Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3

The stars aligned and Jupiter was in Uranus…the whole family was off work last Sunday, so I suggested dinner and a movie, mostly as a desperate play to get crab legs. I DID get my crab legs, and a pretty good film to boot.

I didn’t see Vol. 1 or Vol. 2 in the theater, but we’re THAT family now – we go see every MCU film in the theater now. No regertz.

I was hoping that they’d show The Barbie Movie trailer – just so my husband would be forced to watch it – but no…we did get a new (to me, anyway) trailer for The Marvels, which looks pretty good. I was also interested in Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny. Gran Turismo (like the video game) looks cringey AF. I know there were more trailers than that, but I cannot remember them for the life of me.

Forget Star-Lord – Nebula had the best arc of the trilogy. Or was it Rocket? Or Drax. Or Mantis. Any of the Guardians had a better arc than Star-Lord…but I think that was the joke. Just because Star-Lord was the cis-het white guy in the franchise, doesn’t mean he was the star, nor that he was the protagonist. His role in the Guardians was always a supporting role, his character was just suffering from “main character syndrome”.

To quote my son, Vol. 3 was “texturally upsetting”. I felt the same way about Quantumania…and GotGv3 was even more…organic? Quantumania had sentient blobs, but GotGv3 had sentient blobs with pores and HAIR FOLLICLES. I do appreciate the organic horror trend in science fiction and horror, but it’s too much for some people. I need to make the kids watch Slither – it’s ALL KINDS of texturally upsetting. Of course, mechanical shit can be upsetting, too. Lylla, Teef and Floor were PLENTY upsetting.

Did you catch Lloyd Kaufman’s cameo? I also heard Pete Davidson had a wee role, but I didn’t catch it. Between him, Nathan Fillion and Michael Rooker, it was almost a The Suicide Squad Reunion. I love how James Gunn brings in those he’s met along his career in for bits…

I am VERY satisfied with how James Gunn wrapped up his trilogy. No spoilers, but no artificial, romantic happy endings here – I HATE those. Coming from a somewhat fractured family myself, I really appreciated the celebration of a “found family”. Family doesn’t have to be a blood relation to be important. The value of “friendship love” is too often ignored in favor of “romantic love”, which is a goddamn shame.

Thanks for the ride, Mr. Gunn. It’s a tragedy that Marvel lost James Gunn to DC…but I’m also hopeful that Gunn can bring together the clusterfuck that is the DC Extended Universe.