Guardians of the Galaxy | Vol. 3
Guardians of the Galaxy was, for me, fairly emblematic of my experience with the Marvel Cinematic Universe as a whole: something I expected to like, but ultimately ended up loving. It's not that they did everything right, but they did a lot of good and now, I'm not entirely sure where to go from here.
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 (2023) opens with our ragtag band of heroes, directionless and broken after the events of Avengers: Endgame. When one of their own is targeted, Star-Lord (Chris Pratt) has to pull his team together to save them, and the galaxy, one last time.
Directed by James Gunn, Vol. 3 continues on with its colorfully manic, at times gross, perfectly soundtracked style. It works so very well in tandem with its heroes, who were never as polished as their MCU friends. Yet, at the end of the day, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 packs a punch with its heart and a new depth, sending it across the finish line.
Despite a few mishaps along their way, Marvel generally sticks the landing when it comes to casting choices and the Guardians are no exception. With such an "out of this world" concept, unless you have actors who can truly "sell it," it'll never work. I don't mean actors who can work against a green screen (although that's presumably helpful), but those who can convey the real emotions at the heart of an "out of this world" story. In an increasingly CG landscape, that becomes crucial to grounding a story.
With such an "out of this world" concept, unless you have actors who can truly "sell it," it'll never work. I don't mean actors who can work against a green screen (although that's presumably helpful), but those who can convey the real emotions at the heart of an "out of this world" story.
Chris Pratt plays Star-Lord/Peter Quill more world-weary this time around. Pratt has the humor to land a joke, but the depth to make the pain behind it palpable. Zoe Saldana as Variant Gamora is solid as ever, bringing an emotionally distant, yet still seeking some sort of closeness air to her character. Saldana never makes it feel like a retread of Vol. 1 Gamora which would be an easy mistake with this Variant pre-Guardian version. Plus, I'll never not be amazed at VFX artists working with actors to make completely CGI characters feel real. Hats off to Bradley Cooper as Rocket (who really, truly is a raccoon).
Vol. 3 tackles a big issue with multiverse storytelling: the lack of consequences. If you can always bring in a duplicate character from another timeline, the emotional toll it takes to sacrifice a fan favorite will either cheat the story or cheat the audience. It's not that it's not worth it to explore; it's very much an intriguing idea to work through. But there's a huge potential for exploitation in cutting artistic and emotional corners and if it's not earned, it can't work.
After losing Gamora in Infinity War, a Variant Gamora from another timeline helps the Avengers in Endgame. We find her Variant here in Vol. 3 belonging to a group of Ravagers (headed by the one and only Sylvester Stallone). She pairs up with the Guardians to help them on their mission. The chemistry still exists between Peter Quill and Variant Gamora, but it's different this time. Quill struggles to accept Gamora's death when faced with her very real Variant and Variant Gamora is reluctant to entertain his attempts to return to their old family dynamic.
This subplot deals with the multiverse in an emotionally interesting way. Mantis constantly reminds Peter that Gamora is not dead, but to Peter, whatever his reality was with Gamora really is. I have to wonder, is facing a facsimile of that reality worse than facing the reality itself? How does having a reminder of what you lost compare to the loss itself?
Perhaps my one complaint with the film is the villain, The High Evolutionary, played by Chukwudi Iwuji. Iwuji does a fantastic job, eerily intimidating one moment and powerfully daunting the next. I wish that I knew more about him, that the Guardians had been working up through their trilogy to fight him. Other MCU movies have tackled new villains in each installment and it absolutely works, but for The High Evolutionary, it felt as though his actions would have such wide-reaching consequences, it'd be unlikely for us to not have heard of him before.
Admittedly, I haven't kept up a lot on Marvel lore since Endgame. After watching Black Widow (still salty that didn't happen sooner when the story was relevant), I left feeling like all my old friends were gone. It still feels that way. But here, it works. That's what they're going for. And in the end, I'm grateful to have something, someones, to miss.
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