Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3

When Rocket Raccoon is gravely injured, Peter Quill, still dealing with the loss of Gamora, must rally his fraying team, sending them headlong into Rocket’s tortured past at the hands of the evil genetic engineer, The High Evolutionary.

I loved it.

Big surprise, right?

I’m a fan of James Gunn. I’m a fan of the Guardians of the Galaxy films. I’m a fan of the MCU. And I’m a fan of Marvel Comics (and of comics in general). So yeah, I guess, it’s probably fair to say that I was always going to be an easy sell for this one. I’ll like it, because I like all of them. Sure, some of the MCU requires that I give them a little bit more rope (sometimes a lot more) than some folks may be willing to give, but with the Guardians films, that’s never really seemed like an issue.

This isn’t something that I (like many others) expected to happen.

In 2014, before the first Guardians film was even released, I (like many others) assumed that it would be the MCU’s first flop (it wasn’t, that wouldn’t happen for nearly another ten years). At the time, Gunn was a little untested. He was a pretty good, but mostly horror-focused, screenwriter and a nascent director, but he hailed from the Troma Film scene (Sgt. Kabukiman, Tromeo and Juliet, Poultrygeist: Night of the Chicken Dead). Troma can be fun end of independent film, but it’s definitely low budget in general, and pretty much revels in that fact. It also seems to foster a kind of performative Edge-Lord Nerd oneupmanship, a kind of slavish devotion to being raunchy/gory/gross specifically to “offend” people, and that shit can get pretty tedious pretty quickly. Was this who Gunn was too? At the time, at least, it wasn’t easy to say either way. Slither was a good time. He wrote the Scooby-doo scripts too, which were not bad, and I loved his Dawn of the Dead script. Still, even though his other film Super showed some superhero chops, he seemed like a pretty random, and pretty iffy bet, one that was coming out of left-field.

Also, the film’s characters were all being pulled from a comic book that was even less popular than Iron Man had been before his movie.

It was a book with a long history, one that had gone through many changes in characterization, style, rooster, and focus over the decades, featuring not just a talking raccoon named after a Beatles song, but a talking tree that only ever said one phrase. It was weird and obscure, a mish-mash of cast-offs and D-listers, all with backstories that were either too convoluted, too dumb, or too vague. While it could be a somewhat popular title, at times, over the years, it was always more of a “niche” kind of popular, the kind where the guy behind the counter at the comic book store, the one with the questionable taste, really fucking loved, but regardless of that nuance, popular with nerds doesn’t mean it will translate well to normal people…

But still, the film worked.

It not only worked, but the Guardians of the Galaxy franchise might be the best Space Opera trilogy since the original Star Wars.

It might even be better?

A nerd argument for another day…

The film worked because of that strange alchemy of a perfect cast working perfectly together. It worked because it was created through the efforts of an incredible amount of talented people, as well as a handful of studio executives, all of who were somehow able to pull their heads out of their asses long enough to realize that the best thing they can ever do for the movies, is to sign the checks, keep their idiot tech-bro mouths shut, and go back to their offices and enjoy their mountains of cocaine.

But it mainly worked because James Gunn is not only a talented writer who understands characters, he also understands comics. He speaks the language, he knows the history, but most importantly, he’s not slavishly devoted to that history. Instead, he uses it to create something new and fresh, all while still keeping the story firmly rooted in the source material. Gunn is a writer who is not only capable of being funny, surprisingly clever, and truly gory-gross when called for, he can also bring some impressive action beats to the screen, and all in a story crafted around surprisingly human characters, especially the very inhuman ones. That’s why Peacemaker and The Suicide Squad are the best that the DC Cinematic Universe has to offer too, because there’s a distinct voice behind these films, one driven by real talent, who also happens to actually love the source material, and you just don’t find that in most modern superhero movies.

And that’s why these films worked so well.

As proof… the main bad guy in this film is an old character called The High Evolutionary, but between such villains as Dr. Doom, Kang the Conqueror, Galactus the World Devourer, and Mr. Sinister, even the Dinosaur-man and Super-Geneticist Sauron (pictured below)… he’s a character who is supposed to be really powerful, but mostly feelks like an oft-forgotten also-ran driven by murky motivations, someone who overlaps too much with a lot of the more generally better-conceived villains, like the ones I mentioned.

The High Evolutionary, whose real name is Herbert Edgar Wyndham, first appeared in 1966 as a Thor villain, and was created (like a lot of these characters) by Stan “The Man” Lee and Jack “The King” Kirby. He’s an evil super-geneticist who has tinkered with his own genetics so much, that at this point he and his plethora of powers can go toe-to-toe with just about anyone, but still, he just doesn’t get much respect.

That might be due to the fact that his helmet seems to have a handle on top…

Look at that butt though, in that side view…? That’s not just tweaked genes, people, that’s a man who spends some time at the squat rack, and it shows.

Herbert also has some Dr. Moreau tendencies, and has created a bunch of animal-human hybrids called New Men, who fancy themselves as knights. It’s pretty weird. Even weirder, as a character, The High Evolutionary is possibly most widely known for creating Bova, the Cow-woman who was the nanny to X-Men villain Magneto’s twin children, Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch. Bova took care of them as babies while they were living on Wundagore Mountain, in the country of East Transia…

But I seem to have wandered away from my point…

My point is… In this film, the High Evolutionary is somehow turned into a villain that makes sense, a character with flaws and understandable motivations, a very inhuman, but very human character. That’s really impressive. To be able to inject real life into a 2-D character that’s always otherwise been mostly cackle and pontification?

That’s skill and talent.

As even more proof of this… Peter’s heartbreak over the end of his and Gamora’s relationship actually makes Chris Pratt somewhat likable again, at least for the duration of the movie, which is maybe the most impressive feat of all.

So, while this is mostly Rocket’s film, this story of a vengeful and petty God lashing out in a fit of jealousy and rage, it’s also about a family standing together. Echoing the end of the first film, this film is about how, despite changes and new lives, those who truly matter to each other will alway come together for each other, and through that, the franchise is brought full circle. It’s really fantastic to see.

Also, the anguished cry that Rocket gives during one flashback to his terrible past is a testament to Bradley Cooper’s impressive voice acting.

Great stuff.

Guardians of the Galaxy, vol. 3 is a film about growing up, and facing your past. It’s about endings and closure. It’s yet another film about found families, but specifically, it’s about that inevitable time when those families must go their separate ways. It’s a film that, fittingly, is about the moment when one era ends and a new one begins, and all with the message to not mourn the loss, but to celebrate the memories. It’s a fitting end to an iconic franchise.

Simply put, Guardians of the Galaxy is not just one of the best MCU franchises, but one of the best examples of the genre, and Vol. 3 is a fantastic capper to the trilogy.

I’m sad to see it go, but I don’t mourn the loss, I celebrate the memories.