Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 (2023)

Item: Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3
Rating: 3.5
Author: Ross McLaren

★★★½ — Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 (2023)

There's a moment in this film, quiet and devastating, where everything the Guardians franchise has been building towards suddenly clicks into focus. Not the action, not the laughs, not the needle drops, but the pain underneath all of it. James Gunn's closing chapter is messier than its predecessors, slower in places, and occasionally let down by the very formula it's trying to transcend. But it's also the most genuinely felt thing this corner of the MCU has produced, and that counts for a lot.

I've followed this team from the beginning. When I look back at Guardians of the Galaxy, what made it work was the surprise of it: a talking raccoon and a sentient tree somehow becoming the emotional heart of a blockbuster. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 leaned harder into the dysfunctional family dynamic, with mixed results, but it had swagger to spare. Vol. 3 trades both the surprise and the swagger for something rawer. It earns that trade, mostly.

The decision to centre the film on Rocket's origin is the boldest thing Gunn does here, and it pays off. His backstory is bleak, genuinely disturbing in places, and the film doesn't flinch from it. For the first time, I felt the weight of what these characters carry. The Guardians aren't just a found family going on space adventures anymore; they're a broken family held together by habit, grief, and stubbornness. That shift in register gives the whole film a different texture.

The villain, the High Evolutionary, is one of the MCU's most effective antagonists in years. A narcissistic, eugenics-obsessed scientist whose cruelty is rooted in wounded vanity rather than grand ideology, he's deeply unpleasant in exactly the right way. He gives the film a moral backbone that most superhero movies gesture at without actually committing to. When the Guardians square off against him, the stakes feel personal and specific rather than just apocalyptic.

And look, the fun is still here. Drax and Mantis are a comedy double act of genuine, chaotic brilliance. Groot continues to somehow communicate actual emotion through a vocabulary of about four words. The soundtrack does what this franchise's soundtracks always do: it arrives at exactly the right moment and does exactly the right damage. Gunn has a gift for deploying a song like a gut punch, and he hasn't lost it.

But the film isn't without its problems, and I won't pretend otherwise. The pacing sags badly in the middle third, and there are stretches where the momentum just evaporates. The climax falls back on the now thoroughly exhausted Marvel convention of a big floating structure and a chaotic multi-front battle, which feels out of step with the more intimate emotional work the film has been doing. And a handful of character arcs get resolved in a rush at the end, almost like Gunn ran out of time or was told to wrap it up. The goodbye some of these characters deserve gets compressed into a montage when it warranted proper scenes.

Still. As a conclusion to a trilogy, this works. Each Guardian gets a genuine moment to breathe, to reckon with who they are and where they're going. The ending is bittersweet in the best way, acknowledging that not every story finishes neatly, that people grow in different directions, that a family can love each other and still scatter. That's more honest than most franchise finales manage.

Vol. 3 isn't the most fun I've had with these characters, and it isn't the most stylish. But it's the most human. Deeply felt, a little ragged around the edges, and unafraid to sit in grief for a while before it lets you off the hook. Flawed, absolutely. But it earns its tears, and that's no small thing.

Three and a half stars.

Rating: ★★★½ | Year: 2023 | Watched: 2025-08-15

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Where to watch

Watch in the UK
Stream: Disney Plus
Rent: Apple TV Store · Rakuten TV · Amazon Video · Google Play Movies
Buy: Apple TV Store · Rakuten TV · Amazon Video · Google Play Movies
Physical: Amazon UK · Zavvi

Watch in the US
Stream: Disney Plus
Rent: Amazon Video · Apple TV Store · Google Play Movies · YouTube
Buy: Amazon Video · Apple TV Store · Google Play Movies · YouTube
Physical: Amazon US

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