Gunn and the Guardians' Long Goodbye Is a Truly Melancholic Rollick
Back in 2014, most of us must have had the exact same reaction as Djimon Honsou’s Korath when Peter Quill (Chris Pratt) introduced himself as Star-Lord. “Who?,” the world asked collectively. Who is this “legendary outlaw”? Who is this green-skinned assassin, this talking tree and gun-toting—and also talking—raccoon? After serving up heavy hitters like Captain America, Iron-Man, and Thor, why was Disney giving us a movie with a bunch of characters nobody knew?
Turns out, James Gunn knew. He was handed third-string characters from the comics and for some reason, Gunn knew exactly what to do with them. I’m something of a comics nerd and even I didn’t know who Star-Lord was. To be fair, it’s probably because I read Guardians in the eighties and Yondu (Michael Rooker) was the only one I could recognize. These days, Star-Lord is as legendary as he claims to be and the whole world knows who the talking tree and gun-toting raccoon are. Groot (Vin Diesel) and Rocket (Bradley Cooper) are now just as iconic as Captain America and Iron-Man, largely thanks to James Gunn.
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Gunn had a plan. “I think that I knew the basic story for the third one before I knew the story for the first one,” he confessed to Esquire Philippines in a roundtable interview. “When I first went and met with Marvel, in 2011, or 2012, and they talked to me about writing this Guardians of the Galaxy and directing this film, I drove home. And I thought, I don't know, I really just don't know about this, it seems kind of like it could end up being silly, like Bugs Bunny with the Avengers, and I wasn't sure how I could ground it. And what I really care about are grounded, real characters.”
The plan was Rocket.
“I thought, well, okay, let's take a step back. I said, if there is a talking raccoon, how did that raccoon come to be? And I thought, wow, this is the saddest creature in the universe. And it started with his story, where he came from, what he was about. And to me, that was the seed of the entire franchise of films: where Rocket came from,” explained Gunn.
“So I knew basically what Rocket’s origin story was from the beginning, I knew that this series of movies was going to be about an unfolding of this character in the way that a damaged soul like his actually goes on to be something different than what he'd began as. So volume three is where it ends.”
And what an end it is. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 is James Gunn’s farewell, neatly wrapping up a trilogy that helped set the tone for the future of the MCU. Gunn was given more breadth to work his magic, “I'm really lucky that Marvel is just kind of like, ‘do your thing’. I know this has never been done before. I know you never had a dancing guy at the beginning of the movie after his mother died, (with) bands and pop songs in outer space but do it.”
Quill essentially beating the bad guy with a dance-off in the first film was a refreshing change of pace from the standard formula that Marvel still follows and audiences have grown quite weary of. Volume 3 doesn’t have a dance-off and still falls into the trap of people beating each other up—in fact, it starts with one when Adam Warlock (Will Poulter) crashes into Knowhere and starts smashing faces. As inventive and exciting as they are, the action set pieces are actually the film’s weakest and most tedious parts. It’s still a Marvel film, so grin and bear it.
The tender moments in between—Rocket’s heart-wrenching origin story under the cruel hands of the High Evolutionary (Chukwudi Iwuji), essentially Josef Mengele in outer space—make sitting through the checkbox-ticking action kind of worth it. It’s tragic, it’s heavy, and it will move you to tears, whether or not you love pets.
Gunn structured the trilogy like a family, with the first film focusing on the mother, the second on the father, and the third on the child or the self. It’s refreshing to see the focus shift away from Peter and towards Rocket, the real heart of the Guardians. It’s even more satisfying that his trauma is confronted, if not entirely resolved, through the course of the film. Peter had the spotlight through two films and a Holiday Special but he still hasn’t come to terms with the loss of his mother or Gamora (Zoe Saldana).
The fact that Peter and Mantis (Pom Klementieff) are siblings is thrown into the mix, a line from Nebula (Karen Gillan) that either flies over your head or catches you off-guard. It’s one of those story nuggets tucked away in the Disney+ slate, a revelation from the Holiday Special that made Kevin Bacon MCU canon.
Gunn is more than ready to bid the MCU adieu, now busy with laying the groundwork for Warner Bros Discovery’s new DC slate, but he makes sure we’re ready to say goodbye to the Guardians, as well. There’s some role reversal as the characters grow, with the unsmiling Nebula finding a bit of levity and the comic relief Mantis gaining some austerity. Gillan weighs in, "I mean, Nebula has been evolving so much. The first time we met her, she was this kind of bitter, twisted villain who just wanted revenge on everyone around her. And then we started to understand her and empathize with her throughout the other movies and learn a little bit more about her childhood and what that was like. It was very traumatic for her. And now that Thanos is dead, we're starting to see a new side of Nebula that's a little bit more light. And maybe there is a humor, as well.”
“Yeah, you can see that with Nebula (there’s) more comedy,” Klementieff adds, “and also something more vulnerable, which is beautiful to explore. It's just like you dig deeper into each character's qualities and all the layers of emotions. So at first Mantis was more innocent and childlike and not used to being around human beings and, or aliens. You know, she was pretty much by herself with Ego. And then she gained more and more confidence.”
There’s something deeply satisfying in the way Gunn wraps up each Guardian’s story, from Nebula evolving from killing machine to protector; with Mantis finding her independence; and even Groot managing to surprise us all at the end. The Guardians are truly a family, and the allegorical arc from mother to father to self is the perfect narrative shell to show us how everyone has grown.
And because this is a mix tape, Gunn peppers the film with stupendous tracks, opening with an acoustic version of Radiohead’s “Creep” to set the mood but also goes light with The The’s “This is the Day.” Gunn surprises with a closing track that points to growth, leaving the ‘80s and the ‘90s behind with Florence and the Machine. Even the music is a progression.
But Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 still has its hiccups, the biggest of which comes in the form of the plasma-fisted, golden-skinned Adam Warlock, who feels tacked on and unnecessary. Warlock adds nothing to the story and his almost comical treatment is a disservice to the source material. Although thematically fitting with the High Evolutionary, there is enough going on in this finale to be saddled with an all-powerful being who doesn’t get the development he deserves.
It’s also fair to say that even though I was excited to learn that Starhawk (Sylvester Stallone), one of the original Guardians from the comics I used to read, would be in the film. Gunn did the right thing by limiting him to an almost meaningless cameo. Starhawk is the leader of the Reavers, who makes an appearance to drop off Gamora, who rendezvous with the Guardians to break into an organically-grown lab. It’s a loaded cast, with Nathan Fillion and Gunn’s wife Jennifer Holland making extended cameos; Daniela Melchior, who played Ratcatcher in Gunn’s The Suicide Squad, also appears. Fil-Am Nico Santos (Crazy Rich Asians, Superstore) makes his MCU debut as the High Evolutionary’s henchman, Theel.
Though it still suffers from the same, familiar beats as other superhero films, it’s the best MCU film in a while, with a stronger emotional core than most. It doesn’t quite remedy the growing fatigue towards superhero films, but it does manage to get away with more because it leans toward space epic rather than superheroics. Gunn essentially crammed the closing chapter of his trilogy with everything and more. The result is at times bloated, and a little excessive, but when all is said and done, also ultimately satisfying.
