I loved the first Guardians movie and may have loved the
second one even more. They are two of my favorite of the MCU flicks to
date. I did not care for this one.
In this movie, Star Lord and Team are floundering after the events of Endgame, Peter is drinking a lot after losing Gamora twice. The rest of the team has set up show on Knowhere and are working to improve it when they are attacked by Adam Warlock, created by the Sovereign to gather some vengeance for the events of GOTG2. In the attack, Rocket is injured and the rest of the movie is the team trying to help him while we get his flashbacks to his youth/creation/upbringing/escape.
James Gunn had always been clear this one would be telling
Rocket’s backstory and that Rocket has been the heart and soul of the team.
Knowing that Rocket is a genetically enhanced Racoon, and that the villain is
the High Evolutionary, whose entire deal is experimenting on things to improve
them, I knew there would be some animal experimentation/cruelty scenes. If it clarifies it for you, DoesTheDogDie.com
– on the very first question on their list – someone was clever enough to just
put “This is not the movie for you” and they could not be more right.
Rocket’s backstory is painful and vividly told, and while
there are no scenes of animal surgery, the implications and reactions of those
watching said scenes were enough to be triggering, traumatizing, and
scarring. I also felt that while the
charm of some of the earlier GOTG movies were the team learning to work
together and teasing each other in the process – in this movie, it felt like
they were being downright mean to each other to the point of bullying. At one
point, instead of apologizing to Drax for saying something cruel to him, Mantis
simply uses her powers to make him forget.
There are certainly parts that are entertaining, Gunn does a
good job of bringing closure to this current group of Guardians as well as
introducing new ones, the hallway fight sequence is fantastic, and certainly
there is heart in the team needing to save Rocket. Overall, I did not like it
and I found parts of it almost physically painful. The entire movie felt mean-spirited,
downcast, and in general, was a bit of a bummer.
3 out of 10
Side note – what a waste of Nathan Fillion. We finally get him in an MCU movie, and this is how he’s used? Also – credit to Nathan Fillion, his scenes are fun and he does a great job bringing in some lightness. Also also – props to us that we spent enough time with Groot that we finally start to understand a little of his language!
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