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Review: In ‘Guardians 3,’ ultra-weird superhero fun doesn’t have to be Rocket science

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Let’s run the numbers: “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3” is the third movie in a trilogy (duh), the second Marvel movie to be released this year (yawn), the 32nd movie in the overall Marvel Cinematic Universe (sigh) and, as hyper-aware fans doubtless already know, the first of those 32 MCU movies to feature an uncensored F-bomb (about time). I’m not sure the last was worth the wait, though by this point in the series — after some 64-plus hours’ worth of bombastic explosions, murky action, crisscrossing timelines, intergalactic skirmishes, butt-hurt baddies, tiresome daddy issues, genocidal cataclysms, box office conquests, military propaganda and strenuously breezy wisecracks — a single PG-13-compliant four-letter expletive is certainly well-earned.

And hilariously well deployed, I must say. I won’t spoil the context — I couldn’t anyway, since the scene is already online — except to note that it feels like a nicely profane parting shot for the writer-director James Gunn, resident mischief maker among superhero auteurs, as he makes his way out of Disney/MCU headquarters. (Gunn, who also wrote and directed the first two “Guardians” movies, is now creative mastermind over at the rival DC Studios.) More to the point, the F-bomb lands in the middle of an enjoyably eccentric, insouciantly funny and often beautiful-looking jumble of an entertainment that plays — at least when it isn’t let down by a wobbly seriocomic tone and some excessive narrative multitasking — like a sincerely moving farewell to some of the more likable rogues and motley misfits in the Marvel cosmos.

They’re pretty much all back, if not quite better than ever. There’s Peter Quill, a.k.a. Star-Lord (Chris Pratt), the Guardians’ goofily intrepid, ’70s rock-loving captain, who’s been drinking himself into a stupor ever since losing his bad-ass beloved, Gamora (Zoe Saldaña). Gamora isn’t dead; she’s just testy and amnesia-stricken, with no memory of her past adventures with Peter or his antennae-sporting empath sister, Mantis (Pom Klementieff), or the lovably dimwitted Drax (Dave Bautista), or the sharp-clawed, sharper-tongued Rocket Raccoon (voiced by Bradley Cooper). Gamora can no longer even understand Groot, the gnarly tree-man with the expressive three-word language and the voice of Vin Diesel; even her heated longtime rivalry with her perpetually snarling sister, Nebula (Karen Gillan), seems to have gone cold.

I confess to experiencing my own Gamora-esque bouts of memory loss when it comes to recalling ancient or recent Marvel lore, and so struggled to place Kraglin Obfonteri (Sean Gunn, the director’s brother), a telekinetic dude with a highly communicative space pooch (voiced by Maria Bakalova). I did remember the imperiously gold-plated Ayesha (Elizabeth Debicki), since it’s hard to forget a character who swans into every scene looking like an Oscar statuette fresh out of the tanning bed. One important and annoying newcomer is Ayesha’s son, Adam Warlock (Will Poulter), a callow fighter who enters the movie with a violent whoosh, launching an ambush on the Guardians that ends with Rocket unconscious and gravely wounded.

Rocket proves troublingly resistant to medical treatment, sending his friends on a valiant, sometimes bumbling journey for answers and antidotes. And so they journey far and wide, visiting distant planets and breaking into top-secret filing cabinets, bragging and bickering at every turn. The comic patter is familiar but effective, much of it swirling around Peter’s efforts to charm his way past Gamora’s hostile eye rolls. Along the way, Gunn ushers us into uncharted new realms of wackadoo production design (by Beth Mickle) and outlandish costumes (by Judianna Makovsky), reminding us that he’s never been shy about letting his stylistic freak flag fly. Why are those security guards wearing giant pan dulce? Why not?

Meanwhile, Rocket spends his coma reliving his own harrowing origin story in flashback — a development that gutsily repositions this reliable second banana as the hero of the story and perhaps of this mini-franchise as a whole. (He’s tellingly introduced first in a catch-up sequence set to Radiohead’s “Creep,” the first, longest and most effective of the movie’s signature needle drops.)

Rocket’s story also ushers in some unusually grave and, depending on your tolerance for CGI animal cruelty, potentially objectionable scenes of a grievously abused young raccoon, stuck in a cage with three other friendly, furry captives who have been and will be subjected to all manner of mistreatment. Their tormenter is a uniquely sadistic villain (played by Chukwudi Iwuji) who calls himself the High Evolutionary but is basically a veterinarian Dr. Mengele. He plans to populate a new planet with a master race of genetically engineered human-critter combos, purging as many innocent, imperfect prototypes along the way as he needs to.

At one point, Peter snarlingly dismisses the High Evolutionary as just another “impotent wack job whose mother didn’t love him trying to rationalize why he’s conquering the universe.” It’s a pretty good line, and if it exemplifies an unfortunate MCU tendency of late (let’s recycle clichés by cloaking them in self-awareness), it also firmly ensconces Raccoon alongside Peter, Gamora and Nebula, all mutts and castoffs who’ve suffered at the hands of malevolent dads and dad figures and their damnable Old Testament God complexes. The idea is driven home by a late-breaking sequence that plays like a sci-fi Noah’s Ark and, with a sense of ethical purpose that smacks of self-critique, suggests that the “Guardians” franchise, for all its intergalactic diversity, has too often focused on what one character calls “the higher life forms,” to the detriment of its animal constituents.

