Review: All Creatures Great and Small in ‘Guardians 3’

Cast member Chris Pratt attends the premiere of "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3" in Los Angeles, California, US, April 27, 2023. (Reuters)
Cast member Chris Pratt attends the premiere of "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3" in Los Angeles, California, US, April 27, 2023. (Reuters)
TT
20

Review: All Creatures Great and Small in ‘Guardians 3’

Cast member Chris Pratt attends the premiere of "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3" in Los Angeles, California, US, April 27, 2023. (Reuters)
Cast member Chris Pratt attends the premiere of "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3" in Los Angeles, California, US, April 27, 2023. (Reuters)

When Peter “Star-Lord” Quill, while inspecting a murky extraterrestrial region, pressed play on Redbone’s “Come and Get Your Love” in the first “Guardians of the Galaxy,” it would have been hard to imagine that James Gunn’s space opera would ultimately lead to something as sincere, poignant and kinda cornball as the trilogy-ending “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3.”

But as Gunn has showed over over the course of these increasingly soupy sci-fi spectacles, the genetically spliced DNA of his chaotic, cartoonish cosmic vision is a double helix of opposites. Breezy ’70s rock papers over extreme violence. Cynical exteriors cloak sentimental emotions. A ragtag group of outcasts, more so than even the cast of “Fast and the Furious,” talk a lot about “family” and “friends.” Against the odds, “Come and get your love” has turned out to be a legit invitation.

“Vol. 3” is a messy, overstuffed finale. But you rarely question whether Gunn’s heart is in it. Sometimes it spoils some of that effect by trying too hard to juxtapose tonal extremes, and show off its brash juggling act. Yet whatever this sweet, surreal sci-fi shamble is that Gunn has created, everyone here seems to believe ardently in it. And for even a movie that sends a golden-hued Will Poulter shooting through space to the tune of Heart’s “Crazy on You,” that earnest belief goes a long way.

The song, though, that kicks off “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3” is not an upbeat one. Radiohead’s “Creep” casts a sour mood over the Guardians, who we find in a lethargic state of disarray in the spaceport Knowhere following their 2017 “Empire Strikes Back”-esque second chapter.

Whether “Guardians of the Galaxy” is best suited to strike these solemn notes, or reach for such last-chapter poignancy in “Vol. 3” is debatable. I’ve always liked these films at their most cartoonish. Donning a degree of self-importance is probably the most Marvel thing about this “Guardians.” Gunn’s films — which, unlike most of the comic-book studio’s releases, are both written and directed by him — have always stood out for their distinct lack of Marvel house style. “Guardians 3,” unfortunately, has contracted a touch of “Endgame” grandiosity.

The group — including Star-Lord (Chris Pratt), Drax the Destroyer (Dave Bautista), Nebula (Karen Gillan) and Groot (voiced by Vin Diesel) — is quickly sent into emergency mode. Adam Warlock (Poulter), an artificial being created by the High Priestess Ayesha (Elizabeth Debicki), comes careening into their lair, leaving Rocket (voiced by Bradley Cooper and played in motion capture by Sean Gunn) on his deathbed. To save Rocket, a cybernetically enhanced raccoon, the Guardians must hurriedly resuscitate him with his original programming.

This means traveling to the lab he was created in years before by the High Evolutionary (a sensational Chukwudi Iwuji, an all-time Marvel villain), a Doctor Moreau sort who’s been toiling to craft a “perfect” race of hybrid creatures to populate a copy of planet Earth. As the Guardians seek to infiltrate his realm, “Vol. 3” repeatedly flashes back to Rocket’s experience with the High Evolutionary: his transformation from raccoon, his joyful experience with other experimental creations and his harrowing escape.

It’s telling that in this “Guardians” swan song that Gunn centers Rocket and less so Quill, whose father-son drama dominated “Vol. 2.” (Here, he’s mostly in save-my-friend mode when not wrestling with the heartbreak of this version of Zoe Saldaña’s Gamora. Thanks to some “Avengers” events, she no longer even knows him.)

These are foremost epics of orphandom about distinctly un-superhuman characters. Mother and father figures float in and out, while the Guardians attract one forlorn figure after another. In “Vol. 3,” it’s both comical and even a little stirring just how far empathy reaches for all of God’s — and Marvel’s — creatures. Gunn has taken a woebegone B-team or C-team of comic book oddballs and cast them into a cosmic tapestry of weirdos and misfits, ranging wildly in size, shape, color and dancing ability.

In “Vol. 3,” Gunn really lets the freak flag fly, putting the Guardians in battle with not just the High Evolutionary but the notion of perfection. It’s not a coincidence that this “Guardians” film arrives, finally, in the suburbs — or at least some slightly warped version of it.

Gunn, a B-movie director at heart, fills these films with more sinewy than sleek worlds, full of florid beauty and opulent grotesquerie. (“Vol. 3,” more than the last two films, reminded me of “The Fifth Element,” a good thing.) It’s often clear that his ambitions are sometimes just a bit too much; this, like his DC film “The Suicide Squad,” “Vol. 3” could have used a firmer editor to corral some of Gunn’s impulse for excess.

This installment, of course, nearly didn’t happen after Gunn’s firing years ago. And partially because of that forced hiatus, he’s now ruling an even larger, more mainstream superhero cosmos at DC. That surely has something to do with the sense of parting that permeates the final act of “Guardians 3.” After so many speeches about friendship and togetherness, “Vol. 3” ends curiously elegiacally, and with one last dance.



