Finishing off the Guardians trilogy with trademark fun adventures and hilarious characters, this third volume fits perfectly on top of its MCU sundae. I know that everyone has seen this movie already, but that only gives me room to get a bit spoilery as I discuss what I liked and didn’t like. For those of you who haven’t seen it, the movie centres around the quest to save Rocket after he is injured by Adam Warlock, the newly decanted super-soldier of the gold-skinned Sovereign (who are still pissed-off about past Guardians shenanigans perpetrated against them), when he tries to abduct the raccoon. Unfortunately, there is a device that prevents tampering with and healing Rocket, placed there by his creator/genetic-experimenter, the High Evolutionary. The Guardians team up with Gamorra (who’s now a Ravager) and heists (along with much boy-girl awkwardness) ensue.

Though I enjoyed the first and second Guardians movies, while rewatching the second volume I realized that there is actually a really long mid-section on Ego’s planet that is pretty dull. I also realized that these movies are mainly good at two types of scenes/storylines: humourous, pulse-pounding action sequences, and heartfelt (yet tongue-in-cheek) moments of found-family bonding and coming-to-terms. The “defeat the bad guy” parts relating to the larger plot kind of felt out-of-place or incidental. In this movie, though the High Evolutionary is behind everything, and he’s integral as the main villain, his vast plans don’t seem well thought-out and seem almost secondary. Even his cybernetic advisors keep urging him to make better decisions, but he is too psychotically-obsessed with Rocket to think straight (No way someone with a personality like that could have survived for centuries and done so much experimentation). That leads me to say that I didn’t love him as the villain, and even though Chukwudi Iwuji gave an intense performance, his character was pretty one-note and had too much of that Caligula-like evil and capriciousness that didn’t really fit (“Uh oh, the Guardians are messing up my plans. Might as well blow up the planet that I’ve been building for all these years!”). I can’t agree with other reviewers who said that he’s one of MCU’s best bad guys.

Throughout the movie, as Rocket lies on the sickbed, we are treated to many a flashback to his origin story as one of the High Evolutionary’s genetic experiments. We get scenes where he’s hanging out in his little animal cells with other cybernetic animals (including a walrus, a bunny, and an otter) who become his close friends. The animation of Rocket has always been pretty good, and even though I had a feeling of watching some leftovers from Disney’s “live action” Lion King film, the animal interactions were actually engaging and I felt for them and their tragic tale. Nevertheless, I was also irked by some of the logic gaps that left me with some distracting questions: Why was there only one of each cybernetic creature? Why were they kept alive in cages when the High Evolutionary considered them failures? Why could they all speak? and Why were there still a bunch of baby raccoons — presumably Rocket’s siblings — years later when the Guardians came to face off against the High Evolutionary?

One of the funnest parts was the heist sequence where the Guardians needed to steal some information from the biotech company who patented (?) the experiments on Rocket (Wait, does that make sense? Did they High Evolutionary work for that company? I thought he was hundreds of years old. How could he have been with that company, and how come the two are not connected within the movie? I’m confused.) The whole sequence was fun and hilarious, with some light-hearted Quill-Gamora banter, and a wonderful cameo from smart-mouthed Captain Mal himself, Nathan Fillion. To add to that quirkiness, the place had a squishy, bouncy aesthetic that made the whole planet/company feel like something from Rick and Morty given flesh. Mantis and Drax have been perfecting their comedic double-act for a while (including the Christmas special on Disney+) and they were so funny in these scenes as well (at least until the fighting began).

Perhaps what surprised me the most was how much Nebula added to the group, often taking the lead, as well as providing much darkly comedic relief; yet I had little interest in Gamora’s role in the movie. That Quill kept pining for her even though she was a different, time-displaced version of Gamora who had not met and fallen in love with him was borderline frustrating to watch. Thankfully she raised the topic of Groot’s one-line vocabulary (and how everyone seems to understand him) and it was actually settled in a funny, satisfying way. What disappointed me the most was how Adam Warlock (played by Will Poulter) was essentially a pointless addition to the movie and he and Sovereign Ayesha just continued to be laughable for the most part (plus I hated his weird pet). I had thought that Warlock had a very prominent role in the cosmic parts of the Marvel Universe, but this seemed like a parody of the original character.

Overall, I like this movie. It managed to tie things up pretty well (even while it seemed a bit of a jumbled mess at times — what was with that Cthulhu-cyber-Wookie monstrosity near the end?), and smooth over things that didn’t really fit (Was it not hypocritical, after saving all those animals in the High Evolutionary’s cages, for the new Guardians to plan to kill all those wild rat creatures who were coming to attack those red-skinned alien villagers?). Best of all, it kept me laughing and I enjoyed the whole movie. Is there hope for the MCU? (4 out of 5)