Guardians of the Galaxy Rate and Review Guardians of the GalaXy Volume 3

[psylockolussus]

For those who attended the premiere tour and already went to advance screenings, post your review here. Spoilers in tags as always.:goodvibes:

 

[Kev4000]

Pros
Emotional Story from Rocket will hit everyone with a beating heart
I really like how deep Nebula is connected to the team
Cosmo!
Great Effects and CGI
Humor was really fine for me
Drax and Mantis got more to do than I expected

Spoiler

Im really fine with noone had to die here

Starlord using his charme, urgh I would be one of his victims

Cons
Hell, they did Will Poulter dirty. Adam and High Priest were so unnecessary in this movie..
The ending of the Guardians felt rushed and it was so obvious

Spoiler

Disney want so cut paychecks..

, the last 3 min were cringe for me
Peter and Gamora:

Spoiler

Only my feelings, but I feel sad about they didnt come back together. I ship these two really hard.

The structure with Rocket flashbacks were off sometimes. I would prefer a 15min prolog with his story in the beginning.

Overall a 8/10

 

[Link]

My rating is 8 as well. I don't know how hardcore Guardians fans will feel about it, but this is my favorite of the bunch. Two things that I found kind of grating about the earlier films, the jokes and the constant barrage of songs, were handled better this time. I still don't share Gunn's taste in music (these songs would be categorized as what, easy listening/adult rock?), but the placement of the songs was enjoyable for the most part.

This is also a significantly darker Guardians film or even an MCU film. It feels like Gunn had a ton of creative freedom and I love that. Overall Vol. 3 feels very much like its own thing, it isn't necessarily connected to any other MCU films and it's definitely not an advert for things to come. These elements I've always enjoyed about the Guardians films and Vol. 3 is no different. Rocket, Mantis, Nebula, and Cosmo are the MVPs.

I'm surprised the RT score isn't higher tbh!

 

[Filmfan93]

Just came back (UK).

By far the weakest of the Guardians films.

The Rocket stuff was good, but

Spoiler

Gunn didn't have the guts to kill him off for a payoff from all the set up.

Alternate Gamora was annoying to watch and they never did any resolution for her and Quill.

Adam Warlock was wasted and after the setup from the previous film, he's just kind of there. The High Evolutionary was a cringe villain and all he does is scream from the second half of the film onwards.

The visuals were washed out and the beautiful color palette from Vol.1 and 2 was greatly missed. It looked like every other current MCU film with that grey-ish style that missed any personality.

John Murphy's score was bland and the only memorable piece was Tyler Bates' motif from the first film, which was very rarely used. Reminded me of what Natalie Holt did with Kenobi, replacing all the great themes with generic noise, with good themes used only here and there to remind of much better composer work.

Gunn at least nailed the ending, but the film overall missed the spark that the first film (and partially the 2nd) had.

Also, this had some of the worst mid and post-credit scene in an MCU film. Complete waste of time.

6/10.

 

[oohaahcantona]

I enjoyed it, far from perfect and I thought the second half of the film was a lot better than the first, but really enjoyable and a good mix of emotional scenes among the humour as you'd expect. Humour wise though, I thought there was less than the first 2 films although that wasn't a major problem for me as there was enough going on to not force jokes in for the sake of it and it's not just repeating the same formula which would be easy to do.

I think it probably suffers from a similar thing from Deadpool in the way that it's always going to struggle with sequels to an extent, as you've lost the wow factor of the first film being so different from a lot of superhero films but still a really good film in it's own right and bar Spiderman, easily the best Marvel product since Endgame for me, although I realise that's not exactly the highest marker these days.

8/10

 

[Slick]

Just finished the Guardians of the Galaxy IMAX Trilogy marathon and watching each film was an emotional experience. This third film was darker but had everything I loved in a Guardians film. I’m most likely going to see it again Friday and I can’t wait.

Ranking so far is….
GOTG VOL 2
GOTG VOL 3
GOTG VOL 1.

but I love these films so much and this was a perfect way to start my final tour and I’ll probably see it more times after Friday.

 

[samsnee]

Just came back (UK).

By far the weakest of the Guardians films.

The Rocket stuff was good, but

Spoiler

Gunn didn't have the guts to kill him off for a payoff from all the set up.

Alternate Gamora was annoying to watch and they never did any resolution for her and Quill.

Adam Warlock was wasted and after the setup from the previous film, he's just kind of there. The High Evolutionary was a cringe villain and all he does is scream from the second half of the film onwards.

