Directed by James Gunn
Written by James Gunn

Being the 32nd film in the MCU comes with some high expectations. Director James Gunn and his phenomenal ensemble cast of Chris Pratt (Star-Lord), Zoe Saldana (Gamora), Dave Bautista (Drax), Bradley Cooper (Rocket), and Vin Diesel (Groot) has given the MCU is cast of misfits banding together to save well, the Galaxy. Gunn brings a visual flair and style of humor that is a far departure from the other films in the MCU. This is the final film by Gunn and the cast, but with comic book characters we know better than to say never. This film does great justice to our heroes and storylines and gives each character many moments to shine and that is exactly what you want in a final film like this.

Here comes the spoilers.
Peter Quill (aka Star-Lord) and the rest of the Guardians are back for one last adventure in this trilogy. This film we get to dive into Rocket’s past and through a series of flashbacks get shown the heartbreaking tale of how he became who he is. The film handled these flashbacks very well. If there was any complaint was the fake outs on potential killing off a main character. The Drax moment in particular stands out the most, but almost every character has that almost moment and it gets a bit old after a while when they are 100% fine the next scene when they took a death dealing blow the scene before. The transitions here are perhaps the weakest issues with the film. The only other issue is how did Adam Warlock (Will Poulter) zero in on Rocket through a dirty window in Knowhere? No explanation why other than to jumpstart the events of the film. Perhaps just have Warlock blaze in and swoop from building to building searching for Rocket first?

Rocket gets severely injured and the only way to save him is to find an override code on a device implanted to his heart. They set off to infiltrate a bio lab and find the records for the device. They team up with Gamora who has joined the Ravagers since we last saw her in Avengers: Endgame 2019. They retrieve the record but the file with the code is missing and had been take out by one of the High Evolutionary’ s (Chukwudi Iwuji) scientists. They track him down to a planet called Counter-Earth which the inhabitants all looks are human sized animals. Although it is a trap that the Guardians are walking into, Quill and Groot go inside the High Evolutionary’s ship to face off with him for Rocket’s file. Quill and Groot manage to escape just as Nebula (Karen Gillan), Drax, and Mantis (Pom Klementieff) board the ship trying to rescue Quill and Groot. Instead they come across a ship full of children who have been genetically engineered by the High Evolutionary. Quill is able to revive Rocket and they go back to save the others and have their final climatic showdown with the High Evolutionary.

I will stop right there as I want to shift focus on the themes at work in this film. Theme of experiments on animals are clear and done not too heavy handed, feeling of belonging whether to a family or group of friends, acceptance of who you are, and perhaps the most important theme of follow your heart. Those themes blend seamlessly well in the story and perhaps that is why this film ends the trilogy perfectly with its heart on its sleeve. Visually the film is amazing, the balance of action and comedy is well balanced, and this makes for one sad goodbye to a cast of misfit characters that came together to save the day. There may be more Guardians of the Galaxy films, but those will have very big shoes to fill. Until then, “Ooh, child, things are gonna get easier. Ooh child, things will get brighter.”

Thanks for reading Writing Movie ‘WRONGS’.