That’s all well and good, even if Gunn’s attempts at sincerity don’t always hit the mark. The well-meaning yet punitive heavy-handedness of the animal-abuse sequences seldom sits easily with the glibly violent punchlines that the director indulges elsewhere, including a bizarrely sour scene in which a side character is fried to a crisp while his poor four-legged (I think) companion looks on, whimpering in horror. That flair for impish, pranksterish humor has of course been a Gunn career specialty since he began writing Troma Entertainment cheapies in the ’90s, and it certainly played a role in his landing the “Guardians of the Galaxy” gig to begin with.

Gunn managed the flow of action, comedy, music, character setup and forward momentum more or less seamlessly in the first “Guardians,” and to serviceable if diminished effect in “Vol. 2.” He was famously fired from “Vol. 3” for a spell , and I can’t help but wonder if that short-lived brush with career death spurred him to pull out most of the stops here and emerge with by far the messiest, unruliest and most interesting “Guardians” movie of the three. It’s the one that feels most weirdly and defiantly its own thing, the one least straitjacketed by Marvel conventions. Which is not to say it’s as fully unhinged or unbound as it should be; entertaining as it is, the movie isn’t as fully realized as Gunn’s recent “The Suicide Squad,” a proudly R-rated, heavily Troma-influenced entertainment that wore its comic-book nihilism on its sleeve.

“Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3” has its own appreciable mean streak, to be sure, but that streak is still largely subordinated to sentimental franchise-finale demands. That may be a compromise, but it’s not a failure. For all the visual weirdness and misfit irreverence he pumped into these stories, Gunn’s obvious love for these characters has been the trilogy’s consistent and undeniable saving grace. And he notably doesn’t sell out that love as he brings those characters all to a conclusion, or at least a mid-franchise inflection point, that carries an ache of bittersweet feeling.

End-credits teasers aside, the story here feels appreciably and even radically self-enclosed, and if its sense of finality turns out to be an illusion, it feels real and moving enough in the moment. There’s also the not-unignorable fact that after a couple of Marvel duds ( “Thor: Love and Thunder,” “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania” ), it’s a pleasure to see a superhero movie that actually puts a priority on aesthetics, that floods the screen with inventive, well-lighted images and, in one gleefully orchestrated single-take sequence, reminds us how more of the action in these movies should be: nasty, Grootish and short.

‘Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3’

Rating: PG-13, for intense sequences of violence and action, strong language, suggestive/drug references and thematic elements Running time: 2 hours, 30 minutes Playing: Starts May 5 in general release

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Justin Chang was a film critic for the Los Angeles Times from 2016 to 2024. He won the 2024 Pulitzer Prize in criticism for work published in 2023. Chang is the author of the book “FilmCraft: Editing” and serves as chair of the National Society of Film Critics and secretary of the Los Angeles Film Critics Assn.

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‘Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3’ Review: Rocket’s Backstory Reveals Why These Are Marvel’s Top Heroes

James Gunn brings the underdog superhero trilogy to a satisfying close in this team effort to save Bradley Cooper's smart-aleck raccoon.

By Peter Debruge

Peter Debruge

Chief Film Critic

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For those who didn’t know the Marvel catalog inside-out, when James Gunn first unleashed “Guardians of the Galaxy” back in 2014, it felt like the company was suddenly calling in the B-team. Spider-Man, Hulk, Captain America, Thor. Those guys were household names who deserved standalone movies. But Star-Lord? Drax the Destroyer? Lethal green-skinned Gamora, grunting tree-thing Groot and a sarcastic raccoon named Rocket? They felt like parodies of the better-known Marvel characters — not so much superheroes as a ragged crew of sci-fi scoundrels roaming the cosmos in search of trouble.

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In the interval since “Vol. 2”, Thanos smote his stepdaughter Gamora (Zoe Saldaña). Her death left the whole team in despair and sent Chris Pratt ’s dork-stud Peter Quill, aka Star-Lord, spiraling. Frustrating as such off-screen developments may be, Gamora’s death and subsequent resurrection provides a unique opportunity for Gunn, who dedicates an entertaining subplot to Star-Lord trying to convince Gamora’s replacement that they made a good couple. “That person was some alternate future version of me,” she explains, hinting at how crazy-complicated the timelines and multiverse wrinkles of the other Marvel movies have gotten.

“Guardians” otherwise remains grounded in a single reality, which doesn’t mean that it’s not an incredibly complex and demanding narrative to follow at times. Floating in space on the severed head of a Celestial, the Guardians are interrupted by a visit from Adam Warlock (Will Poulter), the gold-skinned son of Ayesha (Elizabeth Debicki) and someone who, according to the comics at least, is destined to join the Guardians at some point. For now, he arrives in berserker mode, smashing up Knowhere (as the outpost is called) and dealing near-mortal damage to Rocket, who spends most of the movie on life support, cueing flashbacks to his origins in a grimy, “The Secret of NIMH”-style science lab in another corner of the galaxy.

Warlock has come searching for the genetically modified raccoon, whose “creator” — a demented mad-scientist type known as the High Evolutionary (Chukwudi Iwuji) — is obsessed with repopulating an Earth-like planet with the most advanced form of various animal species. “There is no God! That’s why I’m taking charge!” Iwuji bellows in a performance of Al Pacino-level over-the-top-itude, playing this maniac as if his face had been ripped off and reapplied as a skin mask. The simple task of trying to summarize the High Evolutionary’s aims reveals just how loony they are, and yet, audiences go along with it because they care about Rocket.

