‘Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3’ review: Dir. James Gunn (2023)

James Gunn returns for his Marvel swansong, complete from a brief break at DC with his ‘Suicide Squad’ (best DC film so far?) with a visually if a little tired franchise closer that just about manages to say goodbye with style and grace.

It’s safe to say that James Gunn’s first two ‘Guardians’ movies were some of the best in the entire Marvel Studios collection and, following that successful swing over to rivals DC, a Vol. 3 was always going to be a tough shout to meet the quality of those first two outings. Here, Gunn fires everything at the screen, a visual-effects fest that is unrelenting from the off – an ambitious adventure that is, at its heart, possibly the most grounded of the bunch.

The action kicks off back in Knowhere, now rebuilt to its former glory. Happily living life, the bunch is soon thrown into disarray when they come under fire from an unknown terror named Adam Warlock (a pumped-up Will Poulter) – flying into their homeland to wreak destruction seemingly on a mission to take out the Guardians. It looks as if his intended target is Rocket who is badly injured in the attack, left unconscious and on death’s door. When the Guardians attempt to help with medi-packs, they are forced to stop because of an apparent kill switch buried deep within the raccoon’s chest that prevents him from being revived. They soon realise that they are going to have to get themselves to the Orgosphere to get a code to override the device before Rocket succumbs to his injuries. Meanwhile, the brilliant bad guy High Revolutionary (Chukwudi Iwuji) seems intent to finish the job and get hold of him to finish an experiment from years before.

That is the crux of proceedings and two and a half hours of your expected misadventure follows with our heroes venturing across the universe to complete their mission. It’s familiar territory and Gunn plays the greatest hits bringing back all of our faves from the last couple of movies – well, those that have survived – and the more recent ‘Holiday Special’, a wonderful Christmas extra dished out at the tail end of last year. There’s Peter Quill/ Star Lord (Chris Pratt), of course, Drax the Destroyer (Dave Bautista), Groot (Vin Diesel) and Mantis (Pom Klementieff), as well as Nebula (Karen Gillian), Kraglin Obfonteri (Sean Gunn), and Cosmo the Space Dog (Maria Bakalova) and Gamora (Zoe Saldaña). However, this is very much Rocket’s story, and there is a lot of flashbacks to where he came from in the universe. A LOT. In fact, there’s almost too much exoposition that it does become a little tiresome.

At two and a half hours, it feels long though Gunn offers a lot of bang for your buck and there is always so much happening on the screen. It’s very CGI heavy (naturally), but the quality on offer seems a touch above what we’ve seen in some of the other comic book movies of late. Newcomer Chukwudi Iwuji is excellent as the chief villain, clearly enjoying his role, but Will Poulter manages to steal the show as flawed celestial being, Warlock – he literally lights/ glows up every scene he’s in.

As a stand-alone, the film just about works, but this is definitely more beneficial to followers of the Marvel phases with constant references to previous films and, of course, other movies in the universe. It’s a great send-off to perhaps the best series of films in the MCU, Gunn absolutel one of Marvel’s shining stars. As he heads across town to join DC, one can’t quite fail to contain excitement for his new chapter and next project involving one Man Of Steel. While his Marvel finale, Vol. 3, doesn’t quite capture all of the magic from the films that proceeded it, this is still a ton of fun and one of the better superhero blockbusters in recent times.

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 is now on general release.