YMMV / Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3

• Accidental Aesop: Don't continually consume alcohol just for the sake of it when there are others relying on you. As Quill himself lampshades, had he not have drank himself into a stupor in the film's beginning, he may have been able to prevent Rocket from entering his near-death condition for much of the film.
• Alternate Character Interpretation:
  • Why does Lylla mutter "Sky..." as she dies? Is it a lament that she never got to see "the forever and beautiful sky" that Rocket said was out there? Is it a delusion brought on by her brain activity switching off? Or is she seeing the spiritual sky as she ascends there, as shown when Rocket briefly goes to the afterlife?
  • Was the High Evolutionary already planning to destroy Counter-Earth? Or was it Peter Quill's revelation that there were drug dealers on Counter-Earth that prompted him to do it?
• Angst Aversion: Given that the entire movie revolves around Rocket's traumatic backstory (which includes him being tortured and watching all of his animal friends, who are all massive Woobies and are extremely likable, get killed), and he spends much of the movie grievously injured while the other characters learn about everything he went through, it's understandable that some have trepidation about seeing it. Among the people who did see it, while praising the film, some have flat-out refused to ever rewatch the movie.
• Anti-Climax Boss: Despite being depicted as seriously threatening earlier in the film, the High Evolutionary is very quickly overwhelmed by the Guardians when they tag-team him in the final confrontation. But that only makes it all the more satisfying, plus fitting of his character as a weak, pathetic egomaniac desperately trying to be a God.
• Applicability: Wisecrack has interpreted in this video that the High Evolutionary's actions can be viewed as a critique on tech companies and Hollywood executives (Marvel and Disney likely among them) using algorithmic data to determine what successful things to copy from without truly understanding why they happen to be successful (the High Evolutionary copies things from Earth as the basis for a Counter-Earth "utopia"), and viewing individuals as a means to an end rather than valuable creative voices (the High Evolutionary views Rocket's unique intuition as his one missing ingredient for the "perfect" Counter-Earth).
• Award Snub: Many were flummoxed that the only Oscar nomination the film received was for Best Visual Effects, but not for Best Makeup as the film set a world record for the most use of prosthetic makeup in a film (beating out How the Grinch Stole Christmas! which previously held the record for over 20 years). Furthermore, the film was ignored for any category relating to writing, cinematography, or acting, with many viewers believing that either Bradley Cooper or Chukwudi Iwuji should've received a nomination for Best Supporting Actor.
• Awesome Music: As per usual with James Gunn movies, there are awesome needle drops aplenty, this time with a fair few '90s tunes mixed in with the boomer/gen-X sounds of the first two installments.
  • In a movie focusing on Rocket's past as an unwanted genetic experiment, with an opening meant to demonstrate the loneliness of basically everybody on Knowhere, "Creep" by Radiohead is a very fitting choice, specifically the stripped-back, mournful acoustic version.
  • Now you can't talk about Adam Warlock without once mentioning the track that scores his arrival to Knowhere, being "Crazy on You" by Heart. It took off as a meme for a good reason, after all.
  • As the Guardians head off to Orgocorp to find a way to turn off Rocket's kill switch, "Since You Been Gone" by Rainbow sets the mood for a hopeful adventure, combined with emphasizing Rocket's few good memories as a child.
  • "In the Meantime" by Spacehog, played while the Guardians are launching from the Bowie and into the orgoscope, is quintessentially the best song in the film. Its spaciness fits the atmospheric tone perfectly.
  • Seeing Drax beating up Orgocorp scientists and Peter sending them hurling set to "Reasons" by Earth, Wind & Fire is nothing short of incredible.
  • "Do You Realize??" by the Flaming Lips manages to display the perfect level of poignancy following Peter's moment of self-reflection after his fight with Gamora.
  • "We Care a Lot" by Faith No More sets the scene rather well for the Guardians first landing on Counter-Earth.
