Actually thought this was great! Entertaining, well made, emotional and most of the characters had enough screentime. Rocket's backstory =(

MCU going from one of their worst movies to one of their best lol

Yep, this is very good, and especially pleasant because the high of the MCU and comic book films felt had passed a while ago. This easily flips that trend, better than volume 2 because of the strong Rocket backstory and the emotional leverage it pulls in with that. The humour and the soundtrack is still very much Guardians style and a fun ride to be a part of. There's really just not much not to like about this. There's a little bit of fat in some parts where the rest of Guardians go on their mission to save Rocket, but all together it's easily better than most of the MCU. I liked Gamora's role of re-inventing her presence in the group and the Badlands song in the credits is a winner too.

B+

A+

Open the fucking door!

Rocket Teefs Floor go now.

I liked it but it was convoluted. Have to watch it again

I thought the story was good and the action and special effects were better than they have been lately. But the plot was a bit overly complicated and there were too many characters

Maybe you were tired when you saw it, I think it was pretty straight forward, or maybe you were thrown off by the jumping between Rocket's origin and the present, though I didn't think that was hard to comprehend. Sure the characters are indeed abundant, but not so that it bothered me anyway either.

Adam Warlock was probably unnecessary. But I think he provided a good thematic counter to Rocket on the villain side and had a number of funny lines to balance out his main role as Plot Device.

Epic. Loved it. Ticked all the boxes. Perhaps my favourite MCU.

Yeah it was straight forward and not convoluted. Gunn handled all the various threads extremely well.

Yeah I saw it again and it holds up. Top tier MCU for sure.

I'd rank post-Endgame MCU:
Guardians 3
No Way Home
Shang-Chi
Wakanda Forever
Black Widow
Eternals
Multiverse of Madness
Love and Thunder
Quantumania

The No Sleep Till Brooklyn hallway scene is maybe my favorite moment since Cap summoned Mjolnir. The moment the doorway opens and you just know all those goons are so fucked was gold and then everything after even better.

Empathy.

A

I've been excited for Gunn's take on Superman. After Guardians 3 it's clear he's the right guy for the job. He also does that action thing kinda well.

Easily the best MCU movie post Endgame and Top 5 (#4) MCU movie for me.

I think this is what Love & Thunder was going for and almost completely whiffed at.

I appreciated the zany, manic energy during the heist scenes on that disgusting-looking organic space station, reminded me of Fifth Element. Some unexpected body horror moments as well. There are also geniunely touching moments throughout. But it ends up throwing way too much at the wall in terms of characters and CGI porn for me to consider this more than solid entertainment, which I suspect was more Marvel's decision than Gunn's. I long for the day when Marvel takes the DC approach and truly lets auteur directors have their way with the material.

B

I didn't think it was as good as the first two. I found it a bit silly, to be honest. And the story left a bit to be desired. It felt not small exactly, but odd, and the absurdity level felt more Suicide Squad or Star Wars than previous Guardians movies. I was also underwhelmed by Will Poulter's character. When he came on the scene he was pretty good, then he dwindled throughout. Everyone was just a bit silly in the movie, different than before. And the bad guy(s) reminded me of the bad guys from The Chronicles of Riddick; dressed up to the nines, rigid, not much of a threat, but they speak a big game.

It didn't grab me or move me at all. I guess I just didn't buy Peter's undying love for Rocket. That's never been present before. It's far from a bad film. But it is the "worst film" of the trilogy. It just didn't hit me like it seems to have most. But then also I have noticed that I am feeling more and more disappointed with new films I see. Maybe it's age, I don't know - they just don't do it for me as much as before. The big effect-heavy movies with their bells and whistles: I'll pass. But the soundtrack is good for the most part. Some songs are greatly utilized, then others are spliced up or mixed into the film in odd ways.

Oh, and Mantis turned into a real diva in this one. She's so mouthy, lol.

The plot is fairly simple. But I did find the film wasn't very efficient in terms of geography and relaying its bearings well.

Good sendoff for the characters (except Star Lord, I suppose) and the franchise.

Maybe more so than any post-Endgame MCU film, I think you see the tole that entire saga had on the Guardians here. They're angry, depressed, just generally emotional. THEY LIKE TO YELL A LOT! They're all either picking up the pieces still or in a state of trying to find themselves again. You see how it's impacted Peter Parker in the Spider-Man films too, but besides him, there hasn't been much otherwise until now. And it comes across very well, IMO here.

The visuals are mostly nice, though there are some obvious CGI moments and "I know that's a green screen background!" scenes that are distracting. Not as bad as many other modern films, but still a stepdown versus pre-pandemic VFX/CGI.

Rocket's backstory hits the emotional chords, and I can see a bit of an argument of "Why does Peter care this much about Rocket?" I never doubted he cared for Rocket, but I also don't recall any moments between them that screams "best friend." The group trying to save him hits more for me than just the individual Peter and Rocket relationship.

The High Evolutionary comes across as a good unhinged villain. I don't know the character, maybe there was some "good" intent behind his drive to create a perfect utopia, mostly assuming as much from his "God wasn't doing anything, so I stepped in" (or something like that) line. But it's also impossible to really care for him given his methods, of course. I thought the role was well-acted for a character who has basically had a mental mind-break in his pursuits.

Adam Warlock probably could have been cut entirely. I don't know if plans changed and his role was much bigger originally, but besides saving Peter at the end here, he was unneeded. And even then, they could have found another way for Peter to be saved (maybe Rocket does something). I didn't dislike his character, but again... remove him and I don't think anything changes here?

Glad they allowed this Gamora to be her own character. It would have been annoying, honestly, if she gradually became the "old Gamora" and fell for Peter or something. And overall, enjoyed the ending all the characters got.

I'll go with a B+. It doesn't top the original for me (the original is still my favorite MCU film), and it's a different kind of film than Guardians Vol. 2 so it's hard to compare them. I'd say it's at least as good.

Not my favorite of the series but still solid enough. I think Rocket's backstory and the villain worked, and counter-earth was a cool idea for the relative short period it's there, and it has some nice action scenes like the hallway or changing the gravity on Fillion's men. It pulled the trigger going dark killing those animal friends and even something like the chinese scientist's death smashing into the ground surprised me a bit. I'm a little less high on how present day Rocket is used before the attack or after he wakes up, maybe there was a big talking scene with Peter and him missing or something. I agree the Guardians seem on edge/closed off, some of them joined the group midway through the trilogy so it's not really a family having one last adventure, mean Gamora and Peter's chemistry works but I found Nebula's prickliness a a little offputting, and Drax humor doesn't have as much to work with in this one with the stress. The Will Poulter parts weren't the most necessary though it led to a nice ending I guess. Still on the whole I'd rather watch an average Guardians movie than most MCU.