Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 3, written and directed by James Gunn, is the perfect end to the Guardians trilogy, and quite possibly one of the best Marvel movies. The movie itself does not tie to anything else going on with Marvel. It’s a standalone sequel to its first and second films. It really shows how good at making movies James Gunn is, balancing humor with some of the most emotional scenes in all of Marvel. And of course, the trademark of the Guardians franchise, the soundtrack. This movie’s soundtrack was pretty much the best of the three and is expertly woven into the scenes themselves. 

To start, this movie had so much heart to it. The family that is the Guardians of the Galaxy has been through a lot, and this film really shows how it has strengthened their bond. Through the extremely emotional and intense situations, they are there for each other. And while each member has their own qualities, this is not a super team designed for winning every battle with a unique set of skills. This team is a group of misfits united by their love for each other. This makes everything they go through in this film more impactful because they do it all together.

A big focus of this movie is Rocket’s origin/journey. This positions him as the main protagonist of the movie. This makes sense for Gunn to do as he has previously stated multiple times that Rocket was the character he related to the most, and they both had similar development when it came to family. Rocket’s story is absolutely heartbreaking, and contains quite possibly one of the saddest scenes I have ever seen on film. However, it works so well with the context of the rest of the movie and really helps the viewer see the plot’s full picture. After these segments of the film I can safely say that Rocket is one of my favorite marvel characters.

Young Rocket and his team of friends were almost entirely CGI in the movie. The visual effects used to accomplish this were stunning. Each character was designed well and looked so real. In terms of other effects, this film set a record for most prosthetics in a movie, with over 23,000 pieces on over 1,000 extras. This makes a lot of what could be CG practical and it contributes to the old space movie tones.

As for the humor in this one, the argument could be made pretty easily that this is the funniest of the Guardians movies (maybe even the funniest in the Marvel Universe). Dave Bautista’s (Drax) comedic timing is impeccable, and Gunns awkward sarcastic mix is played so well by everyone. There were dozens of times in this movie that the whole theater was laughing out loud. The only thing I had been worried about with this was that the comedy would take away from the heart and emotional parts of the film. I was relieved to find this was not the case and he balanced the comedy and emotion pretty evenly through the movie.

The villain of this story (called High Evolutionary) is a mad scientist obsessed with perfection. There is a discussion in the Marvel fan community on if High Evolutionary has surpassed Kang as the best MCU villain of MCU Phase Four. As a reminder, Kang was the villain of the latest Ant-Man film (“Quantumania”) and was very easily the best part of that movie, but I will say that High Evolutionary could give him a run for his money. He was absolutely terrifying and a villain that was very easy to hate, as there is no sympathy for his character; he is pure villainy.

Overall, I’m going to have to rate this movie a 4.5/5. This is one of the best superhero movies I’ve seen in a long time and I think that it’s James Gunn’s best work. If you are a fan of Marvel or just in need of a good laugh (or cry) I highly highly recommend that you go see this movie.