  • "I'm Always Chasing Rainbows" by Alice Cooper, punctuating Peter and Nebula's rather depressing drive through the streets of Counter-Earth.
  • As Peter, Gamora, Rocket, and Groot get ready to raid the High Evolutionary's ship, "This Is the Day" by the The signifies their oncoming showdown.
  • "No Sleep Till Brooklyn" by Beastie Boys gets the blood pumping while the Guardians mow through a corridor filled with monsters and soldiers.
  • "Dog Days Are Over" by Florence + the Machine, a powerful and bittersweet anthem about parting ways from a traumatic yet foundational part of one's life, is used to immaculate effect as a closer for the Guardians' personal saga.
  • On the score side of things, the High Evolutionary's enjoyment of opera is showcased in two pieces; "Mo Ergaste Forn", a hymn-like paean to evolution, if we take the HE at his word, and an absolutely heartbreaking reworking of "Dido's Lament" that plays when The High Evolutionary crushes young Rocket's hopes.
  • Of all the songs possible, "Koinu no Carnival" from Classicaloid serves as the main motif of Counter-Earth.
  • The credits close out James Gunn's run with Marvel with a musical trifecta of "I Will Dare" by the Replacements, a reprise of "Come and Get Your Love" by Redbone, and "Badlands" by Bruce Springsteen.
• Big-Lipped Alligator Moment: Nobody acknowledges Groot speaking perfect English at the end. Justified, as it's meant to show we the audience have finally spent enough time around him to understand his words.
• Broken Aesop: A bit towards the end as the whole movie tries to go for an animal rights message... only for The Stinger where we see Rocket's first day as captain being The Guardians having them killing a bunch of wild, non-sentient animals who don't know any better for being a nuisance to a village. This is somewhat lampshaded In-Universe.
  Phyla: Don't you ever feel a little sad for them?
  Rocket: Yeah, sure. But these townsfolk can't protect themselves.
• Captain Obvious Reveal: The Reveal that Rocket is indeed a normal raccoon from Earth. This would be surprising if this wasn't the case in the comics, and the previous films also established that he is a genetically modified creature.
• Catharsis Factor:
  • The High Evolutionary is one of the most vile and hateable villains of the entire MCU, up there with the likes of Kilgrave, Ego, and Mysterio, so it is indescribably satisfying to see the Guardians all team up and deliver a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown on him, with Rocket especially paying him back for years of dog-kicking.
  • Peter and Groot murdering Theel by dragging him across the ground at high speed after tossing him from the high altitude base is extremely satisfying considering that he was one of the scientists who directly performed the horrific experiments on Rocket without remorse and acted like a Smug Snake when he mistakenly believed Peter and Groot were helpless and defeated.
  • Though it's diminished by both the events preceding and following it, Rocket getting revenge for Lylla's murder by mauling the High Evolutionary, practically ripping off most of his face, is incredibly cathartic, not least because the High Evolutionary was in the middle of mocking Rocket for crying over her death mere seconds beforehand.
  • During the climax, Rocket leads the charge to rescue every single last innocent animal tortured in the cages of The High Evolutionary's exploding charnel house of cruelty. And not just the "cute and fluffy ones"; the mutants and cyborgs irreperably deformed by the madman's experiments and even the giant fanged and tentacled monstrosities are all also rescued and given a chance to be free and live.
  • Peter happily reuniting with his grandfather, who spent much of Peter's life thinking that his grandson was dead. It's cathartic for Peter as well, as he spent much of his life believing that his grandfather hated him. His grandfather is very happy to have him back.
• Common Knowledge: Less to do with the movie itself and more to do with one of the songs featured in it, but contrary to popular belief, the Vocaloid song that plays during the Counter-Earth scene ("Koinu no Carnival" by EHAMIC) is not a Hatsune Miku song. Yes, Miku is a singer in the song, but she is only one of 50 Vocaloid voice banks singing the song. However, since Hatsune Miku is the most iconic and recognizable of the Vocaloid voice banks, most news articles and fans only mention her instead of the other 49 virtual singers, leading to this misconception.
