Summer Hybrid: Film Review of Guardians of the Galaxy Volume Three
Attribution: Fernando de Sousa from Melbourne, Australia, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
By Geoff Carter
The summer blockbuster season of 2023 has seen some surprising box office hits as well as some equally stunning flops. Barbie and Oppenheimer—released on the same date and fondly nicknamed Barbenheimer—along with the latest Spiderman installment and The Mario Brothers Movie, have almost single-handedly revived the movie theater market, but other huge productions like Indiana Jones: The Dial of Destiny and The Flash have been big disappointments. Of course, success should not be measured only by the color of money, but—after all, this is America. After all, Wes Anderson’s beautifully quirky Asteroid City barely broke even.
Besides being insanely popular, Barbenheimer has been critically acclaimed—Barbie for its sly and scathing satirical take on gender; Oppenheimer for its intense story of a man caught between the gears of history, ambition, and conscience, and both have been praised for their opulent productions.
Indiana Jones: The Dial of Destiny and The Flash have had surprisingly weak showings. One was part of a superhero universe that has been doing very well over the past few years—or the past decade. The other is a about one of the greatest screen legends of all times: an action hero archeologist. Perhaps the viewing public has had enough of superheroes, extended gunfights, car chases and multiple explosions? And there is the age thing—Harrison Ford, who plays Jones, is eighty-one years old. Those arguments might seem logical except for the success of yet another entry in the superverse: The Guardians of the Galaxy: Volume 3.
Guardians of the Galaxy Volume Three has fights, explosions, daring escapes, incredible CGI, a dastardly villain, and all the other ingredients of a superhero action flick—as did The Flash and Jones. Yet Guardians was much more popular at the box office. Was it star power? Probably not. Everybody had that. Visual effects? Nope. Everybody had that, too. The truth is that the third installment of Guardians of the Galaxy is a seamlessly wrought hybrid of action, humor, pathos, and novelty. (Where else can you find a telepathic Russian astronaut who happens to be a dog?) It is absorbing, exciting, and a ton of fun. And most importantly, it does not seem to take itself too seriously.
The film opens at the Guardians headquarters on Knowhere when Adam (Will Poulter), a warrior from the Sovereign people, attacks and attempts to kill the Guardians for the crime of stealing from his people. Before being driven off, he mortally wounds Rocket (Bradley Cooper), one of the Guardians who is a genetically and robotically altered raccoon. While attempting to save his life, the other guardians discover there has been a kill switch embedded in rocket by the High Evolutionary (Chukwudi Iwuji), the scientist who originally altered Rocket.
As he lies comatose, Rocket remembers his past, being experimented on by the High Evolutionary in his quest to create a “perfect’ world called Counter-Earth. Rocket befriends some other experimental subjects in Batch 89, including the otter Lylla (Linda Cardellini), a walrus Teef (Asim Chadhry), and a rabbit Floor (Mikaela Hoover). Enraged upon discovering that Rocket’s intelligence has surpassed his own, the High Evolutionary decides to exterminate the entire batch. Rocket attempts to escape with his friends, but only he—after attacking the High Evolutionary—escapes.
Meanwhile, determined to save their friend, the Guardians Quill (Chris Pratt), Mantis (Pom Klementieff), Nebula (Karen Gillan), Dax the Destroyer (Dave Batista), and Gamora (Zoe Saldana), travel to Ogocorp, the High Evolutionary’s company, in order to find the kill switch but discover—after a few obligatory battle scenes—that the file has been moved. They go to Counter-Earth to find the code but discover that the High Evolutionary, dissatisfied with his creation, decides to destroy Counter-Earth and start over—which he does. He attempts to escape on his spaceship Arete but is stopped by the Guardians. Quill and Groot (Vin Diesel) retrieve the code, escape from Arete, disable Rocket’s kill switch, and return to Arete, where Nebula, Drax, and Mantis have discovered a large group of genetically altered children.
The Guardians reunite to vanquish the High Evolutionary, who has gone mad. During the final melee, Rocket discovers scores of experimental animals and begins to free them, but is confronted and attacked by the High Evolutionary, but with the help of the other Guardians, subdues him. With the help of Cosmo (Maria Bakalova), the telepathic space dog, they help the children escape to Knowhere.
After the threat to the universe is vanquished, the Guardians regroup. Some go on their own personal quests, others remain on Knowhere.
On the surface, this synopsis reads like a more or less typical superhero space epic action film, and it is all that. But somehow director and veteran screenwriter James Gunn has transcended the genre. Other Marvel Universe films like Thor and Iron Man have just as much action, CGI effects, and comic relief, but they just don’t have the same sort of flat-out charm as the Guardians franchise.
Part of it is the writing. Along with Thor: Ragnarok by Taiki Waititi, Guardians of the Galaxy is able to stretch the narrative and transcend the expectations of a typical garden-variety Marvel Universe piece. Both Gunn and Waititi are gifted screenwriters, and it shows in these two films. Besides constructing a cohesive and compelling narrative containing a myriad of characters and channeling past connections, Gunn—through his screenplay and direction—creates a camaraderie among the Guardians that is just not evident with the Avengers. It might be the chemistry between the actors or the snappy dialogue or the characters themselves, but there is an intangible in every one of the Guardians movies that’s always hard to pin down.
Personally, as a boomer, I was enthralled by the soundtracks, especially of the first two movies. Hearing “Brandy” by Looking Glass, a 1970s AM radio staple, just killed me. And then Cat Stevens’ “Father and Son” at the end of the second installment was perfect. Gunn’s literary device of a cassette tape given to Quill by his dying mother as the raison d’etre for the music is masterful. It not only provides a link to the past for our hero, but also for audience members who remember the original comic books.
I am admittedly not a fan of the superhero genre. It’s been done and overdone, and, with the recent box office disappointments of The Flash and others, the idea has been floated that maybe the market has been oversaturated and is suffering from audience fatigue.
Yet Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 3 and Spider-Man—Across the Spider-Verse are doing quite well, and this is testament to the elements of cinema that transcend story or genre or audience expectations. Of course. explosions, gunfights (violence in general), and romance will always sell (see Indiana Jones: Dial of Destiny), but the sometimes indefinable intangibles that create the audience film connection transcend the story, making the characters and their world—no matter how foreign or distant—relatable.
Chris Pratt’s Quill is a good guy, a little larcenous, a little sentimental, but fun. His rivalry with the irascible Rocket and adorably dumb Drax is funny and touching. They are very much like brothers. Groot, a sentient vegetable, is always a surprise. Sisters Gamora and Nebula, while dealing with their daddy issues, are fascinating to watch as they grapple with their own bent moralities.
The rest of their universe, including the Ravagers, the Sovereign, Howard the Duck, and all the other inhabitants are merely window-dressing for the friends—the family—known as the Guardians of the Galaxy.