The Guardians of the Galaxy are back – and after a few forgettable entries in the Marvel universe (Ant Man And The Wasp: Quantumania and Eternals, we mean you), they deliver one of the most entertaining and gripping comic book blockbusters in recent years.
After the events of Avengers: Infinity War and Endgame (and a brief collaboration with Thor in Thor: Love And Thunder), the Guardians are now living on Knowhere. It’s there that they’re attacked by Adam Warlock, (Poulter), who fatally injures Rocket (Cooper) before escaping. Because Rocket has a kill-switch embedded inside him – added when he was artificially enhanced while held captive as a baby – the team can’t save him unless they travel to the company that made the chip in the hopes of getting an override code.
The action flits between the Guardians’ quest to save their friend and Rocket’s truly heart-breaking origin story, where he was experimented on by the High Evolutionary (Iwuji) as a child and befriended fellow test subjects – otter Lylla, a walrus named Teefs and a rabbit called Floor.
It’s an adventure that gets bigger by the scene as the team – including Quill (Pratt), Groot (Diesel), Mantis (Klementieff), Drax (Bautista), and a reluctant Gamora (Saldana) – discover during their quest that there is a greater threat from the High Evolutionary than they could have imagined.
Amongst all this action – and some superb set pieces, including a terrific fight to Beastie Boys’ ‘No Sleep Til Brooklyn’ – the movie has the near-perfect blend of impressive effects, clever musical choices (this time around, a soundtrack based on the 80s/90s/2000s songs on Quill’s Zune music player), witty barbs and superb performances.
The greatest accolades, however, should go to the creature effects team behind Rocket (which includes Sean Gunn –who also plays Kraglin – as the motion-capture performer and voice of young Rocket), the character who truly gives Vol 3 its heart and soul. From the vocal performances from Gunn and Cooper to the FX facial expressions, Rocket is the most realistic, heartfelt and loveable ball of cinematic fur since Paddington, and it’s his story that makes this (possible) finale of the Guardians’ story so unmissable.
Is Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol 3 suitable for kids? Here are our parents’ notes...
This is a 12A certificate in the UK and does feature action sequences, fighting and visible injuries throughout.
The movie contains the back story for Rocket the raccoon, and younger viewers may be upset to see the experiments he was subjected to as a baby, and him being separated from other raccoons early in the movie in flashback sequences.
There is a sequence later in the movie where one character’s face is ripped off, exposing blood, veins etc underneath which may be too graphic for the under-10s.
If you like this, why not try: