Last Saturday, I went to Regal Cinemas to watch the James Gunn-directed Marvel film Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3...and needless to say, who would've thought that the origin story of a talking space raccoon could be so sad?
The story of the third and final Guardians flick revolved around how Peter Quill (Chris Pratt), Gamora (Zoe Saldaña), Nebula (Karen Gillan), Drax (Dave Bautista) and company set out to save the life of Rocket the Raccoon (voiced by Bradley Cooper)—after he was mortally injured in an attack by Adam Warlock (Will Poulter). Warlock was sent to the Guardians' headquarters on Knowhere (a spaceport located within the severed head of a long-dead Celestial) to apprehend Rocket...on behalf of The High Evolutionary (Chukwudi Iwuji), who turned the raccoon into a highly-inquisitive creature that would later become an Avenger.
Throughout Guardians 3, we were shown flashbacks of how Rocket came to be...from a frightened baby raccoon who was taken from his cage for experimentation at the beginning of the film, to him befriending three other mutated animals who were also the test subjects of The High Evolutionary, to him escaping from the Evolutionary's lab on Counter-Earth upon finding out that Rocket was going to get his brain removed for further analysis the next day. But this (major spoilers ahead) was before the raccoon witnessed the tragic deaths of his best friends Lylla (voiced by Linda Cardellini), Teefs (voiced by Asim Chaudhry) and Floor (voiced by Mikaela Hoover) by the Evolutionary and his security guards.
Volume 3 brought closure to this group of Guardians, with Gamora returning to the Ravagers after helping Quill save his friend's life, Drax staying on Knowhere to help Nebula protect their home, and Mantis (Pom Klementieff) going her own separate way to discover herself. Peter, meanwhile, returned to Earth to unite with his real family after realizing that the Gamora he met in Avengers: Endgame was not going to fall in love with him like the Gamora who was thrown off a "magic cliff" by Thanos in Avengers: Infinity War did.
Rocket, on the other hand, had a more upbeat ending to his story—with him becoming the new captain of the Guardians. I won't spoil who his new teammates were, except to point out that Groot (voiced by Vin Diesel) was still by his side.
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 definitely made up for the shortcomings of last February's Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, and made me think that The High Evolutionary was how Kang should've been portrayed in the flawed Ant-Man sequel. Oh well.
I still don't like how he revamped the DC Extended Universe, but well-done, James Gunn!
😢#GuardiansOfTheGalaxyVol3 pic.twitter.com/ltaenSRvqM
— Richard Par (@RichTPar) May 9, 2023
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