Movie Review: A Weird ‘Superman’ Is Better than a Boring One

 Cast member David Corenswet attends a premiere for the film "Superman" at the TCL Chinese theater in Los Angeles, California, US, July 7, 2025. (Reuters)
Cast member David Corenswet attends a premiere for the film "Superman" at the TCL Chinese theater in Los Angeles, California, US, July 7, 2025. (Reuters)
TT
20

Movie Review: A Weird ‘Superman’ Is Better than a Boring One

 Cast member David Corenswet attends a premiere for the film "Superman" at the TCL Chinese theater in Los Angeles, California, US, July 7, 2025. (Reuters)
Cast member David Corenswet attends a premiere for the film "Superman" at the TCL Chinese theater in Los Angeles, California, US, July 7, 2025. (Reuters)

It’s a bird, it’s a plane, it’s a ... a purple and orange shape-shifting chemical compound?

Writer-director James Gunn’s “Superman” was always going to be a strange chemistry of filmmaker and material. Gunn, the mind behind “Guardians of the Galaxy” and “The Suicide Squad,” has reliably drifted toward a B-movie superhero realm populated (usually over-populated) with the lesser-known freaks, oddities and grotesquerie of back-issue comics.

But you don’t get more mainstream than Superman. And let’s face it, unless Christopher Reeve is in the suit, the rock-jawed Man of Steel can be a bit of a bore. Much of the fun and frustration of Gunn’s movie is seeing how he stretches and strains to make Superman, you know, interesting.

In the latest revamp for the archetypal superhero, Gunn does a lot to give Superman (played with an easy charm by David Corenswet) a lift. He scraps the origin story. He gives Superman a dog. And he ropes in not just expected regulars like Lois Lane (Rachel Brosnahan) and Lex Luthor (Nicholas Hoult) but some less conventional choices — none more so than that colorful jumble of elements, Metamorpho (Anthony Carrigan).

Metamorpho, a melancholy, mutilated man whose powers were born out of tragedy, is just one of many side shows in “Superman.” But he’s the most representative of what Gunn is going for. Gunn might favor a traditional-looking hero at the center, like Chris Pratt’s Star-Lord in “Guardians of the Galaxy.” And Corenswet, complete with hair curl, looks the part, too. But Gunn’s heart is with the weirdos who soldier on.

The heavy lift of “Superman” is making the case that the perfect superhuman being with “S” on his chest is strange, too. He’s a do-gooder at a time when no one does good anymore.

Not everything works in “Superman.” For those who like their Superman classically drawn, Gunn’s film will probably seem too irreverent and messy. But for anyone who found Zack Snyder’s previous administration painfully ponderous, this “Superman,” at least, has a pulse.

It would be hard to find a more drastic 180 in franchise stewardship. Where Snyder’s films were super-serious mythical clashes of colossuses, Gunn’s “Superman” is lightly earthbound, quirky and sentimental. When this Superman flies, he even keeps his arms back, like an Olympic skeleton rider.

We begin not on Krypton or Kansas but in Antarctica, near the Fortress of Solitude. The opening titles set-up the medias res beginning. Three centuries ago, metahumans first appeared on Earth. Three minutes ago, Superman lost a battle for the first time. Lying bloodied in the snow, he whistles and his faithful super dog, Krypto, comes running.

Like some of Gunn’s other novelty gags (I’m looking at you Groot), Krypto is both a highlight and overused gag throughout. Superman is in the midst of a battle by proxy with Luthor. From atop his Luthor Corp. skyscraper headquarters, Luther gives instructions to a team sitting before computer screens while, on a headset, barking out coded battle directions to drone-assisted henchmen. “13-B!” he shouts, like a Bingo caller.

Whether this is an ideal localizing of main characters in conflict is a debate that recedes a bit when, back in Metropolis, Clark Kent returns to the Daily Planet. There’s Wendell Pierce as the editor-in-chief, Perry White, and Skyler Gisondo as Jimmy Olsen. But the character of real interest here is, of course, Lois.

She and Kent are already an item in “Superman.” When alone, Lois chides him over the journalistic ethics of interviewing himself after some daring do, and questions his flying into countries without their leaders’ approval. Brosnahan slides so comfortably into the role that I wonder if “Superman” ought to have been “Lois,” instead. Her scenes with Corenswet are the best in the film, and the movie loses its snap when she’s not around.

That’s unfortunately for a substantial amount of time. Luthor traps Superman in a pocket universe (enter Metamorpho, among others) and the eccentric members of the Justice Gang — Nathan Fillion’s Green Lantern, Edi Gathegi’s Mister Terrific and Isabela Merced’s Hawkgirl — are called upon to lend a hand. They come begrudgingly. But if there’s anyone else that comes close to stealing the movie, it’s Gathegi, who meets increasingly absurd cataclysm with wry deadpan.

The fate of the world, naturally, again turns iffy. There’s a rift in the universe, not to mention some vaguely defined trouble in Boravia and Jarhanpur. In such scenes, Gunn's juggling act is especially uneasy and you can feel the movie lurching from one thing to another. Usually, that's Krypto's cue to fly back into the movie and run amok.

Gunn, who now presides over DC Studios with producer Peter Safran, is better with internal strife than he is international politics. Superman is often called “the Kryptonian” or “the alien" by humans, and Gunn leans into his outsider status. Not for the first time, Superman’s opponents try to paint him as an untrustworthy foreigner. With a modicum of timeliness, “Superman” is an immigrant story.

Mileage will inevitably vary when it comes to Gunn’s idiosyncratic touch. He can be outlandish and sweet, often at once. In a conversation between metahumans, he will insert a donut into the scene for no real reason, and cut from a body falling through the air to an Alka-Seltzer tablet dropping into a glass. Some might call such moments glib, a not-unfair label for Gunn. But I’d say they make this pleasantly imperfect “Superman” something quite rare in the assembly line-style of superhero moviemaking today: human.