15. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, dir. James Gunn
In 2022, I was so disappointed with Black Panther 2, that I declared I was done with the entire MCU franchise. What should have been an easy emotional triumph turned out to be a stinking bloated corpse of a movie. In spite of that, I eventually did see more MCU movies, because ultimately I am a liar and a coward and do not have the strength of my convictions. However, when I say I do not plan to see another MCU film this time, I really mean it. I'm done. Guardians of the Galaxy 3 feels like the perfect place to be done. It is a legitimately great movie, a singular vision full of clever ideas, quality effects, even managing to translate comic book iconography into huge cinematic moments. All those are things you should not expect from Disney blockbusters these days. Spoilers: Indiana Jones 5 is not on my Top 15.
In a lot of ways, the Guardians of the Galaxy miniseries was the heart of the MCU. James Gunn rescued the franchise with his first movie. That was coming off Avengers: Age of Ultron, an awful movie, when the old quipping Joss Whedon style had become fully stale. Gunn breathed a whole new life of gonzo, B-movie energy. Marvel is still promising trying to promise more bright colorful wacky movies like Guardians of the Galaxy 1 and let me tell you, Ant-Man 3 will not scratch that itch.
In his parting movie, Disney allowed James Gunn to be even more himself, with horrible body horror nightmare characters at the central emotional core of the film. Cute little furry critters mutilated into horrors are the big tear-jerker subplot. And Gunn finds in these things are beautiful souls full of tragedy, his rivals make for a loathsome contrast. Ant-Man 3 conjures its own kind of grotesque in MODOK, an aesthetic affront (no hyperbole, maybe the single worst special effect in film history) and treats that character as a joke, not worthy of being a villain or a hero, always undercut, always to be humiliated and disdained by even the heroes. That's how you know nobody else at Marvel gets it. It is not just being weird that's compelling. Gunn finds humanity in the weird, the freaks. I love my tiny animal freak friends. I think MODOK is the worst thing the MCU has ever done, you should be fucking ashamed of yourselves for writing any character like that.
It is really impressive that Guardians of the Galaxy 3 works at all, considering the weight of the entire multiverse upon it. The romance between Star-Lord (Chris Pratt) and Gamora (Zoe Saldana) had to get fridged for a whole other (lesser) film series. So ultimately Vol. 3 solves the problem by pushing Chris Pratt out of the emotional center besides one jarring near-death scene towards the end. The protagonist role is given to Rocket (Bradley Cooper), who carries the movie despite being nearly dead for most of the running time. He's only here in the flashbacks and the really fun climax. This is ultimately a story about Rocket and a discovery his life has value, that he is worthy of living and being loved even as a mutant animal. Our superheroes need to save not just the little kidnapped adorable moppets on the space warlord's doom fortress, but all the little creatures in his zoo.
There is an incredible scene where Rocket finds a litter of baby raccoons. It is a moment where he must confront his identity straight-on as not just a genius thief quip machine, but that he's also a racoon. He scoops them all up as a protective raccoon parent would, gathering them on his back and crawling to safety. If you can watch that without crying, you're stronger (or maybe weaker) than me. At no point does Guardians of the Galaxy 3 undercut the scene with a quip as the MCU is so notorious of doing. No deflationary jokes, just the pathos of one tiny guy saving tinier guys. The genius of this series is creating absurd situations but still making them powerful and important.
Also, I'm impressed that Guardians of the Galaxy 3 works so well considering very fierce competition in that 2021 video game from Eidos-Montreal. We'll never get a sequel to that game, and probably won't get a sequel to this either.
I'm genuinely happy that Guardians of the Galaxy 3 is a good ending to a series. It feels like a group of friends on a final adventure before life inevitably pulls them apart for their next phase. Their story is over. James Gunn is off to "save" DC, and I wish him luck with that impossible task. This is obviously going to be the last Guardians of the Galaxy story, even if a post-script promises more Peter Quill. Maybe in five years Disney will get the band back together in some way, but that's reopening a loop closed brilliantly by this movie. We got three really great movies out of these characters - exactly three, not five. I'm not sure if Vol. 3 is the best one, but it has everything you've come to love of these movies. There's blaring pop music, there's wonderful worlds, there's incredible sights, and there's oddball friends saving the universe together. It ends with a blaring Florence & the Machine pop song, everybody dancing together one last time.
And that's a great place to part with the entire MCU. Break up on a good memory, not a bad one.
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