I got to see it last night, in a fairly packed theater for a Tuesday evening. And I loved it. I think it's my favorite of the Guardians of the Galaxy trilogy.
I was occasionally going "Oh, boy. Which one's gonna die?" due to many of the trailers having such a Tonight, Someone Dies feeling to them... and was quite relieved when that was not the case. (Really, there was some Like You Would Really Do It at times - I kinda saw the "...but not yet" coming, but it was certainly one hell of an awesome moment regardless.)
And the soundtrack was great, once again. I quite liked that "This is the Day" by The The was in it at one point. The use of "Creep" by Radiohead was a good choice as well. Also, "Dog Days are Over" by Florence + the Machine is an old favorite, so that was a pleasant surprise.
Edited by punkcrow on May 10th 2023 at 12:36:12 PM
Cold turkey's getting stale. Tonight I'm eating crow.Depends, some iteration of Rocket is an Uplifted Animal than a cyborg.
Interesting bit, a lot of cosmic characters like Rocket and Star Lord were pretty much in limbo/out of use for decades after their original stories, consigned to Marvel's forgotten bin of Z-listers
It wasn't until Annihilation in 2006 and the Guardians series that followed that brought all these characters back and put them on the map
Modern Cosmic Marvel was pretty much built by Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning
Edited by slimcoder on May 11th 2023 at 12:21:34 PM
"I am Alpharius. This is a lie."On the common Marvel topic of ruining serious moments with jokes, I think one thing this movie could do without is the big decompression blort gag where Quill poofs up like a balloon, just before Adam rescues him. That really killed the moment. It's not even consistent; We did this same thing last movie with Yondu, and that wasn't, "He may have been your father, but he wasn't your daddy. BLORT!"
As a general rule, we accept characters not violently shitting themselves upon death as an acceptable break from reality for the sake of preserving drama. Poofing up under decompression falls into that same category.
Edited by TobiasDrake on May 11th 2023 at 8:05:04 AM
My Tumblr. Currently side-by-side liveblogging Digimon Adventure, sub vs dub.Yeah if anything I thought it added to the stakes of the scene rather than detracted from them because until Warlock swooped in I was thinking "Eeep, no coming back from that." I found it more horrifying than distracting.
I've been down on the MCU for the past while and even before it started taking a dive post-Endgame the only entries I felt actually transcended the larger franchise they're part of were the first two Guardians volumes, so it's fitting that this rules so hard and feels like an actual movie with relatable stakes. It looks absolutely fantastic too: with the props, colours, sets and prosthetics it felt like a spiritual Fifth Element sequel.
I'm gobsmacked at how messed up and violent this gets, though it absolutely improves the movie. I almost wonder if the extra bit of creative slack was a make-good from Disney/Marvel for Gunn's earlier firing, however I understand they were going to give him a lot of leeway with this one from the beginning. The High Evolutionary was such a wonderfully hateable piece of shit too; the bit where he's in his "mid-treatment" state and stumbling around, dragging Rocket out of his cage, really comes off as a shitty drunk parent waking up their kid in the middle of the night, like a way less funny version of the "Daddy Drank" sketch
from Kids in the Hall. You understand how Gunn saw Chukwudi Iwuji act his ass off in Peacemaker and go "I NEED this dude for Guardians 3".
Anyway, as someone suffering from Pratt fatigue (and who still kind of wishes Glenn Howerton had gotten the part), it was very wise to have Star-Lord in a more supporting role here and put Rocket front and centre. Also glad at all the Nebula love and focus.
Edited by DavidMerrick on May 11th 2023 at 1:44:20 PM
He's not dead. He's totally fine like a minute later.
Yondu died in this exact same way. And he was actually for realsies dead, not one foot in the grave but still totally survivable. His corpse didn't bloat up comically in the middle of his emotional scene, because doing that takes away from the drama.
Edited by TobiasDrake on May 11th 2023 at 11:06:45 AM
My Tumblr. Currently side-by-side liveblogging Digimon Adventure, sub vs dub.Off-topic:Since 2019, I already knew that Thor was not going to appear in this movie, but it still bothers me that they decided to make him a Jerk The Friend Nobody Likes in Thor 4.
I'm more of David Merrick's opinion here.
When he got exposed, I was thinking 'oh no are they doing a Yondu here?' and then when he bloated, I was like 'what? are they really killing him like this?', like that added to my uncertianity a lot to whether this was Star-Lord's death or not and that added to the scene. For me. It is obviously very much subjective
Though it's inarguable that similar scenes in Vol 1 and 2 didn't get the same effect. At least with Yondu you could sort of handwave it as his alien biology not reacting the same way.
eta: ![]()
Speaking of Thor there's a certain amount of similarity to the stinger scenes here and L&T, I was picturing the New Guardians and Thor and Love randomly meeting up trying to save the same village .
Edited by dcutter2 on May 11th 2023 at 7:14:03 PM
Peter's Star-Lord helmet also protects against vacuum. Like, even though it doesn't completely cover his head or pressurize, Peter being able to float around just fine in vacuum as long as he's wearing his helmet has been an established fact since Guardians 1. They had to ignore a standard piece of the character's equipment to make this fake-out happen.
Gunn had to explain the plot hole on Twitter
after the fact, and the answer he came up with is that Quill just didn't have any of his stuff on him. Because reasons.
Edited by TobiasDrake on May 11th 2023 at 11:24:29 AM
My Tumblr. Currently side-by-side liveblogging Digimon Adventure, sub vs dub.
That's an entirely separate complaint. It's valid and it's weird that he just randomly left that stuff behind that day but it's a different issue. (eta: Sorry, I missed that KnownUnknown brought that up and it's not a reply about the other issue)
They could have just had that stuff stolen/smashed over the course of the film too if they'd wanted.
Edited by dcutter2 on May 11th 2023 at 7:32:15 PM
I can sort of buy that answer Since Adam's attack and Rocket's countdown to death happened within minutes of each other, and both drunk and stressed, Peter did what he usually does when emotional and didn't think of grabbing his usual equipment besides what he had on hand before taking off to save his best friend.
Well it wasn't, it was on Knowhere. That's not a plot hole at all.
Edited by MurlocAggroB on May 11th 2023 at 12:45:13 PM
regulation pigeonI'm among those who actually found Peter's bloating interesting, as it made me really wonder if he was the one who was going to bite it. Dying because of his music player would have been quite a fitting end for him.
Also, it really seems as if he was going for something that looked cool instead of safe, so not using his helmet until he was too late would also be quite in character.
Whatever your favourite work is, there is a Vocal Minority that considers it the Worst. Whatever. Ever!.It’s worth remembering that Peter’s kit was actually destroyed in Guardians 2. He somehow then had it again in Infinity War but it may be that Gunn doesn’t agree with that decision so didn’t include it in this film.
“And the Bunny nails it!” ~ Gabrael “If the UN can get through a day without everyone strangling everyone else so can we.” ~ CyranIn regards to the bloating. I agree it doesn't make sense since it didn't happen to Yondu but I fail to see how it is supposed to be a gag because nothing about it is played for laughs.
Fan-Preferred Couple cleanup thread![]()
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Peter's kit has never really implied to be unique or irreplaceable. Word of God is he just left it behind
Edited by dcutter2 on May 11th 2023 at 8:57:56 PM

He fought a lot of robot clowns
Forever liveblogging the Avengers