Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3: A reminder of what made these characters so special

If there’s one ace the Marvel team still has up its sleeve, it’s an uncanny ability to round off a decade-long story arc in style.

Remember Avengers: Endgame? An ultimately flawed movie that still tugged at our heartstrings and delivered a near-perfect conclusion for a collection of characters that fans of the Marvel Cinematic Universe had come to know and love?

Well, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 isn’t quite up to those standards – but it’s as good as we could have hoped for in the grand scheme of things.

Interest has waned and standards have dropped off a cliff since the Infinity Saga drew to a close four years ago, with generic blockbusters, a startling villain problem and the bombshelling of popular characters taking centre stage.

Bearing that in mind, I won’t have been the only one unable to sleep at night as a dilemma worthy of a screenplay played out in my head – should I go and see the climactic Guardians film knowing full well that its legendary characters may well be treated with utter disdain like Thor and Wanda Maximoff were?

Ultimately, the sheer class and joy that the first two installments brought was enough to convince me that it was worth a shot. Luckily, the third proved to be a fitting finale.

It’s far from perfect, but it hits all the right notes in all the right places. The soundtrack, which has proven to be as important to the franchise at the plot itself, isn’t quite as memorable as its predecessors, but still contributes to some outstanding scenes.

The lengthy one-cut fight scene set to Beastie Boys’ No Sleep Till Brooklyn is a stand-out, while Florence + The Machine’s Dog Days Are Over is a proper eye-burner. Watching a computer-generated raccoon hit the play button on the 2000s classic shouldn’t hit as hard as it does, but the track provides the perfect backdrop for an emotional final montage.

Speaking of computer-generated raccoons – Bradley Cooper’s Rocket is given an outstanding bit of character development in this film. The pain behind his sarcastic and protective facade is finally revealed, his tough outer layer peeled back, and it serves as the true backbone for the movie.

It’s just a shame that, despite a lengthy 150 minute runtime, the rest of the crew aren’t afforded the same treatment. Peter Quill’s relationship (or lack of) with Zoe Saldana’s Gamora really should have been the centre of attention, but after the first hour or so it is effectively tossed aside in favour of more action sequences.

Not only are Quill’s attempts to re-connect with the love of his life often reduced to comedic sketches (as a number of potentially hard-hitting moments are, in typical Marvel fashion), but he also comes to accept that Gamora is “not who he wants her to be” despite a lack of any arc which suggests he could have reached that point.

Dave Bautista’s Drax, Karen Gillan’s Nebula and Pom Klementieff’s Mantis (a stand-out performer, by the way) are given snippets of meaningful progression, but a bloated cast doesn’t help their cause.

Adam Warlock is a necessary addition because of a post-credit scene at the end of Vol. 2, but reducing him to part-time comedy relief means that time is wasted on both him and his mother that could have been spent on more deserving characters.

The main antagonist mantle is instead picked up by Chukwudi Iwuji, who puts in an impressive showing as The High Evolutionary. The character himself certainly won’t go down as an MCU classic and resorts to mindless yelling on a few too many occasions, but the actor does a stellar job with what tools he has.

There are problems in Vol. 3 which are symptomatic of the MCU in general – there’s a bloated run-time; there are unnecessary plot points (Warlock getting a ‘second chance’ comes to mind); the tone is all over the place; the Guardian’s unique and individualistic outfits are ditched for bland, identical uniforms.

But at the end of the day, the film does exactly what we all hoped it would. Packed full of laugh-out-loud moments, it’s a fun watch. When it hits, it hits hard – the dark themes of animal cruelty are particularly resounding – and, as with the first two movies, the relationships between the main characters hold the screenplay together.

Most of all, it’s a fitting conclusion for a group of misfits who we have grown to love over the years. They head off on their own paths, ready to find their rightful places in the universe.

It’s time to duck back out of the MCU, but hopefully its chiefs can learn a lesson or two from Vol. 3. You don’t need a multiverse or a universe-ending catastrophe to engross your viewers – you need a small band of relatable characters who get caught up in an adventure a little bit bigger than what they bargained for.

That’s what made the Guardians such a successful risk when they first came to the big screen back in 2014, and what has made their films some of the most re-watchable the franchise has to offer. 

It’s a testament to their pulling power that many have gone to see this movie at all, and we can thank some higher power for it turning out to be an apt curtain-closer. It’s been a hell of a ride.

Rating: ★★★✩✩