“Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3” is the 32nd film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and the final film in the “Guardians of the Galaxy” trilogy, but you will need to see “Avengers: Infinity War” (2018) and “Avengers: Endgame” (2019) to understand the plot. It is also the second movie in Phase 5 of the MCU, but it should have been the first. If you are sick of seeing Chris Pratt, don’t worry. Rocket (Bradley Cooper) is the heart of this installment. Rocket’s early life flashes before him as he hovers close to death while his friends and the Ravagers work together to try to save him. James Gunn returns to the helm as writer and director after Disney fired then rehired him and succeeds at using a blockbuster to make audience’s hearts expand to hold empathy and compassion while breaking them.
If all art falls into four categories (heaven, hell, pre-fall and post-fall), Gunn has always depicted a post-fall world showing Rocket’s origins in a cage, not the wild and with no adult raccoons in sight, innocent, hopeful and scared. The subsequent scenes are not better after Gunn shows Rocket post experiment, in pain and alone. Gunn honors Rocket’s experience without undercutting it and shows how even in this environment, Rocket can become happy. Gunn understands something about emotion and connection that most cinema, especially the MCU, does not get with its compulsion to take forever to form a group like the Avengers just to break them up as soon as they assemble again. Even in the bleakest moments, people can form instant relationships and find joy. Throughout “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3,” Gunn shows different examples of these pairings and groupings.
The experiment enables young Rocket to communicate with and befriend beings outside his species, including animals who look like Tim Burton’s imagination, cybernetic animals: Floor (Mikaela Hoover), a rabbit with metal spider appendages and a metal grimace, Teefs (Asim Chaudhry), a walrus with wheels instead of flippers and Lylla (Linda Cardellini), an otter with metal sticks for arms and hands. “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3” is one of the few movies which does not equate beauty with goodness or evil with ugliness. Despite their dystopian existence, they have the optimism and hopes of Disney animals with humble ambitions, which made me gird myself for the inevitable gut punch.
Rocket forms a sincere connection with his torturer, the High Evolutionary (Chukwudi Iwuji), his only parent figure, a mix of Doctor Moreau and a Terry Gilliam elite. Oblivious to his father figure’s pernicious nature and confusing a clutching head pat with genuine affection, Rocket tries to impress him and believes that his pain serves a purpose: to prepare him and his friends for a better place than their cages in dungeons. Rocket begins to dream of becoming a pilot and his aspirations inspire his friends to wish for more. “Someday I’m going to make great machines that fly and me and my friends are going to go flying together into the forever and beautiful sky. Lylla and Teefs and Floor and me, Rocket.”
For me the most heartbreaking mental concept depicted in movies is “Charly” (1968), being raised above one station to enjoy a life that can’t be yours and unable to return to your original state. When the High Evolutionary realizes that Rocket is a genius who has even surpassed him, he insults Rocket and his friends by calling them abominations, undeserving of anything better than a life of torture. These words create wounds more long-lasting than the physical ones. The High Evolutionary’s mind is only projecting the repulsiveness of his inner life-the way that he tortures and recreates animals is the abomination, but the animals themselves are beautiful and worthy of living a full life. Their unachieved humble ambitions and the casual, relentless cruelty of those who believe they are better than them are a vicious contrast to reflect how unfair life is. Instead of recognizing their flaws, the High Evolutionary and his followers ridicule their creations for their imperfections and continue their path of disrupting and destroying others’ lives.
Even though I did not need this backstory to empathize with Rocket, it does make me want to rewatch all his prior appearances, especially in “Avengers: Infinity War,” to appreciate how he was able to keep going after losing so much again and again and again. “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3” is about Rocket finally getting to heal those wounds and do what he could never do before when he was just becoming aware—stopping this madman. This part of the MCU has always been about healing childhood trauma.
Beyond the universal appeal of Rocket’s story, “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3” can also be a literal movie preaching against the horrors of animal abuse and speciesism, a critique of the way that human beings, including me, hurt animals and look down on them through our actions without being horrified at our sadism. Gunn is not pedantic or preachy in his approach, he just gets us invested in Rocket. Nebula (Karen Gillan) says that Rocket’s suffering was worse than what Thanos did to her. The empathy does not end with Rocket. Gunn elevates Cosmo (Slate, voice Maria Bakalova), a telekinetic dog, to the hero of the final act and emphasizes her valid concerns about the defamation of her character. Blurp, an alien animal and Ravager pet, humanizes a former enemy. Blurp’s sorrow over the loss of his person is given more screentime than his person. Gunn centers animal inner life in a way that most movies do not.
I have always loved Rocket above all the other characters, and I was unprepared for how much I would love this movie and how much it would break me as I had to keep telling myself, “It isn’t real” to not melt into a pool of sobs and wails. I am crying now just thinking of Rocket’s story. Every scene in “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3” mixes the despair and ephemeral ability to escape that sorrow through music, friendship, dancing and even arguing. Gunn knows that friends can argue without splitting up or being so awful that they cannot come back from it (take notes, filmmakers). Gunn’s story also emphasizes the importance of valuing others beyond their usefulness. We value Rocket before he exhibits his genius, but Drax (Dave Bautista) gets an eleventh-hour heroic arc. Nebula as a protector and society builder works because even as she tries to be comforting, she can be terrifying, harsh and blunt. Groot’s final line is a gut punch as we learn that the key to understanding him, and really anyone, is spending time with them. The imperfections of all the characters do not make them less worthy of belonging to society. Even Gamora as a Ravager was a fitting end to her character as opposed to just resuming Gamora 1.0’s original storyline, but if I had to cut the runtime, she would end up on the chopping block.
While our heroes live in grey, drab, metallic, recycled and grimy spaces, the bad guys and their servants have a brighter, cleaner, primary colorful, organic appearance in the Orgocorp’s headquarters. Gunn found the perfect role for Nathan Fillion. Unlike “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania” (2023), every new creation and idea felt fresh and inventive. Martin Scorsese may be a great filmmaker, but his films never made me cry or stayed with me days later. If MCU can keep this up, maybe they’re back. Maybe the DCEU is going to finally deliver some quality movies.
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God, “the hands that guide the hands [that made us],” is the closest theological moment that resonated with me. The High Evolutionary acts as if he is God, but if there is a God, He cannot stop evil, but He can thwart it through the inexplicable. Rocket is special. Everyone is. And it cannot be scientifically engineered, recaptured, or created at will. The High Evolutionary’s instinct is to destroy, steal and control it instead of appreciating and letting it exist.