Guardians of the galaxy 3 review

Guardians of the Galaxy 3 review.

Growing up mixed race, as was only beginning to be the term, in the 80s was its own difficulties. The vying and pulling with an insistence at some points to ‘pick a team’ when it was to one group benefit and being dismissed as some half being when it wasn’t. The notion of being ‘neither here nor there’ and lacking cultural capital 

It was easy to say 

“There ain’t no me but me.”

But that’s a lie. I had a good home. A constant, almost frustratingly constant presence with my parents, an older brother, an auntie and uncle who looked after neighbourhood kids after school and to this day, my sister-in-law, a nephew and niece and a cousin who lives with them all. It’s hardly Batman. At the time, though, it made me stand out amongst many similar backgrounds. I was lucky and considered myself more fortunate every passing year as I have encountered more folks who proved to me what I felt I was; I was not a unicorn.

So when I heard Rocket would be the heart of this film i was very excited.

Guardians 3 does bring so many thematic strings together and is an excellent movie for an hour and a half. Sadly that is interspaced with about an hour of padding that drags the shining moments to such a marvel by numbers and, given the outpouring of recent phenomena, does give a certain finality to this incarnation but does not give a bang or a blast for the next one.

For example, Nebula evolves from antagonist to frenemy to full guardian, and even Drax  grows metaphorically and in analogies. The Draxis antics of Drax and Mantis still hold the best chemistry from the holiday special, and Mantis becomes an agent of agency rather than naivety. The film is excellent to see.

The problem is mainly structural. Very early on, a good 20-30 minutes revolves around getting the thingamebob that turns out to be useless unless you get the doohickey, but we already know they need the doohickey in the first place. So thingamabob plot only exists as padding and a showcase for dayglo outfits and viscous material. While some of this can be placed in the flashback narrative of rockets origins cutting back and forth within the moments, they ultimately detract and lessen the impact of either story, making it the lesser of its parts.

Once we get into doohickey land, the film dramatically hits a gear. Rocket’s origins and his original team, as seen with Lyla, floor, and teeth, are a bizarre and compelling sense of compassionate grotesqueries. His relationship with the increasingly unhinged high evolutionary takes what could be little more than a trope set piece of an apprentice defeating a master to a real sense of rocket experiencing trauma, processing and overcoming it and eventually growing and adapting with it. Ultimately we see how Rocket was talented in his own right and moulded by the brutality.

The role of the high evolutionary, sadly, which is eloquent and charismatic, does not have much to differ from Thanos. A man with a plan for a better universe’ and gladly wiping out planets and genocide being part of his trade, it’s hard to see how this differs from the purple tyrant. However, his fixation and obsession with Rocket take on a real Ahab and Moby dick quality that reminded me a lot of my past. Rocket being naturally inventive, and his own talent and skill, despite his lack of ‘breeding’ as a hybrid rather than respected, is one to be exploited and simultaneously build contempt for. Just for being him…I hated school.

I loved learning but hated school.

By the finale, we have been on a real journey of understanding with our characters. This is not a star lord film; this is a true ensemble. And there are a lot of good jokes in this film. Saldy suffers from the same issues as Love and Thunder and throws in too many farcical elements to let the best punch lines land like they should—also, a lot of fake peril. Without giving spoilers, when you have a character called Robbie rocket pants and throw him out of a vast building to fall to his death, it’s hard to give shit because you know what. HIS ROBBIE FUCKING ROCKET PANTS!

It’s an event ending in the Guardians. It’s charming throughout. But this is a cinema trip for two and a half hours. We know you have disney plus and quantumania. It’s hard to sat.

It’s a fun ride but not the rails off abandon you want from an ending. This space trip is one to take at home.