• Complete Monster: The High Evolutionary, the universe's most consummate Evilutionary Biologist, has tortured, vivisected, and incinerated countless sapient beings in his never-ending quest to create the so-called "perfect" society. In his earlier days, the High Evolutionary experimented upon animals he uplifted into intelligence; among them was a young Rocket Raccoon, who endured torture that even the hardened Nebula says is worse than what Thanos inflicted upon her. After Rocket corrected the High Evolutionary on a slight mathematical error, the High Evolutionary began brooding over the idea that one of his creations upstaged him. Over this, the High Evolutionary allowed Rocket to stage a breakout with his friends in "Batch 89"—only to murder Lylla, the love of Rocket's life, in front of him, even cruelly mimicking Rocket's hysterical sobbing to his face. After this, the High Evolutionary goes from uplifting and destroying entire civilizations as a matter of course; when a planet of billions known as Counter-Earth fails to satisfy his expectations, he annihilates it and everyone on it, and earlier threatens to destroy his servant Ayesha's entire civilization should she fail him. Throughout the rest of the movie, the High Evolutionary blows up his own minions, commands the slaughter of Knowhere, and nearly allows his entire spaceship and thousands of sapient beings on it—including a laboratory full of hundreds of children he's bred to be his next attempt at a "perfect race"—to be destroyed in his insane obsession with killing the Guardians. The High Evolutionary's utopian rhetoric is peeled down as the ravings of an egomaniac by the end: a man who doesn't want to make things perfect but "just hates things the way they are".
• Continuity Lockout: To put it plainly, if you're only watching the Guardians films without seeing stuff like Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame, the entire plot point with Gamora will make little to no sense, with the only explanation being an (admittedly funny) Info Dump. Also, if you haven't seen The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special, Mantis being Peter's sister is brought up with little fanfare, among other things.
• Crosses the Line Twice:
  • Peter's attempts to flirt with Nebula backfiring when she reminds him that the eyes he complimented were cybernetic because Thanos ripped out her real ones? A bit cringeworthy. Peter doubling down by saying Thanos had good taste in fashion? Hysterical.
  • Adam Warlock killing the Ravager is horrifying. However, what pushes it here is that Ayesha wanted him in fact to interrogate said Ravager by telling him that they mean business. Adam is just left bewildered by what other business he could show him beyond disintegrating him. One of Orgocorp employees even bursts into laughter.
  • Adam Warlock saving Peter Quill's life from being frozen starts with the shot of The Creation of Adam.
• Diagnosed by the Audience: Despite not being human, something is seriously wrong with the High Evolutionary. He appears to have a variant of narcissistic personality disorder with a fixation on intelligence (i.e. a cerebral narcissist) and obsessive compulsive tendencies.
• Ensemble Dark Horse: Lylla, Teefs and Floor became fan-favorites due to their innocent and childlike natures, their friendship with Rocket, and their tragic deaths.
• Epileptic Trees: Some fans have suggested that the High Evolutionary is actually one of Kang the Conqueror's many variants, as both of them are black Mad Scientist-like characters who are sociopathic and narcissistic monsters who only care about their own vision for society, and nothing else. It helps that both the High Evolutionary and the Kang variant who's the Big Bad in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania display Gravity Master abilities, and also that it's pretty clearly displayed that the High Evolutionary's "face" is actually a mask he's wearing over his real face, so it wouldn't have been out of left field for that mask to be torn away and reveal Kang. That is, until The Reveal, but still.
• Fashion-Victim Villain: An obviously intentional example. Master Karja and his Orgosentries' puffy, ill-fitting Organic Technology muscle-suits are equal parts disgusting and hilarious, befitting their put-upon Punch-Clock Villain demeanours.
