Guardians of the Galaxy vol.3

Guardians of the Galaxy vol. 3

Writer & Director – James Gunn

2023,     United States-New Zealand-France-Canada

Stars – Chris Pratt, Chukwudi Iwuji, Bradley Cooper, Pom Klementieff, Dave Bautista, Karen Gillen, Will Poulter

 

Humorous banter, lashings of CGI and overwhelming sci-fi visuals, needle drops, down-to-earth characterisation of crazy protagonists, equal parts sentimentality and horror detail. In this final volume, with Rocket’s history being central, never has the horror/sentimental mash-up taken such precedence in‘Guardians’. The whole vivisection-animal-experiments angle veers the narrative into darker terrain than before, giving pay-off to Rocket’s reluctance to talk about his past in previous volumes. It’s like ‘Toy Story’s Sid for adults, plus eugenics and genocide, topped off with a genuinely unhinged turn by Chukwudi Iwuji as the High Evolutionary (achieving psychosis even more than scenery chewing).

 

Gunn delivers an arguably overlong final instalment without once taking the foot off the pedal, although all the oddball pathos of the Rocket flashbacks inevitably ends in an explosive CGI space-free-for-all. The rapid tonal changes might cause “emotional whiplash” but Gunn knows how to juggle. In fact, there such an Anything Goes element to Gunn’s writing that it’s entirely possible that some major characters might get killed off. Adam Warlock (Will Poulter) is arguably superfluous but inevitably setting up something else (there’s a lot of hints of that); there’s a great corridor fight feigning one-take (those are always highlights and Gunn has elsewhere hat-tipped to ‘Oldboy’); arguably too many characters, yet Gunn gives them all their due, mostly (maybe not Warlock though); excellent detail gives way to broad character arcs and declarations. 

 

And the most gratifying and unexpected needle drop for me was The Flaming Lips ‘Do You Realise?’; and there’s another outing for The The’s timeless ‘This is the Day’ (been listening to that one for nearly all my life), but Faith No More too.

 

It's a lot of fun that probably won’t win over those bored of super-hero hi-jinx, even if in space, but proves again that Gunn is one of the consistently best at this. After all, it’s the genre trend to emulate the ensemble funny banter that the first ‘Guardians’ pretty much pioneered, though few are as good (see Gunn’s ‘The Peacemaker’ series for even better, more hilarious banter). It’s all much of a muchness, and it ain’t subtle, but there’s a genuine core centred on the characters rather than just performative drama hitting the marks. Something to do with believing in the ragtag rough-and-ready group of outsiders, which he excels at, and spinning out everything from there. It’s just as scrappy, motivated, all-over-the-place and charming as its central team.