GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY VOL. 3

The band's back together for one final ride, this time in search of The High Evolutionary (Chukwudi Iwuji) who created Rocket in order to save Rocket's life. Vol. 3 follows the same formula we've grown accustomed to from director James Gunn & Marvel: sweet soundtrack, banter throughout, and a film with a lot of heart. This was a beautiful goodbye from Gunn and the cast to these characters and Marvel and it was very nicely executed. This is hands down the best Marvel release since 2021's SPIDER-MAN: NO WAY HOME, but yet again I have to take issue with the runtime. Recently Marvel has been pushing the runtimes more and more with their releases but for my money they begin to overstay their welcome after the 2 hours and 10 to 2 hours and 15 minute mark (this comes in at 2 hours and 30 minutes even). Another grip I had with the film was the portrayal of Adam Warlock by Will Poulter. I very much enjoy the actor but his character comes off incredibly weak. Yes, he's incredibly powerful but the man behind those powers is a mama's boy and could have come off so much stronger (but that might be dipping into the "toxic masculinity" waters according to some). Overall, this is a very satisfying conclusion to the trilogy and I'm curious what the future holds for any or all of these characters. 7/10