• Friendly Fandoms:
  • A significant portion of the Superman fandom has spoken praises of this film due to Gunn's involvement with the upcoming Superman: Legacy. Some who were skeptical of Gunn's style were won over by this film as its more serious yet earnest tone noting more than justifies him taking the chief creative position at DC Studios.
  • Due to being a month apart, fans of this film get along with those of The Super Mario Bros. Movie due to Chris Pratt starring in both of them and how both films have "No Sleep Till Brooklyn" as part of the soundtrack.
• He's Just Hiding: Given that Rocket left the High Evolutionary for dead after the Guardians delivered a tremendously satisfying No-Holds-Barred Beatdown, we don't really see him perish as his ship exploded, leaving some to wonder if he survived or not. James Gunn would later confirm that the High Evolutionary is still alive and now imprisoned on Knowhere.
• Hilarious in Hindsight: This isn't the only 2023 movie that features a villain with a god complex who upgrades ordinary animals to populate what he views as a perfect society, with an exploration of the dark side of this (albeit with a lot less cybernetics horror involved). Bonus points for Dave Bautista being in both movies.
• He Really Can Act: After a string of performances that've led audiences to believe that the promise Chris Pratt showed a decade ago has evaporated, he gets to showcase a lot more range in here and is more than up for the task.
• Jerkass Woobie: Ayesha (and the Sovereign as a whole by extension). In the previous movie, it was easy to write her off as little more than another obstacle in the Guardians' path (albeit one that Rocket, being Rocket, made the mistake of crossing just because he could). Come this one, however, and with how vile the High Evolutionary is, it really puts her character in a new, sympathetic light. That the High Evolutionary unsettlingly caresses her during one scene while he nearly kills her son (not to mention how she actually does act like a maternal figure to Adam) makes her a lot more sympathetic. Her untimely death at THE's (unwitting) hands on Counter-Earth just rubs salt in the wound.
• Love to Hate: The High Evolutionary is a blatant Hate Sink and one of the cruelest and most detestable Big Bads in all of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. But Chukwudi Iwuji's intense, scenery-chewing performance makes the character an absolute joy to watch and root against.
• Memetic Mutation:
  • Among Us in the MCU^Explanation During the first trailer, viewers are treated to a scene where the Guardians are wearing colorful spacesuits while jumping out into space. Word of God explained they were inspired by those from 2001: A Space Odyssey, but many fans were quick to draw comparisons to the player avatars in Among Us, helped by how the Guardians jump towards a space-based facility to infiltrate it (becoming defacto Impostors) and then their colorful spacesuits are ejected and are seen floating through space, the same way crewmembers get ejected from the spaceship in the game.
  • First F-Bomb^Explanation In this clip, Peter says to Nebula, "Open the fucking door!" The F-bomb was censored in the clip, but Gunn confirmed that it wouldn't be censored in the final film. True to his word, Peter lets out the F-word. As you can expect from the MCU's first uncensored F-bomb, it made the rounds on the internet.
  • Adam Warlock's entrance/Bro thinks he's Adam Warlock 💀^Explanation  Adam Warlock's introductory shot that has the stylistic makings of something out of Flash Gordon has very quickly become a punchline for its hilarious buildup. Naturally, expect similar scenes (such as Buzz's Dynamic Entry in Toy Story 2 as a particular example) to be overlayed with "Crazy On You" with the aforementioned caption.
  • Don't be Rash^Explanation  When Gamora holds Adam's newfound pet at gunpoint as leverage, Adam - in the span of seconds - goes from wanting to murder Gamora to uttering the line with his usual trademark stoicism. Will Poulter's delivery of the line, as well as the Mood Whiplash, quickly made it a hit, not unlike his most iconic line from We're the Millers.
