Like a lot of recent films I’ve seen, Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 3 is all about friendship and maintaining contact with the people one loves.  I’m thinking this is all related to the pandemic, and the forced isolation which kept people apart from each other for a couple of years.  Now, even while society in many ways seems to be disintegrating around us, there is a push to reconnect with those who mean so much to us.  At least the movies are reflecting that feeling.

James Gunn’s third movie in his Marvel cycle is dark and troubling.  Another lunatic is trying to shape the universe in his favored fashion, and the Guardians mean to stop him.  Especially Rocket (voice of Bradley Cooper), the shortest but spunkiest member of the squad, whose history with The High Evolutionary (Chukwudi Iwuji) goes back a long, long way, and is explained in flashbacks throughout the story.  The Guardians saddle up to save Rocket’s life and prevent another universe (their own) from disappearing.  Like the other Guardian adventures this one is full of weird characters, eye-popping visuals, crude humor and a feeling of comradeship that just cannot be beat.

I’m not a big fan of these types of films and I’m not sure this one is made with special skill, and yet it is incredibly moving.  We’ve grown to know these characters and each of them is given plenty of opportunity to earn our empathy.  Animal cruelty is an easy target, and this movie milks Rocket’s predicament and the fate of his friends.  On the other hand, that what makes him who he is.  But it’s impossible to watch this and not have strong feelings about their fates.  I’m not sure that comprises noteworthy moviemaking.

Viewers may not like the final denouement, either, but all good stories must come to an end.  Frankly I’m surprised, if not amazed, that these Guardians movies are as good and as affecting as they have proven to be.  This is as unlikely a bunch of heroic misfits as could be imagined (one of them is a tree, remember) and yet a whole generation of people, kids and adults, have come to adore them.  That’s the magic of the movies.  I am Groot!  ☆ ☆ ☆.  30 May 2023.