Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 3 (Gunn, 2023)

“He’s the only one of you who doesn’t hate himself.”

So says Mantis (Pom Klementieff) about Drax (Dave Bautista), in one of those character-developing moments that helps explain what makes Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 3 better than anything Marvel has put out in some time: it has meaningful character development.

I like MCU movies — at least I think I do — but I haven’t felt a genuine emotion while watching one since Peter told Tony he was scared as he dissolved into dust. So I wasn’t expecting much from GotG3 beyond more wisecracks, shenanigans, and a too-cool-to-care exterior.

Instead, the newest Marvel film leans hard in the other direction. Peter (Chris Pratt) admits how deeply lonely he is without Gamora. Rocket’s horrific backstory makes even Nebula wince. Mantis reveals how upsetting it can be to know the depths of pain that another won’t even admit to himself or herself. Yes, there are space battles, but the impetus for them is personal rather than universal survival, and that makes us more invested in the outcome. The irony that Marvel has backed into is that the bigger the stakes, the less likely we are to believe they can be lost. The movies have become like playing Zynga poker where someone goes all-in every hand knowing that there are infinite resets and do-overs. Here, knowing that one character might not make it to the end raises the tension, since we actually believe that Marvel could dispense one character.

Another thing that MCU movies traditionally suck at but which GotG3 does very well is closure. Compare this installation to the last Thor movie and you see a major contrast in the way transitions between story arcs can be handled. The ending provides a logical reason for some characters to move on and others to be integrated for possible sequels. Yes, this transition is helped by the fact that none of the characters in Guardians is a core MCU staple, but it bodes well that the franchise may at least be thinking about renewing the characters rather than just endlessly recasting and rebooting.

I saw this film with a Marvel-junkie and he confessed to be disappointed in the treatment of Adam Warlock. If you are steeped in Marvel enough to know that character’s backstory and treatment, you may be as well, though it honestly bothered me less than the treatment of M.O.D.O.K. in Quantumania. Some may complain that the villain, a sadistic Black man with delusions of godhood, might be a tad too superficially close to Kang for the non-MCU junkies. For me, the film hit the sweet spot. Enough familiarity to make me feel like I knew the characters without so much formula that I felt like I had seen it before.

What would you risk your life for? Really, if the survival of everyone and everything in the universe was at stake, wouldn’t we all…as a pragmatic decision? But if it was your best friend? Your former lover? Your last family member? There’s so much talk about “family” in comic book movies — the hero team as a metaphorical family is a cliche as old as the genre itself. Volume 3 interjects some life into a tired formula by remembering that families cause us pain as well as joy. The deeper joy — that of belonging — can be found in the families we forge rather than only those we are born into. And as long as we know we are capable of daring greatly, as Brene Brown might remind us, we retain the capacity to love and to make life, however long it is, more meaningful.