Gunn has been incredibly successful about navigating the line between ironic self-awareness (on his part) and sincere emotional investment (on ours), and there are fewer of the absurd tonal shifts here than in the two previous “volumes” — as when Kurt Russell shattered a serious father-son moment by announcing, “Gotta take a whiz,” last time around. That strategy might get easy laughs, but it undercuts audiences’ connection to the characters. Here, Gunn tries his luck in the opposite direction, risking cheap sentimentality (if not full-blown bathos) by introducing likable new characters whose deaths will jerk tears a few scenes later — except he’s so darn good at it that audiences were audibly weeping when it happened at the film’s premiere. So mission accomplished on that front.

With wisecracking Rocket out of commission, the others get to step up their banter as the action zooms from one imaginative new environment to the next. First stop is Orgoscope, the High Evolutionary’s flesh-covered lab station, which looks like a giant tumor and allows Gunn to turn a standard snatch-and-grab heist into a trippy early-MTV set-piece, full of kooky costumes and old-school comedy routines. From there, the Guardians travel to Counter-Earth, a familiar-looking blue-and-green biosphere based on Star-Lord’s home planet, circa 1980, except the life-forms are all Highly Evolved animal species that walk and talk like humans.

The movie is such a mile-a-minute idea factory that Gunn will introduce a wonky high concept like this and devote just a short segment to exploring it. Fortunately, audiences have grown surprisingly comfortable with this strategy in a time of multiverse storytelling, which means the film can keep throwing fresh concepts at them every few minutes, and so long as Gunn takes a beat to show how this or that new alien species behaves, we get it. A good example might be the giant monsters Mantis encounters aboard the High Evolutionary’s getaway vessel: They look terrifying, with row upon row of shark-like teeth, but aren’t nearly the ferocious people-eaters they appear to be.

While the transportation comparison certainly fits, the obvious model for such level-to-level showdowns has been video games. But unlike other filmmakers, who make it feel like we’re sitting back and watching someone else get to play, Gunn keeps the surprises coming, so audiences are actively engaged throughout, trying to manage multiple storylines and the ever-changing loyalties between characters.

More than mere fancy, the genetic experimentation thread ties back to the state of contemporary earth science, while the High Evolutionary’s views toward Rocket suggests the unknown and slightly intimidating frontier as artificial intelligence threatens to outpace human thought. It’s easier to feel for an anthropomorphic raccoon than for a pseudo-sentient chatbot, but the ethical questions addressed are one and the same. Does the High Evolutionary “own” his creation? What higher purpose does experiment “89P13” serve?

“Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3” arrives as the latest in a series of franchise-wrapping movies, and audiences have reason to be wary of what that means, given the send-offs received by characters such as John Wick and James Bond. Gunn toys with the mortality of his ensemble as well, but he does so responsibly, honoring the bonds we’ve made to these characters over the years, and recognizing that the Guardians can and will evolve.

Reviewed at Dolby Theatre, Los Angeles, April 27, 2023. MPA Rating: PG-13. Running time: 150 MIN.

• Production: A Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures release of a Marvel Studios presentation. Producer: Kevin Feige. Executive producers: Louis D’Esposito, Victoria Alonso, Nikolas Korda, Simon Hatt, Sara Smith. Co-producers: David J. Grant, Lars P. Winthe.
• Crew: Director, writer: James Gunn. Camera: Henry Braham. Editors: Fred Raskin, Greg D'Auria. Music: John Murphy. Music supervisor: Dave Joran.
• With: Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldaña, Dave Bautista, Karen Gillan, Pom Klementieff, Vin Diesel, Bradley Cooper, Sean Gunn, Chukwudi Iwuji, Will Poulter, Maria Bakalova.

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Onoda: 10,000 Nights in the Jungle

Drama based on the bizarre real-life story of Hiroo Onoda, a second world war Japanese soldier who held out in the jungle in the Philippines until 1974. What we said: “A really well-made, old-fashioned anti-war epic in a forthright and robustly enjoyable style.” Read the full review.

Golden Lion-winning abortion drama, more relevant than ever, from director Audrey Diwan; a study of a woman (played by Anamaria Vartolomei) who becomes pregnant in early 60s, pre-legalisation France. What we said: “A brutal Handmaid’s Tale from our recent European past – a situation that still exists in many parts of the world, longed for by reactionary nostalgists elsewhere.” Read the full review.

Seven-year-old Maya Vanderbeque is brilliant in this Belgian schoolyard drama, as a girl called Nora who tries to confront classroom bullies in this short, intense film. What we said: “A kid’s-eye-view nightmare of playground bullying impossible to watch without a sick, jittery feeling of rage and dread.” Read the full review.

We’re All Going to the World’s Fair

Creepy account of a teenager becoming immersed in an online horror role-play game, from trans director Jane Schoenbrun. What we said: “Strangeness is a quality valued and yearned for in so many sorts of movies, but rarely found – yet this really is strange, an experiment in horror form.” Read the full review.

The Quiet Girl

Irish rural drama set in the early 80s, with Catherine Clinch as the silent child of the title who goes to stay with relatives over the summer. What we said: “This beautiful and compassionate film from first-time feature director Colm Bairéad is a child’s-eye look at our fallen world; already it feels like a classic.” Read the full review.

Split-screen dementia drama from Argentinian provocateur Gaspar Noé, starring Dario Argento and Françoise Lebrun as an elderly couple whose lives are dogged by the latter’s cognitive decline. What we said: “Noé brings his cauterisingly fierce gaze to the spectacle of old age: the world of those about to enter the void.” Read the full review.

The Innocents

Creepy-kid horror from Norwegian director Eskil Vogt (co-writer of The Worst Person in the World ), about two young sisters who make friends with other children who apparently possess supernatural powers. What we said: “It greased my palms with anxiety and incidentally has some of the best child acting I have ever seen.” Read the full review.