The visuals were washed out and the beautiful color palette from Vol.1 and 2 was greatly missed. It looked like every other current MCU film with that grey-ish style that missed any personality.

John Murphy's score was bland and the only memorable piece was Tyler Bates' motif from the first film, which was very rarely used. Reminded me of what Natalie Holt did with Kenobi, replacing all the great themes with generic noise, with good themes used only here and there to remind of much better composer work.

Gunn at least nailed the ending, but the film overall missed the spark that the first film (and partially the 2nd) had.

Also, this had some of the worst mid and post-credit scene in an MCU film. Complete waste of time.

6/10.

You reassured me this was worth skipping. I knew Warlock would get the short end of things as he’s barely in the marketing. He basically reminded me of Vision in Age of Ultron. An extremely overpowered character that they sideline because he could easily win against our heroes.

 

[misjuevos]

I think the first GOTG was a good introduction, but every subsequent iteration has been lacking. I really don't like how Gunn has changed the characters and some of the backstories. Mosty Quill's family in the second movie and the holiday special.

Spoiler

I just don't like how everyone is an idiot. When I heard the name Drax it used to be the destroyer, now he is just an idiot. Mantis used to be the celestial madonna. Quill had an interesting backstory when he was the son of J'son. Connecting him to ego and the eternals was not to my liking. The biggest fear I had was Adam Warlock becoming a joke, and he was in this. They have tarnished one of the best cosmic characters Marvel had. Gunn has butchered these characters.

Anyway just some initial thoughts, they might fade with time.

 

[jamesb]

saw it last night, not as good as the critics have made out. the last twenty saves the movie from being a major disappointment. Although the very end didn't make any sense for some of characters to depart like they did

 

[Primal Slayer]

It was a VERY GOOD film that was VERY dark and not really family friendly (but i don't have a family so lol whatever)

Didn't need stupid poop jokes but luckily they weren't as much.

Adam Warlock and High Priestess were WASTED beyond belief. To the point you could remove them and not change much except like 1 scene. The set up in 2 ended up being for nothing.

 

[TheVileOne]

Overall, like an 8.5 to a 9/10. On an emotional level, this was a 9.5/10 for me because my heart was breaking and I was near tears throughout parts of the film.

Will Poulter was absolutely wasted though. There's no getting around it. Like visually, physically, casting wise, everything is correct about Adam Warlock, except how he's written and directed.

Even the video game did better with Adam Warlock.

 

[legendkillin]

I enjoyed it in a weird way but I have no plans to watch it multiple times. Th pacing was rough with the edits, as I said in another post felt like high quality tv show more than a movie at times. I think grouping the Rocket stuff in one would have helped.

So much time passed from GOTG 2 to this that it seems like they changed course. Problem is Warlock was such a big setup and a known character that they couldn't just discard him and needed to include him. The only reason he was there was to

Spoiler

save Quill and it must have been why they didn't let Quill have his mask and boosting boots.

.

I would give it 7.5 to 7.75 I will remember the movie but it was fine didn't pull me in.

 

[Bats123]

A ★★★★★ review of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 (2023)

Tl;dr
Loved it so much, Gunn gets it, DC is in more than capable hands.

 

[Another_Fool]

Oof I'm sorry Adam Warlock fans.

But other than that, I very much enjoyed this one. Tone was a bit all over the place, which undercut the payoffs of some jokes, but that's fine. Gunn clearly loves his iteration of these characters and in a way that continues to endear them to me despite how much of a departure they've become from the comics.

Spoiler

I thought the resolution of a couple of the characters felt a bit abrupt. For example it felt like Mantis' reasons for leaving came out of nowhere. I wonder if there were cut scenes that built to her wanting to feel independent etc.

I think I like this one about as much as Vol. 1 but I still give the edge to the first. I'm going 8 out of 10 on this one.

Alternate Gamora was annoying to watch and they never did any resolution for her and Quill.

Spoiler

Actually they did have a resolution. It was that this Gamora will never be the one Peter knew and she has no design of being whatever Peter or the Guardians want her to be, despite her recognizing how much her alternate self meant to them. To hammer it home, we see her joy with the Ravagers at the end which tells us this Gamora's connection is with them versus the Guardians.

In fact, I loved everything they did with Gamora here, even down to the fact that she didn't join the group hug at the end. It would've been easier to just rekindle her relationship to the Guardians like her variant but Gunn went with the braver choice.

 

[TheVileOne]

I agree with Another_ Fool about Gamora. I don't get Star-Lord ditching his mask and jet boots either but whatever.

