(https://i.imgur.com/z5Kqxz0.png)
Studio: Marvel Studios
Release Date: 8/1/2023
Rating: PG-13
Film Grade: C+
The Story: Taking place after The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special and Thor Love and Thunder, we find our heroes building a new headquarters on Knowhere, only to be dramatically interrupted by an attack aimed at kidnapping Rocket. While Rocket is saved, he’s left in grave medical condition, and it’s up to the team to save him.
My Take: If you haven’t seen the Holiday Special, you may be caught a bit off guard by some of the updates to the team. The Guardians bought Knowhere from The Collector, Mantis is revealed to be Ego’s daughter, making her Quill’s half-sister, and Cosmo the Space Dog has joined the team, now with psionic powers.
The actors have settled into their roles at this point, so you know what to expect. Of the new characters introduced, The High Evolutionary as played by Chukwudi Iwuji, stands out among them. Driven by a desire to create his own perfect world, he’s unable to see the moral atrocities he’s undertaken to get there. Those are starkly illustrated through Rocket’s backstory, which is featured prominently in the movie in chopped-up flashback segments.
Will Poulter appears as Adam Warlock, in a muddled role. Introduced as a powerful being without any moral compass or understanding it’s hard for the audience to connect with him. The character feels more like a construct needed for the plot than one that exists for his own purpose.
There are some great visuals in the movie, the most striking of which is Orgocorp, a living construct base that is beautiful, repulsive, intricate, and organic, all at the same time. There’s some welcome creativity exhibited here, and used to great effect.
If there were only some more creativity with the script. As in the prior movies, there is plenty of humorous dialog. Much of that banter hits, resulting in spontaneous guffaws, but others fall flat, feeling cheap and formulaic. Then we have some recycled plot points, with one at the end recalling a similar scene from the first one, albeit with different characters.
Video: For those that love movies featuring shifting aspect ratios, you’ll love this movie. I’m not among them, so I set my screen to 2.39:1 and didn’t look back. The disc makes good use of HDR, with objects/creatures in the many dark scenes still looking distinct. There’s a good variety of color used throughout the film, much of it intentionally muted. Other setting, such as Orgocorp, are vibrant with living color.
Audio: I was surprised to hear that the film actually uses both wides and tops extensively. This is evidenced even early in the film. As Rocket approaches and enters a tunnel while listening to a tune, the music shifts to the tops and the soundscape changes, until he emerges into a room, where it’s shifted back to the bed layer. Shortly after, he’s walking above the audience, and you can hear his dialog and clacking boots as he scurries above. That scene confirms that all four top speakers are acting independently, as his voice only comes from the front right speaker.
There are a good variety of sound effects, and the film has a good feel of environmental envelopment. Dialog is clear and intelligible, even in the action segments. There are scenes that could have benefited from greater use of wides and tops, but they are used throughout, which is a good step forward for Disney/Marvel.
Special Features: None were included on this disc.
Final Verdict: This is the best so far of the Phase Four Marvel films, but that’s a low bar. The movies have become rather cookie-cutter over time, and you’ll spot the formulaic nature in this one. The whole experience feels rote, and maybe should have been subtitled “James Gunn’s Contractually Obligated Movie.” There’s lots of dialog about friendship, family, and teamwork, but it feels emotionally trite and manipulative.
There’s plenty of action, so fans of that aspect of these movies will be thrilled, but it’s not enough to sustain deep enthusiasm throughout its two-and-a-half-hour runtime. It’s another recent case where less could be more.
I will end up adding this title to my movie library, but more for completeness than as any deep desire to revisit it. It’s the weakest of the three Guardians movies, but entertaining enough to give it a view.
Fun Fact: There’s an in-credit scene and a post credit scene. In the second, a character is reading a newspaper with a headline referencing an alien abduction, which is a nod to The Holiday Special.
https://youtu.be/Gwlc8fSwpJs
My Review System:
JVC DLA-RS3100 4K Ultra High-Definition Front Projector
Elite Screens Sable Frame B2 117” Width with Infinitely Variable Height
Monolith by Monoprice HTP-1 16 Channel Processor with Dirac Live
Monolith by Monoprice 7x200 Watts Amp
Monolith by Monoprice 3x200 Watts + 6x100 Watts Amp
JBL Studio 590 for Left, Center, Right, Wides, and Rears
JBL Studio 580 for Side Surrounds
JBL Studio SCS 8 for Tops
JTR Captivator 1400 Subwoofer X 4
Panasonic DP-UB420 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray Player
NVIDIA Shield Android TV - 4K
Xbox One X
HTPC Running madVR (work in progress)
Remote: URC MX-780
Mini DSP 2X4 HD controlling all subwoofers
APC S15 Power Conditioner with Battery Backup