Formula: Guardians of the Galaxy: Volume 2 + sadness
I don't know how much I buy into the idea of "Marvel fatigue". I think we get enough evidence every year or two that, if the idea if good enough, audiences will come out in droves to see it. What I'll say instead is that the MCU has gotten too big. The problem isn't even too many movies or too many characters, necessarily. The problem is that there is too much to juggle now. The thing that made the Infinity Saga work so well was that between Avengers movies, we didn't have to wait that long for another standalone installment for a character. 2 and 3 years between Iron Man movies. 3 and 2 between Captain America movies. The 4 years to get from Thor: The Dark World to Ragnarök was the exception. Since Endgame though, they've been spending so much time trying to create new franchises without sunsetting the old ones. The result is much longer waits. 5 years between Ragnarök and Thor: Love & Thunder. 5 years between Ant-Man movies. 6 years between Dr. Strange movies. 6 years between Guardians of the Galaxy sequels. Hell, we're even looking at 6 years between Avengers movies. Black Panther was only 4 years, although you could argue continuity on that one, given Chadwick Boseman's death. I don't think it's a coincidence that the largest over-performer of the post-Endgame era was Spider-Man: Now Way Home, which came only 2 years after the last Spider-Man movie.
The thing that made the MCU successful in the first place was that it applied the same serial principles that audiences were adapting to on TV and applying them to movies. So, once or twice a year, they'd give a new installment. People never had to wait that long to check back in with a character. And, it turned out the audience turnover was negligible. It's getting harder to do this though. I remember watching Dr. Strange in the Multiverse of Madness and having to remind myself what Strange's deal was. Why was Rachel McAdams there? Who are the other Strange-specific side-characters I need to remember?
All this is preamble to say that I sure wish Guardians of the Galaxy: Vol. 3 could've come out a couple of years ago*. I sure felt like I'd lost track of what the gang was up to. It didn't help that I hadn't seen the Holiday Special, I suppose.
*Yes. I’m aware COVID is also to blame for the delay.
Volume 3 is the Rocket movie. The inciting event is a powerful artificial being coming to take Rocket back to his creator - a scientist known as the High Evolutionary. Rocket gets hurt, and most we see of him for much of the movie is in flashbacks to his origin story. These flashbacks are my favorite part of the movie, however I also think they hurt the movie overall. The flashbacks introduce a bunch of cute animal experiment friends for Rocket who I immediately loved. The film finally gets to the pain that Rocket has never been open about before.
On the other hand, this puts present Rocket out of commission for a lot of the movie, and he's a key cog to make this machine work. The balance is already off with Peter (Chris Pratt) depressed about losing his Gamora (Zoe Saldana). The new Gamora is an outsider instead of part of the group. Nebula (Karen Gillan) does fill Gamora's role in some ways, but it's not quite the same. Groot (Vin Diesel) is closer to full adulthood now, which is nice. Drax (Dave Bautista) and Mantis (Pom Klementieff) are consistently who they've always been. It's weird having Rocket either not in the movie or as an emotional center of it rather than the wildcard though.
This is one of my more scattered Reactions because I really don't know what to say about the movie. It still has the same stars and creative team, so it delivers what I expect out of a Guardians movie. It's funny and in a slightly more pointed way than other MCU movies. The space action is big and fun. It's striking to compare how much better a mostly CGI world looks in this versus Quantumania. This movie is the end of the Guardians though and it knows it from the start. There's a lot of sadness in the relationships between Peter, Gamora, and Nebula. Rocket has to face demons from his past. There's a feeling in the group that maybe they've stagnated together, and it is ultimately about them going their separate ways. Unfortunately for me, I could feel that going into the movie, which makes it harder to invest in 2.5 hours of it.
I do hope that this is a sign that Disney realizes it's time to contract the universe some. Not in terms of fewer galaxies and multi-verses though. I'm fine with there being a quantum realm. If they are going to keep bringing in Shang-Chis, Eternals, and Marvels, let some Guardians, Thors, and Ant-Mans retire. Or at least don't make me wait 4+ years to see what happens next with them.
Verdict: Weakly Recommend
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