Benediction

Terence Davies’ account of the life of Siegfried Sassoon (played by Jack Lowden and Peter Capaldi in younger/older versions), tracing his career from lionised war poet to unhappy later life. What we said: “It is a film which is piercingly and almost unbearably about failure: the catastrophic moral and spiritual failure of war which is aligned to Sassoon’s own terrible sense of personal shortcomings.” Read the full review.

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‘guardians of the galaxy vol. 3’ review: james gunn’s overstuffed but satisfying trilogy capper.

The interstellar gang is back in the third installment of the hugely popular Marvel franchise starring Chris Pratt, Dave Bautista and Zoe Saldaña.

By Frank Scheck

Frank Scheck

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Cinematic superheroes have been going through a rough patch lately. Already this year, both Shazam and Ant-Man proved a bit at sea in their latest adventures. So it comes as a relief to report the trilogy-capping Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3. achieves what it sets out to do, which is provide a stirring and audience-pleasing finale for a franchise that has proven to be one of Marvel ’s biggest and most unlikely success stories. Well, at least until the next iteration of the Guardians comes along.

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Not long afterward, Quill is reunited with Gamora. Of course, she’s an alternate version, since the Gamora he loved was killed by that pesky Thanos in one of those Avengers movies. The new, younger Gamora has little use for Quill, which doesn’t exactly improve his mood as he vainly struggles, like a depressed high school student, to remind her of what they once had.

He doesn’t have much time for moping, however, as the Guardians must rally themselves to save their beloved Rocket ( Bradley Cooper ), who’s at death’s door. This leads to flashbacks involving the fan-beloved raccoon’s backstory and his relationship with the film’s villain, the High Evolutionary (Chukwudi Iwuji, using his Shakespearean acting background to excellent imposing effect), who wants to create a new, higher evolved master race. As with most Marvel villains, he doesn’t really think he’s bad, merely misunderstood.

Nonetheless, this edition largely succeeds like the other ones, thanks to the chemistry of the main ensemble, who have grown into their characters with relaxed ease. The interplay among them is frequently delightful, especially between the mind-controlling Mantis (Pom Klementieff) and the big doofus Drax ( Dave Bautista ), who come across like alien versions of Laurel and Hardy. Karen Gillan ’s Nebula is more acerbic than ever, and Vin Diesel ’s Groot has grown up to be a much bigger tree, although his vocabulary hasn’t improved very much. And Kraglin, played by Sean Gunn (the director’s brother), well, he’s still there.

Among the many antagonists on hand is Adam Warlock, the artificial being created to destroy the Guardians, who clearly has mommy issues with the villainess Ayesha (Elizabeth Debicki, who looks even more striking in gold face paint). Will Poulter plays the role with an enjoyable mixture of physical menace and baby-like befuddlement, but he ultimately fails to make a lasting impression.

It’s but one of many comic moments that have become a particular trademark of the Guardians series, some of which are so stupidly silly that you feel like a kid laughing at them. I’m still chuckling at the ridiculous exchange among the Guardians over which buttons to press on their spacesuits to properly communicate with each other, with Quill’s confusion resulting in everyone overhearing his pathetic attempt to win back Gamora. (Don’t you hate when that happens?)

The film’s wildly imaginative visuals are another plus, with the proceedings feeling so bizarrely trippy at times it’s as if Gunn is aiming to create a midnight cult classic rather than a blockbuster superhero film. His distinctively anarchic style is on full display here, which makes you wonder how he’s going to tone it down when he tackles such iconic characters less suitable for irreverent humor as Superman.

The action sequences are also stunners, especially an epic climactic battle accompanied by the propulsive Beastie Boys classic “No Sleep Till Brooklyn,” a typical example of the filmmaker’s uncanny knack for providing fantastic playlists. This one is no exception, straying from the first two installments’ nostalgic ‘70s-era soundtracks to encompass several decades worth of terrific cuts and featuring artists including Alice Cooper, Spacehog, The Flaming Lips, The The and The Replacements. It’s no wonder the Guardians love to dance.

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The Hunt for Gollum: Peter Jackson and Andy Serkis to work on new Lord of the Rings film

Film due to release in 2026 to be first in a new series, and will be directed by and star Serkis, who ‘has unfinished business with that stinker – Gollum!’

Peter Jackson and Andy Serkis are working on a new Lord of the Rings film due to release in 2026, it has been announced.

In a statement, Warner Bros said that the first of a new set of Lord of the Rings films, The Hunt for Gollum, will be directed by and star Serkis, and be produced by Jackson.

David Zaslav, CEO of Warner Bros Discovery, had earlier told a conference call with investors that the film is “now in the early stages of script development” and that Jackson, along with writing partners Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens, “will be involved every step of the way”. The film, he said, would “explore storylines yet to be told”.

Zaslav added: “Lord of the Rings is one of the most successful and revered franchises in history and presents a significant opportunity for theatrical business.”

In the statement, Jackson, Walsh and Boyens said: “It is an honour and a privilege to travel back to Middle-earth with our good friend and collaborator, Andy Serkis , who has unfinished business with that stinker – Gollum!”

Serkis added: “Yesssss, Precious. The time has come once more to venture into the unknown with my dear friends, the extraordinary and incomparable guardians of Middle-earth, Peter, Fran and Philippa … it’s just all too delicious …”

Warner Bros’ plans to return to Lord of the Rings emerged in February 2023 , when Zaslav revealed the studio had made an agreement for “multiple” films based on JRR Tolkien’s original books with Embracer Group, the Swedish gaming company that owns most Tolkien rights after purchasing holding company Middle-earth Enterprises in 2022 .

