The Guardians of the Galaxy Vol.3 is the last installment in the trilogy. The Guardians must gather one last time to save Rocket’s life.
This review contains heavy spoilers. You should watch the movie before you read it.
As the title says, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol.3 is an emotional rollercoaster. With themes like overcoming loss, the word friendship redefined and facing your past, the final movie in the trilogy is also its best.
Rocket Raccoon’s origins are revealed
The movie starts off with the Guardians of the Galaxy rebuilding Knowhere as their base when they are attacked by Adam Warlock.
Warlock however only attacked Rocket. He defended himself against the rest. And it wasn’t until Nebula stabbed him in the back that he gave up. Imagine Drax, Peter, Groot, and Nebula not doing enough damage to even wound Adam Warlock. It shows how powerful Warlock is.
The damage however was already done, Rocket was deadly wounded by Warlock’s attack and is close to death. When a medpac is used to heal Rocket’s wounds, it only worsens them. After a scan by Nebula, it is discovered that if you ever start to poke into Rocket’s body, a kill switch will be activated. As such, Rocket can’t have surgery unless the Guardians pick up a file with a passcode in order to perform the surgery safely and save Rocket’s life.
The Guardians fight for Rocket’s life
While the Guardians of the Galaxy go out to get that passcode, Rocket is having a near-death experience that starts with his past and it is one of the most emotional plots I have seen in a Marvel movie ever. This is also what makes this movie one of their best in recent years.
We see Rocket get experimented on by High Evolutionary, a bad guy from Marvel Comics who acts as God and experiments with life. Rocket’s brain gets modified by him and Rocket is the only one who actually succeeds and becomes smarter than High Evolutionary.
Rocket learns the value of friendships
Rocket makes a few friends while in captivity. Floor, a bunny. Teefs, a walrus. And Lylla, a marmot. Together they laugh, dance, and invent names to call each other. Rocket picks Rocket because he saw the sky and he made the plan to one day fly with a rocket into space with all of his friends.
When Rocket figures out a complicated formula to sustain life, High Evolutionary tells him that he no longer needs his friends and that they will all be incinerated bar Rocket’s brain. Upon hearing that, Rocket decides to break himself out and his friends. He already saw a spaceship but his little escape plan comes to an end when High Evolutionary shoots Lylla. Teefs and Floor are killed during the chaos.
An enraged Rocket attacks High Evolutionary and goes on his merry way to live the life of adventures he so wanted with his now-dead friends.
While he was on the brink of death, Rocket met his friends one more time. And Rocket asked them if he could join them to travel the universe with them. Lyla said: Yes, you can but…not now. You have one more thing to do before you come here. And she pushed him back into his body. This is when Rocket came to life and the medpac that almost cost him his life last time, now actually saves it.
And Rocket is ready to take on the High Evolutionary with his friends, no wait, I should say his family. So Groot, Gamorra, Nebula, Drax and Peter Quill.
The Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 is an emotional roller coaster
This was by far the most emotional, most original story in the Marvel Cinematic Universe I have seen in a long time. It hit me in the gut and I struggled to hold back the tears. It was that emotional. I know it is CGI that you see on the screen but Rocket and his friend’s emotions were so well done on the faces of the animals. As well as the emotions in the voice of the animals. You could just feel it!
Stop running away from your problems
Running from your problems rather than facing them was one of the themes of the movie. Rocket for instance is running from his past and High Evolutionary. Peter tries to face the loss of the original Gamorra and reconnects with his Earth family.
Rocket faces his past
Rocket would rather shoot up a bar than face what was done to him while High Evolutionary experimented on him. After his Near Death Experience, Rocket was able to come to terms with who he lost, Teefs, Floor, and Lylla.
And he also came to terms with experiments performed on him while he was defenseless and the injustice of being promised to live long and prosper only to be betrayed by the High Evolutionary who would rather see him die, bar his brain. In the final face-off, Rocket put High Evolutionary in his place. And granted him mercy rather than kill him.
Having found out that he really originates from raccoons from Earth, he tells High Evolutionary that his name is Rocket…Rocket Raccoon and comes full circle.
Peter reconnects with his grandfather
In the Guardians of the Galaxy movie, we saw Peter running away from home before getting picked up by Yondu and his Ravagers who were hired by Yondu. Peter lost his mother and had a hard time opening that final gift.
It wasn’t until his original Walkman was destroyed that he opened the final gift. And it was a mixtape with his mother’s favorite songs. After that one got destroyed, Yondu gave him a Microsoft Zune that could store up to 2000 songs.
But the biggest blow was the loss of Gamorra on Vormir during the Avengers Endgame / Infinity War saga. Peter and Gamorra were so in love and the Gamorra from the past doesn’t like him at all. Peter instead turns to alcohol in the hopes that he would forget all of this ever happened.
Over the course of the movie, when Mantis asks him why he never visited his family on Earth, Peter replied defensively by saying that the people on Earth only get to 50.
While on Counter-Earth, a mirror of the actual Earth but this one was terraformed by High Evolutionary in an attempt to create a paradise, Peter started to realize that visiting his relatives, and in particular his grandfather, would maybe be a good idea for closure.
He has been running since he was 12 years old and never looked back. While on Counter-Earth Peter realizes that he has been missing out and that maybe, they miss him as much as he misses them.
At the end of the movie when the Guardians of the Galaxy split up, Peter goes back to Earth to find his Grandfather. It was a very emotional scene and it is too bad that we never get to see Peter tell his tale of his interstellar travel with his friends. I would have loved to see the look on his Grandfather’s face.
The future of the Guardians of the Galaxy franchise
The Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 was the last one directed by James Gunn. Gunn is now head of DC Studios where he will make an attempt to interconnect all of the movies, so in essence set up a whole new universe.
Various actors have said that they won’t return to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Zoe Saldana (Gamorra) for instance has indicated that she won’t return to focus on other movie projects. Dave Bautista (Drax the Destroyer), has said that he wanted to focus on different roles.
Pom Klementieff (Mantis) and Karen Gillan (Nebula) have said that it would be weird to do it without James Gunn. And would only return if there is a good story to tell rather than making a movie for the sake of it.
Chris Pratt however would return because there is still so much to explore for his character Peter Quill. And judging by the rest of the team in the mid-credits scene that consisted of Adam Warlock, Kraglin, Phyla-Vell, Groot, and Rocket Raccoon, and the end credit scene that said that Star-Lord will return, it looks like there will be a 4th Guardians of the Galaxy movie.
What I loved about Guardians of the Galaxy Vol.3
I loved this movie! There is no reason why you shouldn’t go out and watch this movie. It is the final installment directed by James Gunn and the last time you get to see the Guardians of the Galaxy in this shape or form.
The origins of Rocket Raccoon are cry-worthy moments and the Guardians splitting up to find their own goals and new purpose in life was also cry-worthy.
There is simply nothing bad to say about this movie. I would recommend the movie to everyone!