  • The-Guardians-Of-The-Galaxy.mp3 ^Explanation  A play on words, since the second film was called "Vol. 2" like a cassette album and .mp3 being both a reference to the numerical movie and the format that would have played on the Zune. James Gunn even addressed it saying he gets that suggestion a lot [1]
• Misaimed Marketing: McDonald's released Kids Meal Toys based on the movie, but its PG-13 rating, Body Horror elements, and Precision F-Strike make it unlikely that many of the toys' recipients would actually be allowed to see the film in theaters.
• Moe: Lylla, Teefs, and Floor from Rocket's backstory, for their adorable and childlike demeanors. May count as Creepy Cute for all of the painful and disfiguring augmentations performed on them.
• Moral Event Horizon: If the High Evolutionary didn't cross it when he shot Lylla dead in front of Rocket and subsequently mocked his crying over her, then he most certainly did when he casually blew up Counter-Earth just because its inhabitants didn't live up to his inordinate standards of perfection.
• Narm Charm:
  • Chukwudi Iwuji's performance as the High Evolutionary boils down to him eating scenery like instant ramen—particularly toward the end of the film, where his epic meltdowns have him screaming at the top of his lungs and spraying spittle everywhere. It should come off as tremendously silly, and in some moments it absolutely does. Yet the High Evolutionary's planet-sized ego, coupled with his intentional lack of any nuance compared to other MCU villains beyond "pure evil egomaniac" mean Iwuji's balls-out hamminess ends up seeming totally appropriate for the character. Unlike Ego, who spends the first half of the film pretending to be on the heroes' side, there's nothing you need from the High Evolutionary beyond "raving cartoon supervillain" and Iwuji delivers this to a tee.
  • Teefs and Floor's reasons for selecting their names — Teefs has the most prominent teeth and Floor is lying on the floor. However, it helps highlight their innocent and childlike nature.
  • The scene where the High Evolutionary subjects an unfortunate turtle to his experiment. The scene starts out pretty horrifying as the turtle graphically contorts into a humanoid shape, but the transformation ultimately works out and we get a creature that looks hilariously like a live-action Ninja Turtle. Unfortunately, said creature is forced into constant aggression and agony, and we get to see the High Evolutionary respond by burning it alive, immediately bringing the scene back to horrifying.
  • The Dance Party Ending, often with characters' really awkward movesets, could potentially come off as corny, but after seeing what everyone, especially Rocket, went through, you're just glad to see them having a good time.
  • The image of a walrus waving its flipper from the afterlife alongside a cyborg rabbit is the kind of thing that sounds like it would be in an Adam Sandler film and be completely impossible to take seriously, and yet seeing Teefs and Floor happily beckoning their long lost friend allows an otherwise out of context goofy scene to be incredibly heartwarming and tearjerker-worthy.
• Nightmare Retardant: The scene where Mantis, Nebula, and Drax get lowered into a pit and meet Abilisks is pretty scary. Then the Abilisks start shooting technicolor vomit.
• Older Than They Think: A few comic fans were confused and disappointed by Adam Warlock acting like a Manchild in his debut appearance in this film. There's actually basis for this in the original source material, as Adam had acted similarly in his first few appearances before gradually maturing into a more levelheaded character.
• One-Scene Wonder: Yondu Udonta shows up as a brief hallucination during the climax of the film, where he manages to help Kraglin realize how he's supposed to use the Yaka Arrow he's had all this time. He's onscreen for less than 10 seconds, but it sets the stage for his big moment.
• Realism-Induced Horror: Rocket's backstory. You take away the sci-fi elements, and you have a pretty grim look at how some corporations and scientists unethically experiment on animals.
• Salvaged Story:
  • A common complaint regarding Drax, even from Dave Bautista himself, is that he's long since been reduced to "the stupid guy who makes dumb jokes", lacking any of the depth he had in the first Guardians of the Galaxy. Although Drax is still a mostly comedic figure in Vol. 3, he's given much needed depth through exploring how he was originally a father and how that informs who he is now, wrapping up his arc in such a way that is still funny but also elevates Drax beyond mere comic relief.
