Guardians of the Galaxy Vol.3

 

 

     Writer/director James Gunn sends the Guardians on their way with an epic final volume. If you are a fan of the series, you won't be disappointed.

     All the stars are back for one grand adventure to save the life of Rocket Raccoon, who, in this volume, gets a lengthy back story that figures predominantly into the plot. Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana, Dave Bautista, Karen Gillan, Pom Klementieff, Vin Diesel (as the voice of Groot) and Bradley Cooper (as the voice of Rocket) and all back and still at the top of their game. Ms. Saldana as Gamora is a standout. Also returning are Sean Gunn, Elizabeth Debicki, Will Poulter (as Adam Warlock), Maria Bakalova (the voice of Cosmo the dog) and unnecessarily Sylvester Stallone (as a Ravenger captain who just seems to be out of place). The new villain is the High Evolutionary, a well-known Marvel universe villain, played here by Chukwudi Iwuji.

    The sets and visuals are amazing as usual as is all the CGI work. In Rocket's flashbacks, we find him as a young raccoon being experimented on, along with other animals, by the High Evolutionary. It's to Mr. Gunn's credit that we find ourselves getting emotional over tortured CGI animals. Some of these scenes are actually hard to watch.

    As with the previous Guardian films, the soundtrack is terrific, all the songs coming from Peter's iPad playlist. The film runs a bit long, but Mr. Gunn seems determined to throw everything into this finale. Something tells me though we haven't seen the last of most of these characters as they all still exist within the Marvel universe.

    The film looks great on the big screen and is a lot of escapist fun. It is certainly the best of the recent Marvel film releases.