With his pal Rocket (voiced by Bradley Cooper) dying, Star-Lord (Chris Pratt) and the Guardians of the Galaxy go off in search of the only being (who’s evil, of course) who can save him.
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 goes back and forth between the present-day quest to save Rocket and the scenes of Rocket’s past, told in flashback while he’s lying on his death bed, and it makes for a choppy narrative. The scenes of Guardians breaking into spaceships and getting into skirmishes with aliens is fun, but it lacks the swagger and joy the previous films in the series had. Rocket’s scenes are downright depressing, and will pull at your heartstrings, but I wonder if they would’ve played even better if the film was told chronologically. Every time his storyline advances in a meaningful way, it cuts back to the Guardians. Rocket’s tale might’ve been a powerful standalone origin story instead of being shoehorned into a Guardians plotline that, while not bad, just seems to be on autopilot.
That said, when it works it works. Rocket’s stuff by itself is worth the price of admission. I guess writer/director James Gunn knew his time with Marvel was drawing to a close (since he went on to head DC’s movie division), so he put everything he ever wanted to do with the Guardians into this one. Because of that, the character of Adam Warlock (Will Poulter) suffers. They set him up to be the bad guy in the last one and he winds up basically being the C plotline. (Well… the D plotline. I forgot about all the stuff with Star-Lord trying to make Gamora remember she loves him.) It’s a shame too because Poulter has his moments.
Oh, and why all of a sudden are the Guardians listening to ‘90s music? The soundtracks to the first two films were full of fun ‘70s bubblegum jams. This one just features a mishmash of stuff that doesn’t even feel like it would go together all that well on a mixtape. I guess this is probably the “old man yells at cloud” part of the review because I know what you’re going to say: ‘90s rock is now considered “classic rock”, but come on.
Look, I had fun with the movie, and it was nice seeing the characters bouncing off one another once again. However, the bloated 2 ½ hour running time was a bit much. Honestly, this thing was exhausting at times and was missing some of the playfulness of the first two. Overall, I liked it. It’s entertaining, if a bit overblown.
Marvel Cinematic Universe Scorecard:
Spider-Man: No Way Home: ****
Avengers: Age of Ultron: ****
The Incredible Hulk: ****
Iron Man: ****
Thor: Ragnarok: ****
Avengers: Endgame: ****
Ant-Man and the Wasp: ****
Spider-Man: Homecoming: ****
Iron Man 3: ****
Captain America: Civil War: *** ½
Ant-Man: *** ½
Guardians of the Galaxy: *** ½
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2: *** ½
Avengers: Infinity War: *** ½
Werewolf by Night: *** ½
Black Panther: *** ½
The Avengers: ***
Captain America: The First Avenger: ***
Captain America: The Winter Soldier: ***
Thor: Love and Thunder: ***
Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness: ***
Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings: ***
Captain Marvel: ***
Spider-Man: Far from Home: ***
Thor: ***
The Marvels: ***
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3: ***
Thor: The Dark World: ***
Iron Man 2: ***
Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania: ** ½
Doctor Strange: ** ½
Black Widow: ** ½
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever: **
The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special: **
Eternals: * ½
No comments:
Post a Comment