I loved the Star-Lord mask because I always found it to be his coolest feature. But these movies always find ways to keep the actors out of masks or helmets as much as possible. I would've liked it if Star-Lord had the proper mask and helmet in this film as he went into battle with the new dress blue uniforms.

Also greatly prefer Star-Lord having the Spartoi backstory, but oh well. I like how the video game did it by mixing in his actual Spartoi background, along with elements more closely resembling his movie counterpart. Made Star-Lord a bit more well-rounded.

 

[MaceB]

Hmm, well... Big take-a-way is that I liked this movie more than Volume 2.

I suspect for most people will remember this movie because of Rocket's story. It was legitimately heartfelt, and it's near impossible for you to not be affected if you watch it. However, it was just too much for me. There comes a point where it stops being a genuine emotional moment, and more like emotional manipulation. It was just too over-the-top for me.

I thought the action was fine. I thought the humor was fine. The music was fine. The actors did fine. The tempo was fine. It was an enjoyable 2 hours.

But I won't be watching it again any time soon. No one likes seeing animals get tortured.

I gave it a 6.

 

[The Caped Knight]

I got an opportunity to watch GOTG vol.3 last night.

I have very mixed emotions on this third run with this roster of Guardians. I felt that Gunn made several films in this one. Part of it was Rocket' origin, part was Quill grief over Gamora, A total wasted of Adam Warlock and the misfits attempting to be a team.

There were moments that tugged at my heart strings and I cried. There were moments I laughed.

This is one of the darkest mcu film that I wouldn't recommend for families with children to watch. I won't be taking my nefew to this one. The animal cruelty scenes were a bit much. He wouldn't like it I know this for sure.

 

[kguillou]

Hmm, well... Big take-a-way is that I liked this movie more than Volume 2.

I suspect for most people will remember this movie because of Rocket's story. It was legitimately heartfelt, and it's near impossible for you to not be affected if you watch it. However, it was just too much for me. There comes a point where it stops being a genuine emotional moment, and more like emotional manipulation. It was just too over-the-top for me.

I thought the action was fine. I thought the humor was fine. The music was fine. The actors did fine. The tempo was fine. It was an enjoyable 2 hours.

But I won't be watching it again any time soon. No one likes seeing animals get tortured.

I gave it a 6.

Thats kind of where i'm at, although I like Volume 2 markedly better than this fun. Everything in vol 3 is more or less competently done but I dont have a desire to rewatch it.

 

[Kane52630]

I agree with Drax, you should always lie down on couches no matter who's house you're in.

MY FULL REVIEW
4.5/5

 

[Iceman]

Posted this in the main thread yesterday after seeing the film (not writing another review lol):

I really loved the film! It might not give everyone everything they want from a Guardians film as it’s considerably more downbeat than the first 2 films, and while the idiot comedy is still there it doesn’t take the lead like it does in 1 and 2. 3/3 GotG films now got me emotional at at least one point. Solid trilogy for me now and the only thing I would change is toning down some of the jokes in 2.

Rocket gets a great arc here and comes across much more likeable than ever before. Gamora is more fun than she’s been for a while. I really love Nebula
and Mantis not being one and done and hanging around with the team, one adds a bit of straightforward steel and the other adds ridiculous niceness. Good to see Teen Groot matured out of the annoying **** he was. Drax is as dumb as ever. Even Quill is more sombre and likeable than before.

If I had time to watch films more than once like pre-pandemic (and less films I wanted to watch), I’d go see this again.

 

[The Caped Knight]

1. Guardians of the Galaxy ****
2. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 ***
3. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 *

 

[jamesb]

Blockbuster movies are definitely in a slump at the moment. The movie is a 7 at best. 6.5 being more realistic. How anyone could think this is 8 or above shows their lack of great movie watching experiences! This is not a great movie. And time will tell that. Each to there own though

 

[Kane52630]

How anyone could think this is 8 or above shows their lack of great movie watching experiences!

You're right, I watch 200 movies a year... I clearly don't know anything.

 

[Gothamsknight]

As someone who watches a lot of movies, while definitely having enjoyed the first 2, but wasn't overly in love with them, this was a solid 8.5/10. Great characters, great action scenes, and very very emotional.

 

[CK Spider]

Well, I watch a lot of movies every year, I'm actually a screenwriter (mostly internet and trying to get into TV/film business, tbh). I give this a 10. Just might be the MCU movie, top 5 for sure.

There's so much great stuff... the character beats, the theme of seeing one's imperfections has a strenght and not a liability, the villain, THAT fight scene. Amazing. I cried so many times at a CGI raccoon.