So here we are at the 2nd Cinema Sunday post for May and what have we got?
A Marvel movie? Really?
OK, but that Marvel movie is Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 and since music is integral to the GOTG series, well, I'll allow it.
Randie was home for a visit so it was Andrea, Randie and I who ventured forth from the Fortress of Ineptitude to go see this latest entry in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
I warned Andrea to be prepared for someone to die. Dave Bautista had been making a big show of telling anyone who would listen that he was done with Drax forever, I figured it stood to reason that Drax's number would be up in this final installment of the Guardians saga.
Spoiler alert: Drax doesn't die. In fact, none of the principal members of the Guardians perish by the end of the film.
But writer/director James Gunn didn't need to resort to character deaths to put us through the emotional wringer.
The High Evolutionary experiments on organic beings and matter to create the perfect species. And he is obsessed with capturing the experiment that got away, Rocket.
Gold-skinned, superpowered man-child Adam Warlock is sent to retrieve Rocket, an effort thwarted by the Guardians but not before Rocket is mortally wounded and the only means to save him is in the genetic modification hellhole Rocket escaped from in the first place.
Peter Quill leads a Guardians team that includes Gamora who is AND is NOT dead.
Recap: the Gamora who was in love with Peter Quill was sacrificed for Thanos to retrieve one of the Infinity Stones. Journeying from the past is a Gamora who never met Peter Quill and could not give a shit that he's still pining for his lost love who is somehow in front of him and yet not.
GOTG Vol. 3 is chocked full of epic action sequences: Warlock's attack on the Guardian's home base on Knowhere, the knockdown drag out brawl at Orgocorp, the destuction of Counter Earth, more battles aboard the High Evolutionary's ship which spill over back to Knowhere. There is destruction and violence on a spectacular scale as James Gunn leans hard on the mortality telegraph that someone we we care about is going to die.
This not new territory for Gunn. He had me convinced almost everyone in the cast of Peacemaker was doomed to die in the season finale but all the main cast makes it out alive.
And Gunn does it here with the Guardians. Dying is easy but living is hard and everyone winds up changed by the challenge of living.
We see Rocket in a series of flashbacks as a subject of the High Evolutionary's experiments, sharing a cage with other animals who have been given human intelligence and the gift of speech. But Rocket is unique. He doesn't just know what he's been taught but has the ability to intuit answers to questions he can't yet know the answers to. It's this ability that the High Evolutionary wants to study and replicate into this next phase of experiments. As for Rocket and his animal friends, the High Evolutionary has total and utter disdain for them and as soon as he dissects Rocket's brain, he intends to kill them.
Rocket attempts an escape but it results in his friends being killed by the High Evolutionary. Rocket does make his escape but as the bitter, caustic being we've come to know.
These flashbacks are brutal and heartbreaking. James Gunn is evil.
For all the high octane action set to hyper sonic rock 'n' roll, what drives this movie is what always can be found at the core of any GOTG movie, heart and humor.
I read a review that described Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 as "like listening to your favorite band on their final tour: all killer, no filler... the greatest hits mixed with new stuff that reminds you why they’re awesome in the first place, and a desire for the last song to never end."
I think that summarizes my feelings about the movie as well.
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