At the time Jackson, Walsh and Boyens indicated their willingness to get involved, saying: “We look forward to speaking with [Warner Bros] further to hear their vision for the franchise moving forward.”

The arrangement is a separate enterprise from Rings of Power, the Amazon-produced prequel to Lord of the Rings that debuted in August 2022 , as Middle-earth Enterprises did not hold rights to TV series adaptations of more than eight episodes, and Amazon secured rights from the Tolkien estate directly.

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Warner Bros is also producing The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim , an animated prequel to the trilogy, directed by Kenji Kamiyama and featuring the voices of Brian Cox and Miranda Otto, which is due for release in December 2024.

Peter Jackson’s live action trilogy was released between 2001 and 2003, earning more than $2.9bn worldwide and winning 17 Academy Awards, including best picture for final instalment The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King.

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'Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3' sends off its heroes with a mawkish mixtape

Glen Weldon

L to R: Mantis (Pom Klementieff), Drax (Dave Bautista), Quill (Chris Pratt) and Nebula (Karen Gillan) go for a walk in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3. Marvel Studios hide caption

L to R: Mantis (Pom Klementieff), Drax (Dave Bautista), Quill (Chris Pratt) and Nebula (Karen Gillan) go for a walk in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3.

What, in your mind, is the Marvel Cinematic Universe still missing?

We're neck-deep into Phase 5 now, after all; we've had dozens of movies and streaming series and one-off specials. And while critics can and do bemoan the surface similarities these disparate properties tend to share, the strength of the MCU remains how much variation it manages to offer up in tone, scope, stakes and subject matter. Looking for street-level angst ? Cosmic sweep ? Paranoid thrillers ? Mystic mumbo-jumbo ? Sitcom satires ? Gods and monsters ? Coming-of-age dramas ? Subatomic shenanigans ? Afro-futurist utopias ? Whatever the hell Eternals was supposed to be ? The MCU has something for you.

But maybe, after all these years, you find that your own very particular Marvel itch remains somehow unscratched. So I say this to a vanishingly small subset of you: If you've ever found yourself walking out of an Marvel movie and said to yourself, "I liked it. It was fine. But I don't know. I can't help thinking it could have used...just you know a lot more vivisection," then rest assured your tastes have finally been catered to, you sicko freak.

The gang's all here, sort of

But first: Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 is pitched as a sendoff to the rag-tag gang of misfits first introduced in James Gunn's 2014 Guardians of the Galaxy , who've since cropped up in several corners of the MCU. As a team, they've always leaned more into mercenary violence and bro-ish banter than anything so hopelessly quaint as heroism, though they do tend to wind up saving the day, despite themselves. They've added some new faces to their roster, one of which is technically an old face. (Zoe Saldana here plays an alternate-timeline version of her character Gamora, whom we met back in the first film; long story.)

There's dim but headstrong Peter Quill (Chris Pratt), dim but strong-strong Drax (Dave Bautista), gruff Nebula (Karen Gillan), empathic Mantis (Pom Klementieff), laconic space-Ent Groot (voiced by Vin Diesel) and tough but fuzzy raccoon Rocket (voiced by Bradley Cooper).

Also along for the ride: Kraglin (Sean Gunn) a space-pirate struggling with performance issues, Cosmo (Maria Bakalova) a telekinetic space-dog, and a brand new antagonist, Will Poulter's Adam Warlock, a genetically-engineered super-being with the mind of a petulant child in the body of an Instagram fitness influencer.

They're all up against a powerful being known as The High Evolutionary, played with gratifyingly over-the-top, scenery-devouring brio by Chukwudi Iwuji.

The High Evolutionary's nefarious plan? To engineer a perfect species to live in a perfect society of his creation. Which, alas, is where All! That! Vivisection! TM comes in.

Doing Moreau with less

Look, if you're trying to come up with a villain for audiences to dutifully, even reflexively hiss, eugenicists are a pretty good place to start; I get that. And if said eugenicist should also happen to go about their evil business by conducting unholy cybernetic experimentations on cute fuzzy animals like Rocket (in flashbacks) and innocent, adorable, wet-eyed toddlers (in the present day)? Sure. Fair enough. Bad guys do bad things, after all. It's in the job description.

The problem at the core of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 isn't the mere depiction of said animal experimentation, which created not only Rocket but a cadre of twee furry cyborg pals we get to (briefly) meet. It's the fact that writer/director James Gunn approaches those scenes without trusting his audience to naturally recoil at the idea of animal cruelty.

There is violent imagery, yes. But what makes those scenes profoundly unpleasant to sit through is not their violence itself, but Gunn's mawkish, maudlin, manipulative approach to it. Using every cinematic tool at his disposal, he so feverishly attempts to crank up the horror of those scenes that he only succeeds in exposing their cynical, plot-driven artifice. And by juxtaposing them with moments in which the experiments' animal subjects spout platitudes about the joy of friendship and their dreams of escape, Gunn's unbearable, ham-handed execution aims for pathos but achieves only bathos, its laughably inept evil twin.

Baby Rocket (voiced by Bradley Cooper), one of the film's subtle, understated appeals to emotion. Marvel Studios hide caption

Baby Rocket (voiced by Bradley Cooper), one of the film's subtle, understated appeals to emotion.

You can only tug on the audience's heartstrings for so long before they start to snap off in your hands. To watch Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 is to watch a filmmaker under the wildly mistaken belief that the best way to get you to absorb what he's saying is by screaming it directly into your ear.

There's more to the film than Rocket's trauma narrative (in those flashbacks, Sean Gunn attempts to personify a younger Rocket by pitching Bradley Cooper's dese-and-dose Brooklyn accent up an octave or two, so we the audience get to experience some trauma ourselves).

