Starring Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldaña, Dave Bautista, Karen Gillan, Pom Klementieff, Vin Diesel, Bradley Cooper, Will Poulter, Sean Gunn, Chukwudi Iwuji, Linda Cardellini, Nathan Fillion, and Sylvester Stallone

Directed by James Gunn

Disney, out now

The Guardians are attacked by Adam Warlock…

Despite appearing in the culmination of the Infinity Gauntlet saga, the Guardians of the Galaxy have always steered their own path through the MCU. If there’s an arc to the trilogy it’s about growing up. Not in the sense of leaving the nest or maturing but in the very real sense of children becoming adults.

At the heart of this has been Starlord but, in truth, the other characters have always held their own, feeling fleshed out and capable of living lives entirely independent of the human in their midst.

This is all to the Guardians’ strength because an ensemble works only if you think each member of the crew has their own internal private life going on where no one else is watching. The audience has to believe that each person exists in their own right.

In a world where all too often the emotional stakes are flattened by lacklustre storytelling, Guardians gets enough right that I cared what was happening to the people in the film even if I never felt they were in danger (because they never are).

Don’t get me wrong, this third volume is a definite ending and it lands that ending really well. Not least in having a villain in the shape of Chukwudi Iwuji’s High Evolutionary who basically wants a world without any pain, suffering or imperfection. As a metaphor for growing up and having to come to terms with the limits of real life, he reflects back the struggles of the Guardians very well.

He also chews the scenery fantastically and, for once, we get a proper insight into why he wants things the way he does. It’s not clear quite where he’s come from or who he really is but in terms of his actions during the events of the movie, they hang together well enough that he is just the right villain.

The second film was pretty undisciplined, feeling at times like a particularly bad session of Dungeons & Dragons, this has the same rambunctious feel but manages to hold its worst excesses at bay.

That’s not to say the film isn’t messy but it’s not Thor Love and Thunder messy. Rather it’s the kind of messy that is overwhelmingly joyful, full on and in love with its characters.

The story does a good job of creating real stakes and establishing why what our characters are trying, matters. For a Marvel film this is a welcome development and was a big part of why I enjoyed the film quite as much as I did.

We also need to talk about Adam Warlock, played by Will Poulter. I could have watched a lot more of his nonsense. He had the freshness of Drax’s first appearance. I accept that too much of him would have quickly overloaded what was special but I think just a little more would have helped flesh out his particular subplot.

Having said that the movie is already long although unlike some of Marvel’s other recent entries, it didn’t feel like it outstayed its welcome even if they could learn a lot from Renfield’s runtime.

I also want to highlight that once again the music in this film bangs. From Radiohead to Florence and the Machine, the choice and timing of each song elevates this story, tying together emotional beats and unashamedly tapping out how our heroes are feeling.

Back to the ideas around growing up.

If the second film was about accepting who you are regardless of the mess your family might make of things this film is about accepting who you are within your community, about being old enough to revisit the past and understand that it is both good and bad. Peter Quill has this arc and it’s joined to the arc about him finding a family (the first film), understanding his origins (the second) and, really, finding himself in this last film.

Yet this film is as much about Rocket whose arc is largely the same as Peter’s but comes with its own emotional heft because we see, in the course of this single film, Peter’s entire journey across the trilogy played out in condensed form for Rocket but with no less care and attention.

The same could be said, in part, for Mantis and Drax as well.

Verdict: The culmination of so many character arcs is, ultimately, deeply satisfying and left me feeling like we’d reached a good and proper end to their story. In a superhero franchise it feels like this kind of resolution is rare, so I’ll take it and sit back wishing studios were brave enough to do this more often.

Rating? 8 armoured flesh suits out of 10.

Stewart Hotston