PORTLAND, Maine — [Editor's note: This article is a critical analysis of a film and does not represent the views of NEWS CENTER Maine, but that of the author.]
Director James Gunn may be heading up superhero movies at DC now, but he has one last outing with Marvel in the form of "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3."
The outer space oddballs became instant fan favorites when their first movie premiered almost a decade ago.
Story
In several ways, "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3" is a goodbye: for Gunn, for this franchise, and for some of the characters in it.
The story goes all in on Rocket Raccoon (Bradley Cooper), who ends up being the heart of the crew.
Peter (Chris Pratt) is drinking himself to sleep over the loss of his version of Gamora (Zoe Saldaña) in "Avengers: Endgame," and the Guardians are doing their best to protect their once-fearless leader.
But everything changes when a powerful new foe named Adam Warlock (Will Poulter) shows up to abduct Rocket. The attack leaves Rocket nearly dead, and the Guardians learn they can't operate on him because of a device attached to his heart. It'll kill the beloved raccoon if they try.
To override the device, the Guardians need to track down a code from the raccoon's maker, a powerful being called The High Evolutionary (Chukwudi Iwuji). And it turns out The High Evolutionary is trying to find Rocket to harvest his brain so he can build the "perfect society."
This puts the Guardians on a collision course with a powerful villain in order to save one of their own. Sprinkled throughout the film are flashbacks to how Rocket was made and how he came to be the crafty and sassy engineer everyone loves.
Analysis
Gunn was determined to go out on a bang, and he succeeded in infusing "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3" with scenes to make audiences cheer, laugh, cry, and ultimately find closure for Marvel's outer space oddballs.
Cooper gives one of his most powerful performances revealing a surprising amount of vulnerability in the cast's loudmouthed raccoon.
The story touches on themes of love, loss, and transitioning from grief to moving forward in life.
Iwuji ends up providing a fierce and memorable villain, which is usually one of the areas solo Marvel movies tend to suffer in the most. Given the arrest of Jonathan Majors, who was set up to be the next big villain in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, it's a bummer that Iwuji's strong performance was used up in a one-and-done role for a single movie.
Gunn brought a load of inventive ideas to his last story in the MCU, and it paid off. After a string of questionable releases for Marvel, with Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, in particular, being the biggest misstep, audiences were rightly worried about the MCU's post-Thanos future.
But "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3" shows the company still has fuel in the tank and is capable of making good movies. Marvel just needs to remember how to make character-driven stories that give its heroes something fun to accomplish. Add a dash of human moments, and the comic book company still has the potential to outgrow its perceived staleness, if it can only remember that not every story has to be a world-shattering crisis.
Sometimes all heroes require for a good story is the need to save a friend.
Also playing this weekend
For folks who aren't fans of superheroes, a new rom-com also opens this weekend. It's called "Love Again." Here's the synopsis:
"A young woman tries to ease the pain of her fiancé's death by sending romantic texts to his old cell phone number, and forms a connection with the man the number has been reassigned to."
To see which movies are playing at a theater near you, click here.
For more movie thoughts, follow Courtney Lanning on Twitter here.