  • Some people expressed disappointment that Gamora's title as the "Deadliest Woman in the Galaxy" had become more and more of an Informed Attribute, due to her status as The Heart for the Guardians in their movies. This film has her variant previously introduced in Endgame act much more self-serving and ruthless, having her lean more towards her personality from the comics.
  • Star-Lord's infamous Freak Out in Avengers: Infinity War that caused him to screw up taking the Gauntlet from Thanos and subsequently result in the death of half the universe was more-or-less ignored after it happened, which many people weren't impressed with. While breaking into Orgocorp, Quill himself acknowledges that he "lost his temper" and doomed the universe, showing that he blames himself for what happened and subsequently takes responsibility for it.
  • A lot of people were frustrated with Quill's Manchild traits being exaggerated, to the point where it made it difficult to sympathize with his space outlaw lifestyle due to his selfish want to be the team's leader and for ignoring his homeworld for years. The end of this film has Quill realize that he needs to return home and reconnect with his living family, passing on leadership of the Guardians to Rocket in the process.
  • After his heavy involvement in Vol. 2, a few people expressed disappointment that Kraglin had become increasingly Out of Focus over the years, with his scenes from Avengers: Endgame being cut from the film and only playing minor roles in Thor: Love and Thunder and The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special. Here, Kraglin is a major factor in stopping the High Evolutionary, and he finally manages to master Yondu's Yaka Arrow during a pivotal moment in the climax. He's also shown to have officially joined the new generation of the Guardians of the Galaxy in The Stinger, indicating that he may still be around for more adventures in the future.
• Special Effect Failure: One of the scenes from the trailers shows the group doing a Team Power Walk, with Quill passed out in Nebula's arms. It's very clearly a dummy Karen Gillan is holding though, which is especially obvious if you look at the very Styrofoam arm pointing down at the floor.
• Spiritual Successor:
  • Many have pointed out that the subplot involving Batch 89 is the closest we'll get to an adaptation of Grant Morrison's We 3. Both are emotional stories involving animals crudely uplifted by cybernetic implants heavily tinged by animal rights activism. In fact, Gunn has listed WE 3 as one of his favorite comic books and has expressed interest in making an adaptation of it.
  • With the noble and sympathetic qualities of his 1966 comic book original removed, The MCU version of the High Evolutionary practically becomes the western media of equivalent of Sugou Nobuyuki The Fairy King from Sword Art Online. Both are Psychotic Manchild sociopathic scientists who perform humiliating and violating experiments on innocents at an industrial level, taking a perverse pleasure in deliberately prolonging their suffering and robbing them of their dignity. Like Oberon, The High Evolutionary is a loudly-screeching Control Freak with a god complex three miles wide, who is prone to arrogantly proclaiming that there is no God in the world save for himself, who (literally in the case of The High Evolutionary) also wears a false face of perfection while also using Gravity Master powers to pin down the heroes to gloat and shout over them. And just like the False Fairy King, The High Evolutionary also crumbles into a snivelling wreck when relieved of his cheat-powers, shortly before being savagely beaten into a humiliating bloody mess by The Hero (Kirito/Rocket and The Guardians) to the delight of the fandom, enraged by his humiliation of the One True Love of his life (Asuna/Lylla) by the psychopath right before his eyes; while the Noble Demon Big Bad of their respective franchises (Professor Kayaba and The Mad Titan Thanos) recieve sympathy for their comparatively dignified ends from the same audience instead. Notably, unlike other Marvel Cinematic Universe villains, The High Evolutionary is also spared rather than killed by The Heroes; after having his false face and reputation destroyed and left to rot for eternity in prison, just like Sugou after being spared by Kirito.
