Before the release of “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3”, the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) released multiple underwhelming films such as “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantum Mania” and the disaster of  “Thor: Love and Thunder”. Luckily, this third installment did not repeat the mistakes of past Marvel films as the threequel left a satisfying ending to the series. 

“It was good, I liked it. I don’t wanna say mediocre but it was about seven out of ten. When compared to modern-day Marvel, like everything post ‘Avengers: Endgame’, this was pretty good, however when compared to everything before ‘Endgame’ it was okay. I like the ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’ movies so I’m obviously gonna rank this one a bit higher but it was good compared to the recent Marvel movies most definitely,” sophomore Ryland Addison said.

James Gunn works as the driving force behind the series as the series’s producer and screenwriter.  Gunn also works for the MCU’s competitor, Detective Comics Extended Universe (DCEU), as he delivered “The Suicide Squad” and currently spends his time  creating a new Superman film. 

By far, “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3” defeats all other Marvel films in terms of maturity. Chris Pratt, playing Star-Lord, holds the honor of dropping the first f-word in a Marvel film. The film also showed unsettling body horror with malformed animals as test subjects. These animals with joyous attitudes clashing with their horrifying looks forced upon them cannot help but make the audience feel empathic and invested in the story. The film also displayed a violent and disfigured face along with other terrifying monstrosities which pushes the PG-13 rating.

The previous films excelled in plot and visuals. Featuring bright vibrant colors and atmospheric environments, the series proves its worth with its dynamic group. This film excels the previous movies with an even funnier group dynamic and enticing settings as the best of the trilogy. The plot of the film pulls on heartstrings with saddening themes of family and the character’s painful pasts. This film focused on the origin story of Rocket Racoon, voiced by Bradley Cooper, and the events setting up the main conflict in the film. The film brought an amazing finale to the “Guardians of the Galaxy” series with a satisfying resolution with all of the characters. 

Prevalent in other Marvel films, “The Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3” suffers from over-exaggeration of comedy. This type of forced comedy benefits at the expense of the dramatic scenes transitioning too quickly. After a heavy and upsetting scene, the film would crack a quick quip to lighten the mood. Although the comedy lifts the film with the group chemistry that appears in all the “Guardians of the Galaxy” movies, the film would feel considerably emptier without comedy.

“I honestly think that Marvel has gotten bad. I think everyone can agree that it’s just terrible now. It would be pretty nice if they end the series though eventually so I’m completely fine with them ending the Guardians of the Galaxy. I’m just really hoping that they end off the rest of the series because I don’t want this to go onto a full-on downward spiral to unwatchable movies. The movie felt very low budget. I know exactly why it’s low budget because Marvel is splitting its resources between 12 different projects. It just looked bad, the movie looked terrible in my opinion,” Addison said.

The Chant’s Grade: A-