Game, cassette and match

The central metaphor of Gunn's Guardians films has been the mixtape. Peter Quill's beloved, long-lost mother made him one filled with classic rock jams that supplied the soundtrack to his life (and to the first Guardians film).

Nowadays, Peter's updated his old cassette with a playlist that provides this third film with a more eclectic collection of needle drops (Beastie Boys, The The, The Replacements, Florence + the Machine).

And like any mixtape/playlist, Guardians Vol. 3 includes some real gems. At one point the team visits a space station that's entirely organic, and the production designers go to town creating doorways like heart valves and airlocks like open wounds. There's an extended slow-motion fight in a corridor featuring digital camerawork that swoops around the characters as they trade punches and kicks and laser blasts in a physics-defying manner. It's visually stunning if viscerally inert, like an extended videogame cutscene.

But some of the other songs in this cinematic mix don't hit as hard as they could. Poulter's Adam Warlock feels shoehorned into the overstuffed proceedings, and while Klementieff's Mantis gets more to do than she ever has, both the character and actor still feel underused.

The Guardians, as a team, have never adopted the usual superhero admonitions against the taking of lives. Even so, a scene in which one of our heroes casually instructs another one of our heroes to "Kill them all," still can't help but rankle.

Barbs and insults get well and truly traded — a Gunn hallmark — and most of them land. Mostly, though, a weirdly somber mood pervades the film. Maybe it's that the scenes of animal abuse linger longer, and cast a deeper pall, than the filmmaker has accounted for. If Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 is a mixtape, it's the one that your ex sends you after you break up with him, full of syrupy, sentimental tunes meant to reignite any last lingering sparks of feeling you may have once shared. It's "Seasons in the Sun" followed by "Alone Again (Naturally)" followed by "Everybody Hurts" followed by "The Christmas Shoes," and it serves only to remind you how right you were to dump the sappy chump when you did.

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Glen Powell’s Mother & Father Hilariously Troll Their Son in Wacky Photo from Hit Man Debut

Check out Glen Powell’s parents having a little fun at their son’s expense during the premiere of Hit Man in Austin via a hilarious pic.

• Glen Powell's parents surprisingly troll him at the Hit Man movie premiere in Austin, Texas, uniquely showing their support and hilarious sense of humor.
• All kidding aside, Powell's career is flourishing with roles in big hits like Top Gun: Maverick and Anyone but You under his belt.
• Collaborating again with Richard Linklater, Powell stars with Adria Arjona in Netflix's Hit Man, showcasing their great on-screen chemistry.

Clearly, a sense of humor runs in the family. While attending the premiere of director Richard Linklater's upcoming movie Hit Man in Austin, Texas, Glen Powell was surprisingly trolled by his own parents! Obviously, mom and dad (Cyndy and Glen Powell Sr.) carrying zany signs to seemingly raze their son’s confidence was all done in good fun. Adding insult to injury, Powell was also being inducted into the Texas Film Hall of Fame at the Paramount Theatre when his prankster parents let him have it on the red carpet.

It’s still outrageous to see momma and poppa Powell holding up brown poster boards behind their own kid — one of which reads: “Stop trying to make Glen Powell happen.” Talk about a reality check! Below is the outrageous photo in question of Powell posing with his mother and father, courtesy of Netflix's official Instagram account:

Powell’s parents certainly found an ingenious way to get their son some more publicity as they jokingly trolled him. Nonetheless, Glen Powell’s star continues to burn brighter and brighter in Tinseltown, especially after having appeared in 2022’s massive box office hit Top Gun: Maverick alongside Tom Cruise. And the actor’s big-screen team-up with Sydney Sweeney in the romantic comedy Anyone but You only helped further Powell’s career.

Before Powell gets caught up in all the mayhem of Twisters this July, though, the actor is collaborating once again with Linklater on Netflix's new film, Hit Man . Check out a brief synopsis of the romantic action comedy below, which co-stars Andor’s own Adria Arjona:

A mild-mannered professor moonlighting as a fake hit man in police stings ignites a chain reaction of trouble when he falls for a potential client.

Glen Powell Likens Meeting Hit Man Co-Star Adria Arjona to 'Best First Date'

Netflix’s $20-million deal to land Hit Man at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) was all the news last September, and the romantic action comedy will finally hit theaters this month. Powell portrays a college professor named Gary Johnson who has a multi-personality problem. Madison (Adria Arjona) then attempts to hire Gary’s hit man alter ego known as Ron, which leads to a romance between the two. Arjona spoke about her and Powell’s chemistry in an interview with Tudum:

“I met Rick [Linklater] on Zoom first, and then he set it up where I went out and met Glen, and we ended up talking for about four hours. We were both doing Sober January, and an hour into our dinner, we were both cutting loose, drinking tequila, and celebrating the fact that we were going to do this movie together.”

Glen Powell's 10 Best Movies, Ranked by Rotten Tomatoes

Powell chimed in during the same interview:

Sitting down with Adria the first time, it felt like the best first date, but also like I’d known her forever.

It’s going to be a busy summer movie season for Powell as The Blue Angels IMAX experience documentary is currently playing in theaters, which he serves as a producer on. Up next for the Anyone but You star is Netflix’s “killer comedy” Hit Man, and the film opens in select cinemas on May 24. And then Powell gets caught in those furious Twisters on July 19.

Hit Man will also drop Friday, June 7 on Netflix.