  • The films have repeatedly been compared to Farscape in terms of characterisation and atmosphere, and this film does a blatant variation on one of Farscape's notable character arcs, with the emotional triangle between Quill and the living and dead versions of Gamora contrasting with the one between Aeryn and the living and dead versions of John in Farscape.
• They Changed It, Now It Sucks!: Fans of the comics weren't impressed with Adam Warlock's depiction in this film, due to his stunted Manchild personality being a far cry from the verbose and intelligent hero from the source material.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character:
  • Despite Adam Warlock being built up as a great threat for the Guardians in The Stinger of the second movie and his importance in the comics, he only encounters the Guardians for a few scenes before his redemption. It also seemed like the film was building up him fighting the High Evolutionary with the Guardians as revenge for his mother's death, but he's out of commission at that point and only gets involved as a last-minute save for Peter.
  • Despite being such a major part of the story, Rocket feels very underused. He spends about 90% of the story in a coma, and while we do get to see his backstory scattered throughout the movie, he barely gets to interact with the team at all, and given what a big presence he generally is, his absence is particularly felt. Especially since this movie is meant to be the team's big send off.
  • The Ravagers as a whole, but especially Stakar, fall under this. Despite the tease of the Ravagers forming a new guardians group (Charlie-27 and Aleta Ogord are absent while Krugarr, Martinex, and Mainframe make small cameos) in a post-credit scene in Vol. 2, nothing comes of it in this film. The only contribution they have to the plot is dropping off Gamora and some uniforms for the Guardians to infiltrate Oggocorp and then collecting her at the end of the film, not contributing to the final battle on Knowhere. Especially poignant with Stakar as his scenes with Yondu caused a lot of intrigue in the previous film and it's surprising that he never acknowledges Kraglin or Star-Lord.
  • On a more lighthearted note, despite being teased throughout the Guardians of the Galaxy movie series and playing a significant role in the franchise, Howard the Duck failed to join the Guardians of the Galaxy at the end of the movie, leaving audiences with an untapped opportunity to explore a unique character in an already wacky cast.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: The movie goes deep into Rocket's backstory, but all we see is his history with the High Evolutionary — leading some to be disappointed that his first meeting with Groot wasn't shown.
• Ugly Cute:
  • Teefs and Floor both have designs that might look horrifying from a distant glance, but their childlike innocence and upbeat personalities elevate them to this.
  • The mutated sheep thing that frightens Mantis as she frees it. It's ugly and deformed, but it's so pathetic and kind that it's almost cute.
• Unexpected Character: Vocaloid. Yes, seriously. In a carefully crafted soundtrack ranging from American rock hits from 70s to the 90s, nobody expected to hear a Vocaloid song in the mix. And yet it fits given that it's what the audience hears on Counter-Earth.
• Visual Effects of Awesome: The film boasts a mix of CGI, real sets and puppets/animatronics, making for a very visually impressive film. A particularly nasty example is the High-Evolutionary's mauled face, which looks realistically horrifying.
• What Do You Mean, It's for Kids?: Vol. 3 is rated PG-13, just like almost every other MCU film. Typically, Marvel films don't have a lot of objectionable content and are considered safe for younger children accompanied by adults, but Vol. 3 pushes that PG-13 rating to its limit. The film features disturbing scenes of animal cruelty, having the Marvel Cinematic Universe's first uncensored F-bomb, and more violence and killing than usual, as well as showing the High Evolutionary's bloody, skinless mauled face in full detail. There's been plenty said by critics and those in the industry about the appropriateness of this film for younger audiences.
• What Do You Mean, It's Not Symbolic?: Multiple critics have read the film as a symbolic representation for James Gunn's own strained relationship with Disney.
• Win Back the Crowd: After much of Phase 4 came under fire for putting too much emphasis on comedy at the expense of serious moments and relying on far too many of the tropes that carried The Infinity Saga, fans had started to lose interest in the series as a whole. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 has been considered a return to form for toning down the comedy and making the film a proper sendoff to these iconic characters.

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