‘Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3’ review: Rocket, man

People who routinely check Does the Dog Die before watching movies might struggle with Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3. The third film in the Guardians trilogy picks up after we last saw the ragtag group when they dropped Thor off at the beginning of Thor: Love and Thunder, but also functions as an origin story for Rocket the Raccoon (voiced by Bradley Cooper) with lots of flashbacks that finally explain his strange biology. And his backstory is a lot darker than you might expect, especially from this specific branch of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. 

This film is long-awaited, with Guardians of the Galaxy having come out nearly a decade ago in 2014 and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 having been released in 2017. The film’s production was stalled partially because of issues related to writer-director James Gunn; he was fired in July 2018 over some controversial tweets from years before that had resurfaced, but it was revealed in March 2019 that he had been reengaged for the project.

The Guardians are busy building a new community for themselves, in the wake of all the upheaval of years before, though Peter Quill (Chris Pratt) is in rough shape, still mourning his relationship with Gamora (Zoe Saldaña). This leaves Nebula (Karen Gillan) to try to keep both Quill and the rest of their friends in line. The relative peace is disrupted when a golden Sovereign man named Adam (Will Poulter) comes to abduct Rocket. He injures several of the Guardians, destroys much of the town, and leaves Rocket in critical condition. 

This catastrophe snaps Quill back into gear and he and the other Guardians embark on a mission to find the people who created Rocket so that they can acquire the code that will allow them to operate on him and save his life. This leads them to plenty of strange new planets and to the person who created not just Rocket, but the Sovereign people seen in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2. The High Evolutionary (Chukwudi Iwuji) is a chilling new villain, easily the most intimidating that the Guardians have faced yet (other than Thanos, at least). 

They also end up reunited with previous-timeline-Gamora, though Quill has a difficult time accepting that she’s not the same person as the woman that he was in love with. It allows for a sort of role reversal for Gamora and Nebula, with Gamora being the harsher one while Nebula is the devoted friend. Most importantly, this gives Gillan more to do than usual and she’s excellent as the real heart of the film. Pratt also arguably gives his best performance as Star Lord, despite the character still having some issues. 

All of this would be plenty for an MCU film to take on, but Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 is jam-packed with plots and characters – from returning figures like Sylvester Stallone as Stakar to new voices like Maria Bakalova as Cosmo the Spacedog. 

Much of it is spent in flashbacks to Rocket’s youth as we see how he was the result of the High Evolutionary’s experiments to build a master species. Not only are there obviously some allusions to the Nazi and white supremacist idea of a “master race” but there are even more obvious tie-ins to animal testing (including a rather grotesque-looking bunny character). In fact, I found the sight of these mutilated animals to be much more tearjerking than the actual emotional beats of the characters. 

The film centering around Rocket feels apt considering how he and Nebula have really seemed like the center of the Guardians, especially since they were the two non-blipped in Avengers: Endgame. It makes it clear that any past resentment between him and Quill truly has given way to a deep familial love. 

It’s far darker than what you would expect from a Guardians film, leading to some issues in tone as it goes back and forth between the jokey banter of Drax (Dave Bautista) and shenanigans of Groot (Vin Diesel) and this more tragic storyline. There are quite a few funny moments, but it’s also overly sappy about the power of friendship. 

Despite some tonal inconsistencies, you can feel Gunn’s overarching influence on the film – he clearly knows these characters better than anyone else. The Guardians are arguably the best in the MCU at the found family trope and that continues to be at the core of their appeal. The film’s soundtrack, put together by music supervisor Dave Jordan, is also reliably excellent (especially the opening with Rocket singing along to Radiohead’s “Creep”), as is the hair and makeup. 

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 is, in some ways, the strongest of its trilogy, but it suffers from being too much. Too many characters, too many plotlines, too long (at two and a half hours), and too depressing. When seen in IMAX, many of the admittedly-impressive visual effects also become overpowering. However, after a few previous missteps, this installment of Guardians seems to signal that the MCU is officially back on their game.  

Grade: B-

Walt Disney/Marvel Studios will release Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 3 only in theaters and in select IMAX on May 5.

Photo courtesy of Marvel Studios