Amanda Glam

If you know Amanda, and by now you should, you know that I don’t particularly care for superhero movies. I tend to abandon a series after the first movie when things get too explosiony. For example, the first Iron Man is smart, funny and suspenseful, with a great villain (Jeff Bridges) and relatively few explosions. Iron Man 2 is noisier and if I recall correctly, has an excessive number of robots. The first couple of Batmans (Batmen?) gave us Michael Keaton and next-level villains in Jack Nicholson and Michelle Pfeiffer. But now they are probably looked on as quaint and adorable. “Isn’t it cute how so few civilizations are destroyed?”

I basically go to Marvel and DC Universe movies for three reasons: 1) Someone I love wants to see the movie, 2) I recently dragged said someone to a movie they didn’t want to see or, 3) There’s nothing else I want to see. When I do end up at an Avengers movie or the 10th Spiderman film, because I’ve inevitably missed a few in the series, I end up very confused and ruin my loved ones’ filmgoing experience. Then I ask questions like “Didn’t he die in the first movie?” “What do you mean they’re brothers?” and “When did she become evil?”

Imagine my surprise when I actually enjoyed 2014’s Guardians of the Galaxy. The characters were charming and likable, the music, courtesy of the main character’s Walkman, was fun and familiar and major kudos for casting Glenn Close as the leader of the Universe. I gave it four stars and voluntarily saw Guardians Vol. 2 in 2017 and also awarded that movie four stars.

When Guardians Vol. 3 came out, I was ready. I’d seen both movies and I was totally caught up. Uh, not so fast.

“There’s something you need to know,” said my Marvel-savvy daughter, Emma. “One of the characters died in Avengers: Infinity War. Well, not really, but mostly. Then the rest of them came back in Avengers: End Game and they left in their spaceship to go somewhere else with Thor.”

Great, so apparently seeing the first two Guardians movies did not guarantee I would be able to follow the third one. But, apparently the Guardians people know that because the characters spend a lot of time “reviewing” their past, telling us who is related to who and who is sad and who is boss. So even if you don’t have an Emma at home, you’ll get caught up.

The leader of the Guardians is Peter Quill (Chris Pratt) who is not in top form as he recovers from all that Avengers nonsense and the “death” of his girlfriend Gamora (Zoe Saldana). Meanwhile his adorable ragtag gang of intergalactic defenders holds down the spaceship until a warlock comes in and injures Rocket (voiced by Bradley Cooper), everyone’s favorite super-smart raccoon. Why would anyone hurt an adorable raccoon? Apparently, our villain du jour, The High Evolutionary (Chukwu Iwuji) tortures animals for a reason which, spoiler alert, may not sit well with more sensitive viewers.

We see in flashbacks that Rocket was torn from his raccoon home and tossed in a cell where he becomes close to his fellow mutated animals, who are all incredibly sweet. Meanwhile the non-raccoon Guardians risk everything to save Rocket and that involves plenty of fun banter, especially between giant Drax (Dave Bautista) and adorable Mantis (Pom Klementieff). We also have tough and testy Nebula (Karen Gillan), Groot the tree (voice of Vin Diesel) and Guardian turned Ravager/pirate Gomora who doesn’t remember anyone or anything about the Guardians because, again, she is not dead, just a different version of herself.

The relationship of these characters is the best part of the Guardians movies and it’s the reason I’ve managed to see all three. I could do without the many, many creatures, most of which are made of some kind of goo and don’t seem to serve any purpose. I also got very confused about what ship everyone was on and why some of the sub-villains were actually there. But I get confused at every Marvel movie.

Writer/director James Gunn has helmed all three of the Guardians movies and he clearly has an affection for the characters and a keen sense of how to tug on viewers’ emotions before blowing things up. He also delivers plenty of laughs. Is Guardians Vol. 3 too long? Yes. Is it overblown? Yes, but aren’t all Marvel movies? But Guardians made me laugh, yes and nearly cry. (Did I mention the sweet mutant animals?) Assuming there will be a Vol. 4, and there’s no reason not too, I’ll probably be back.

Guardians of The Galaxy Vol. 3: three and a half stars out of five.