What started as an outlier in the Marvel Comics Universe and then became fully integrated into said world with its characters shared across almost all the company’s projects finally comes to an end. Your level of satisfaction with this last chapter will be in line with your acceptance of the basic structure of almost all Marvel projects.
Volume 3 of Guardians of the Galaxy shares the franchise’s penchant for fantastic visuals highlighting imaginative new worlds with recognisable rock songs to help create momentum. It also features characters that are written well within the lines. This gives things a comforting familiarity but one open for a slight expansion of backstory. This time the highlights are the details about Rocket’s (Bradley Cooper) origin story.
As with all the MCU’s big-budget productions, the film looks spectacular and tries its best to successfully mix comedy with cosmic peril. There are some clunky moments in the script that fly by without doing much damage and others that register real emotional connection. The underlining theme of the power of friendship is never far from the surface.
Recreating the freshness of the first edition would have been near impossible as the second edition showed but round three redeems itself quite nicely and brings things to a satisfactory close. It might not win many new converts but those invested in what has come before will find much to like in this final chapter.
Rob Hudson
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