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The Guardian

A high school swim champion with a troubled past enrolls in the U.S. Coast Guard's "A" School, where legendary rescue swimmer Ben Randall teaches him some hard lessons about loss, love, and ... Read all A high school swim champion with a troubled past enrolls in the U.S. Coast Guard's "A" School, where legendary rescue swimmer Ben Randall teaches him some hard lessons about loss, love, and self-sacrifice. A high school swim champion with a troubled past enrolls in the U.S. Coast Guard's "A" School, where legendary rescue swimmer Ben Randall teaches him some hard lessons about loss, love, and self-sacrifice.

• Andrew Davis
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• 322 User reviews
• 125 Critic reviews
• 53 Metascore
• 1 win & 4 nominations

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• Trivia The opening story of the helo rescue gone bad was loosely based on a real event that occurred August 7, 1981. The crew of CG1471 from Airsta Kodiak was responding to a distress call of a fishing vessel near Prince William Sound. As the crew attempted to hoist the survivors of the boat, a wave hit the tail of CG1471 causing the helo to crash into the seas. A painting named "So Others May Live" hangs on CG Airsta Kodiak depicting the rescue.
• Goofs (at around 1h 12 mins) The "Squid Bar" Hodges and Fisch go to is filled with Sailors in the utility uniforms, along with various officers and chiefs. Sailors are not allowed to drink in the utility uniform or even go into a bar.

Ben Randall : Ya know, there never was anyone else Mag's.

Maggie McGlone : Like hell, Ben, you're a bigamist. You've been married to the coast guard all along. Now gimme that shoulder. Prolly swum it out of socket tryin to prove you was still nineteen.

Ben Randall : When the heck did we get old?

Maggie McGlone : Hell, I've always been old Ben. Ya' know what though, I don't mind. I mean if my muscles ache, it's because I've used 'em. It's hard for me to walk up them steps now, its 'cuz I walked up 'em every night to lay next to a man who loved me. I got a few wrinkles here and there, but I've layed under thousands of skies with sunny days. I look and feel this way, well cuz I drank and I smoked. I lived and I loved, danced, sang, sweat and screwed my way thorough a pretty damn good life if you ask me. Getting old ain't bad Ben. Getting old, that's earned.

• Connections Featured in Siskel & Ebert: The Departed/Open Season/The Guardian/The Last King of Scotland/The Queen/School for Scoundrels/Beerleague (2006)
• Soundtracks Saturday Night Written by Willy Abers, Raul Pacheco , Justin Poree , Asdru Sierra (as Asdru Sierra), Jiro Yamaguchi , Ulises Bella and J. Smith-Freedman Performed by Ozomatli Courtesy of Concord Music Group, Inc.

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• September 29, 2006 (United States)
• United States
• Thiên Sứ Biển Xanh
• Elizabeth City, North Carolina, USA
• Touchstone Pictures
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• $70,000,000 (estimated)
• $55,011,732
• $18,006,064
• Oct 1, 2006
• $94,973,540

Technical specs

• Runtime 2 hours 19 minutes
• Dolby Digital

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The guardian, common sense media reviewers.

Waterlogged rescue flick is too intense for kids.

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

An arrogant young swimmer learns to support his te

Several violent storms at sea; flashbacks show the

A fairly young couple engages in sexual activity,

One "f--k" several other profanities (&q

Wild Turkey liquor bottle is visible.

Characters drink in bars to get drunk; some vomiti

Parents need to know that this action drama includes several harrowing scenes of storms and sinking boats at sea. Rescue swimmers valiantly try to save victims, but some deaths occur on screen (not bloody, but sad and -- in one case -- quite disturbing). Kids with fears about water should probably see something else…

Positive Messages

An arrogant young swimmer learns to support his team and make hard choices in rescue situations; a lonely veteran swimmer trains youngsters to take up his heroic legacy.

Violence & Scariness

Several violent storms at sea; flashbacks show the dangers of Coast Guard rescue-swimming; a rescuer has to punch a hysterical victim; a couple of rescuers die; a helicopter crashes and explodes; a trainer is punched in the nose and bleeds; a couple of barfights with Navy sailors leave Jake (and then Ben) bloodied and bruised; training is hard (in freezing water, holding breath, swimming to the point of exhaustion).

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Sex, Romance & Nudity

A fairly young couple engages in sexual activity, including passionate kisses and some playful rolling in bed, wearing underwear and mostly under the covers.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.

One "f--k" several other profanities ("damn," "s--t," "a--hole," etc.).

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Products & Purchases

Drinking, drugs & smoking.

Characters drink in bars to get drunk; some vomiting; Ben chews Vicodins to kill physical and emotional pain; some cigarette smoking.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that this action drama includes several harrowing scenes of storms and sinking boats at sea. Rescue swimmers valiantly try to save victims, but some deaths occur on screen (not bloody, but sad and -- in one case -- quite disturbing). Kids with fears about water should probably see something else. Sailors and swimmers argue and draw blood in fistfights. A couple falls in love and is shown kissing and in bed (no explicit sex, but tumbling under blankets and some underwear shots). Protagonists drink, take painkillers, and use occasional profanity. To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

Where to Watch

Videos and photos.

Community Reviews

• Parents say (2)
• Kids say (7)

Based on 2 parent reviews

Its okay to let other people in

Another great movie, what's the story.

