny being a raccoon before being thrown back to his body.  The passkey goes through and they slap a medpack on him to fix his chest. He gets up and Peter and Groot hug him. Groot entangling them in vines to make it tighter. He asks where Nebula is. Peter prepares to tell him Nebula is dead on the planet, but Rocket says that her code is on the comm. They reach Nebula and get their stories lined up. The High Evolutionary busts in and orders the Star Children back in their cages. He gets the communicator and tells Peter to bring Rocket to him or he’ll kill them.

 

We cut to Knowhere where Cosmo, Kraglin and several others are playing cards. Cosmo is still upset about being called a bad dog and from everyone else reaction she’s been complaining about it since the main crew left. Peter radios Kraglin and orders him to bring Knowhere to a set of coordinates.

 

We returned to the High Evolutionary’s ship. He’s having a psychological breakdown, it seems, at having lost rocket again and is yelling at Vim for failing to get him back. Vim is counseling heading to the new colony site now and not fighting at all. The High Evolutionary points to two of the Star Children, saying that they can do technical wonders like rewire a carbenetrix core in under two minutes but are still practicing rote memorizations. He claims that in hundreds of years, only one experiment had the spark of true invention. He calls Rocket putrid in every way except that. He believes that his star children’s society will fail unless they can get Rocket’s brain, figure out what makes him creative, and transfer it to the Star Children or they’ll fail.

 

Nebula, Mantis and Drax are thrown in a cell. The Star Children come to watch them.  They know that Peter doesn’t know about them, and that he’ll try to get to Knowhere to save them.  They try to warn the kids to stay away from the starboard side as that’s where Peter will attack but the language barrier is too much. Nebula starts yelling at them in frustration and freaking them out. Drax calms them down by doing monkey noises and then talks to them in their language, saying he told them to stay away from the starboard side.

 

The Guardians of the Galaxy suit up to do their rescue mission. Watch the movie to see how it plays out.

 

Okay, good first. The returning cast are all great. I liked that the movie wasn’t really focused on Peter trying to get Variant Gamora to become his Gamora, but ultimately to let his Gamora go and let this new Gamora be her own person. Certain parts, like Nebula finally getting fed up with Drax and Mantis getting tired of not being listened to feels a little forced but they’re trying to wrap up their story arcs in a satisfying way, there’s gonna be some hiccups. I like how this was first and foremost Rocket’s story. We got to see his birth, how he was raised, why he was such an asshole for so long and why he fought so hard to get his friends back. They don’t say it directly, but it’s implied that Rocket and Nebula are particularly close in this film due to the five years they spent together as the only living Guardians of the Galaxy. Major props to Bradley Cooper’s voice work in this. Now onto the new cast. Will Poulter is good as Adam Warlock. It’s clear he’s supposed to be like Drax from early on. Strong, yes, but extremely dumb. He makes a ton of mistakes because he doesn’t think things through, but he’s got an earnestness to him that makes it impossible to hate him. He’s just trying to make sure his people survive.  Chuwudi Iwuji is amazing as the High Evolutionary. Brillian but sadistic, creative but cruel, this unrepentant monster is the perfect villain to encapsulate the cruelty that made Rocket Raccoon. I loved the underlying message hee, that the High Evolutionary’s plan is impossible. He wants Rocket’s brain to figure out how to genetically program creativity. But that trait isn’t something you can hard wire in. You can nurture it, you can learn to be better at it, but no amount of DNA tinkering can make an organism that intuitively knows how to make new things, to think outside the box. The High Evolutionary’s empire burned to the ground for something he could never, really, have. It’s almost sad. Oh, and I liked that everyone’s plot got wrapped up in such a way without anyone dying. I was scared every time something was going to kill a Guardian every time someone took a hard hit. But no, everyone found a spot for them to be in, be it a retirement like it seems for Drax and Nebula, a solo journey like Mantis and Peter, or a new team like Groot, Rocket and Gamora ended up on. I teared up when Groot said, I assume in Groot but we got to understand it, “I love you guys.” The effects and music are amazing, but that’s true of most of James Gunn’s work, so I’m not surprised.

 

The bad is minimal. Certain scenes like on the Orgoscope drag a little in places. Certain jokes drag on a little too long, like Mantis making that alien fall in love with Drax and such. Like I said, the Nebula finally hitting her last nerve with Drax felt extremely forced, but I can’t even be too mad at it because it’s meant to help get us to her telling Drax his real purpose isn’t to be a destroyer but a dad. Oh, and Peter almost dying because he didn’t have his super space tech, folds into an earpiece helmet for the firsts time was a tad silly. But that did lead us to the cool shot of Adam redeeming himself and saving him. If it feels like I’m really struggling to find negatives, it’s because I am. Everyone getting a hit on the High Evolutionary is a bit silly, but thematically relevant. I believe without a doubt that this was by far the best MCU movie of Phase 5.

 

So yeah, this is a great movie. It’s a touching send-off to the Guardians of the Galaxy as we knew them, a love letter to all the characters that we’ve grown to love over the years. The Guardians of the Galaxy trilogy turned a team of Marvel D-list heroes into some of the most beloved characters in modern film. This is an excellent bookend to their story, and while I’m sad we may never see some of these guys again, I’m happy it ended like this, with everyone on their own journey, a family that’s going in different directions, but not done-done. Oh, and ending it with the new team talking Earth music and closing out with Rocket playing Redbone’s “Come And Get Your Love,” like the films started was just a sweet way to end it. My hats off to you, James Gunn, this has me really excited about what you’re going to do with Superman in a few years. Have a good night, everyone. Tomorrow, Across the Spider-verse!

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