 For some the MCU isn't as reliable as it used to be, so they might be a little bit hesitant going into Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 3. That and we have the dreaded curse of the trilogy with the third movie usually dropping the ball in a big way. So the question today is, did James Gunn get it right? Is Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 3 worthy of the name? Or does it fall in line with some of those other horrible trilogy films? I'm gonna talk about it right now in a spoiler free review. Let's begin. I think we're old enough and mature enough to understand that taste is subjective, so a lot of critic reviews out there are straight up opinions. And trust gets built up once they have a nice catalog that you can rely on and look back and say, okay, this person's consistent. I like to think I am as well, so please think about subscribing if you haven't already. I post lots of movie content each week. We'd love to have you stick around. Where I stand with Guardians of the Galaxy. I love them. Both of them. I know some people don't like the second one. It gets a little too out there, a little too goofy, a little too colorful. It undercuts some of the drama. That stuff's all true. I just happen to like most of those criticisms outside of the undercutting the drama. I do agree. Sometimes it was a bit much. But ultimately these movies are about the characters. We have a lot of different characters with a lot of different baggage to overcome. Every single movie, they grow more and more. Sometimes they even fall backwards, which is what we see here with Peter Quill's character. He's grieving over the loss of Gamora in this film. We have Gamora in here, but she's a very different Gamora than we saw in the past films. Groot's growing up quite literally. He's a plant monster, so that's what they do. You feed him water. You feed him some soil. They're just gonna sprout up. And then if you've watched any of the trailers or saw the posters even, the focus is really on Rocket. Or at least that's what they lead you to believe, which is true. But thankfully, he's not the entire story. Every character gets chances to shine and man, do they shine. I loved Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 3. Long story short, right? I was a big fan of it. And if you didn't like Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 2, but you really liked the first, I think you're gonna be very happy here. Because while it is still fun, while it still has that out there nonsense, the colorful, crazy worlds and characters and just bizarre James Gunn thoughts spewed out onto the screen. Of course, a lot of it comes from comics too. But through the lens of gun, it's brought to life on the big screen. That stuff's still there, but he does it in a more mature way. He doesn't undercut the drama this time. In fact, he lets it breathe. He gives you a lot of it. This is a sad movie. It's a funny movie. It's an action-packed adventure. It's got it all. It's got it all. This has a sad feel to it. It's grown up. We've grown with these characters. I look at this movie like I look at Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. There was a pretty big jump between two and three. Tonally, visually. Everything was different. Everything was taken up a couple notches. Volume 3 is more vulgar. It's more violent. It's shot differently. It felt like a different director was behind the camera. There were a lot of things happening I had not seen in previous James Gunn movies. A lot more frantic style of filming. There were more of these POV style shots. It was very in your face. It felt real. There was a lot of authenticity on display. I'm sure a ton of it was done in digital, but unlike Ant-Man and the Wasp, unlike Thor Love and Thunder, it never felt like these guys were just walking in place in front of a green screen. It really did feel natural. Most of us like Guardians of the Galaxy for the team dynamic, the family aspect. Unlike those bullcrap fast and the furious movies, these legitimately have them. These really do feel like a cohesive family with natural organic dialogue. They're poking fun at each other, taking shots, embracing in the next scene, setting each other up for failure, setting each other up for success. It's all here. And Gunn has this amazing ability to jump from humorous sections of a film to drama to back again. At one moment, it feels like you're watching a good old-fashioned Guardians 2 sequence, but then you're whisked away into a dark, gritty Disney drama with animal critters that you're not sure are going to survive to the next scene. A couple of things people always want to know. If you have kids, should you bring them? I think nine and up is probably pretty safe. There are some more aggressive sequences in this one for sure. They really push the PG-13 with both the vulgar stuff, some of the animal things. There's some torture. It's all CG creatures, but still, that's tough for some kids to watch. Tread lightly with the kids on this one. Even if they saw the previous two Guardians, this one is more aggressive. Like I said, Harry Potter 2 to Harry Potter 3. As far as the end credit scenes, there are two of them. One's at the way end. I don't think it's worth sitting around for, but if you like this stuff, you know, obviously just stick around because it is there. But first one's solid, second one, whatever. Ever since Endgame, I've been incredibly let down by the MCU. Thankfully, I'm a movie fan, not just an MCU fan. So there's lots of movies out there for me to go to. Outside of the Disney crap. That said, I was really hopeful Guardians would be good. Scared, a little bit nervous. But man, I am very happy to say all my fears were washed away when I saw this thing. I was fully engrossed in it. The two and a half hours flew by. I could have watched another two. I didn't want it to end. And that's a testament to a great film. Usually I throw a fit if a movie's over an hour 45. Like, I don't want it. I can't be here that long. I didn't want to leave the theater because I love these characters so much. And when I look at some of the most successful competent trilogies as a whole, back to the future, Star Wars, the OG trilogy, Lord of the Rings, this is right up there with them. James Gunn was three for three for me. Hopefully it's the same for you. Tell me if you saw the movie already, or if you're planning on it. Leave a comment below. Please throw me a like and subscribe if you're new here. Would love to have you stick around. And hopefully I see you next time.