Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 ends James Gunn’s trilogy of Marvel movies by focusing on Rocket (Bradley Cooper) and pulling at the heartstrings. Co-starring Chris Pratt, Dave Bautista, Karen Gillan, Vin Diesel, and Chukwudi Iwuji as the High Evolutionary. In theaters May 5.
It’s hard to overstate how much James Gunn has meant to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. His Guardians of the Galaxy movies are among the few MCU films that feel truly authored, with a unique aesthetic and sensibility of their own. Ryan Coogler’s Black Panther films are their only real counterpart: Both mini-franchises were allowed to claim distinct corners of the MCU, and both filmmakers were compelled to make those corners as visually distinctive as possible.
Across three movies (and a holiday special), Gunn has cashed in on his increasing clout and goodwill to take his Guardians to stranger, brighter, more colorful places. He has moved from generic cosmic threats to Oedipal monsters, and brought his beloved superheroes into thornier emotional territory, where they’re just as likely to argue about hurt feelings as they are to punch supervillains.
And now he’s saying goodbye.
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Gunn’s trilogy-capping Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 begins on a maudlin note, with Rocket (Bradley Cooper) muttering the lyrics to the acoustic version of Radiohead’s “Creep” as it plays on the Zune he borrowed from expat Earthling Peter Quill (Chris Pratt). Meanwhile, cinematographer Harry Braham takes the audience on a swooping camera tour of the new status quo. The Guardians have set up shop on Knowhere, the city inside the skull of a dead Celestial, which was first seen in 2014’s Guardians of the Galaxy. They’ve gone legit, with an office, a neon sign, and everything. But they don’t feel so legit.
Rocket, for one, seems kind of depressed. Quill is definitely depressed, regularly drinking himself into a stupor because he can’t get over the fact that Gamora (Zoe Saldaña) is not the same Gamora he fell in love with, after the time-travel hijinks of Avengers: Endgame. This new Gamora, by the way, is missing — as a version of the character plucked from 2014, she hasn’t experienced the events of the previous Guardians movies, and has no attachment to the team. (The confusing nature of this swap is the subject of a pretty good extended joke midway through the film.)
Gamora’s sister Nebula (Karen Gillan) is angry, but that’s pretty normal for her. That leaves Drax (Dave Bautista), Mantis (Pom Klementieff), and Groot (Vin Diesel) to hold down the fort. Unfortunately, no one really takes those three seriously.
The plot arrives violently in the form of Adam Warlock (Will Poulter), a very powerful, extremely petulant being who crashes onto Knowhere to abduct Rocket, and winds up mortally injuring him.