Kevin Costner stars as Ben Randall, a veteran Coast Guard rescue swimmer who turns to teaching after a traumatic event leaves him unable to carry on as usual. Ben needs to recover his nerve, while cocky student Jake ( Ashton Kutcher ) learn to play nicely with others, including his girlfriend, Emily (Melissa Sagemiller). Both teacher and student have suffered; the revelations of that suffering lead each to his own sort of manly re-commitment. At the rescue-swimming training facility, Ben's red-lit nightmares are compounded by the fact that his long-suffering wife, Helen (Sela Ward), has left him. He self-medicates and grumps at the recruits, and for 18 weeks, drills his trainees hard. Ben's methods occasionally alarm and annoy his fellow instructors, including resentful second-in-command Jack (Neal McDonough) and skeptical presiding officer Larson (John Heard). During his down time, Ben calls Helen to beg forgiveness and helps Jake avenge a beating he received from disdainful Navy sailors. Though the trainees' ranks do include a woman, the focus here is on boys learning to be men. Ben and Jake see themselves in each other, pretty much to the exclusion of anyone else. When Emily suggests to Jake that Ben may be "trying to push you to be better," Jake sets her straight: "He knows I'm better than he is!"

Is It Any Good?

With a retread plot, plenty of boy-bonding action, and a shirtless Ashton Kutcher, this is a by-the-numbers crowd pleaser that's about as dull as a heroic redemption story could be.

Per formula, parallel redemption stories grant "emotional" moments to both Ben and Kutcher's Jake. By the time Jake has his big breakdown scene (he cries, though he doesn't actually say, "I got nowhere else to go!"), it's clear that, for all their earnest, actorly efforts, neither man has a chance against Ron L. Brinkerhoff's hackneyed script.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about ways to deal with trauma. How does the movie make the case that focusing on the future (in the form of students to be taught and lives to be saved) helps Ben overcome his guilt, anger, and frustration? What are other ways -- both successful and unsuccessful -- that people deal with traumatic events? How do Ben and Jake's similarities (ambition, competitiveness, tragic pasts) make them ideal partners? What other movies have used a similar structure (tough veteran mentors young hot shot)? Families can also discuss the work of the Coast Guard, including the unit's heroic rescues on the Gulf Coast following Hurricane Katrina.

Movie Details

• In theaters : September 28, 2006
• On DVD or streaming : January 23, 2007
• Cast : Ashton Kutcher , Kevin Costner , Melissa Sagemiller
• Director : Andrew Davis
• Studio : Buena Vista
• Genre : Action/Adventure
• Run time : 136 minutes
• MPAA rating : PG-13
• MPAA explanation : for intense sequences of action/peril, brief strong language and some sensuality.
• Last updated : November 16, 2023

Did we miss something on diversity?

Research shows a connection between kids' healthy self-esteem and positive portrayals in media. That's why we've added a new "Diverse Representations" section to our reviews that will be rolling out on an ongoing basis. You can help us help kids by suggesting a diversity update.

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Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3

Where to watch.

Watch Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 with a subscription on Disney+, rent on Fandango at Home, Prime Video, or buy on Fandango at Home, Prime Video.

What to Know

A galactic group hug that might squeeze a little too tight on the heartstrings, the final Guardians of the Galaxy is a loving last hurrah for the MCU's most ragtag family.

Taking the team in a darker direction without sacrificing heart or humor, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 ends the trilogy on an entertaining high note.

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Of the many threats to modern man documented in horror films - the slashers, the haunters, the body snatchers - the most innocent would seem to be the druids. What, after all, can a druid really do to you, apart from dropping fast-food wrappers on the lawn while worshipping your trees? That's what I would have said, anyway, until I saw "The Guardian," a movie about a baby-sitter whose goal is to capture babies and embed them in a vast and towering old sacred druidical tree, which she apparently carts around with her from state to state and aeon to aeon.

The druid, who probably is immortal but takes the human form of a foxy British governness, is played by Jenny Seagrove . Even the people who hire her observe that she's too pretty to be a governess. They are a Chicago couple ( Dwier Brown and Carey Lowell ) who move to Los Angeles after he gets a better job in the advertising business. A lot better: In Chicago they lived in a two-bedroom flat, but in L.A., despite the higher real estate prices, they're able to rent a house by a famous architect ( Brad Hall ), who even drops in personally to repair the doors. The house is right on the edge of one of those vast, deep, green forests that we all know are such a feature of Los Angeles topography.

The nanny brings good references with her, and has one of those British accents that costs a lot to acquire and maintain. She also knows a lot about children. She knows, for example, that after 30 days the "baby cells" in the blood stream are replaced by grown-up cells.

This seems to be particularly important to her.

Having established these facts, "The Guardian" then bolts headlong into the thickets of standard horror film cliches: ominous music, curtains blowing in the wind, empty baby cribs, dire warnings from strange women, manifestations of savage canines, and the lot. The architect comes to a gruesome end, the husband suspects the nanny's vile scheme, and about the only original touch in the movie is that, for the first time in horror film history, a chain saw is used against its intended target, a tree.

"The Guardian" was directed by William Friedkin , sometimes a great filmmaker (" The Exorcist ," " The French Connection "). His most recent previous film, based on a true crime case, was named " Rampage " and was not even properly released. I saw it and admired it. Now this. Maybe after years of banging his head against the system Friedkin decided with "The Guardian" to make a frankly commercial exploitation film. On the level of special effects and photography, "The Guardian" is indeed well made. But give us a break.

Roger Ebert

Roger Ebert was the film critic of the Chicago Sun-Times from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, he won the Pulitzer Prize for distinguished criticism.

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Film credits.

The Guardian (1990)

Jenny Seagrove as Camilla

Dwier Brown as Phil

Carey Lowell as Kate

Brad Hall as Ned Runcie

Miguel Ferrer as Ralph Hess

Natalia Nogulich as Molly Sheridan

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• William Friedkin
• Stephen Volk
• Dan Greenburg

Produced by

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