There is nothing like the scope of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Now at 31 films, it has cumulatively earned a whopping $28 billion. That’s more than the gross national income of Yemen and dozens of other countries. GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY VOL. 3 is the 32^nd film. It’s also the second film of Phase Five, the second phase of the Multiverse Saga, which is the second MCU saga after the Infinity saga. And it is yet another MCU threequel. With such a massive franchise, several MCU superheroes have reached threequel status including Iron Man (IRON MAN: 2008, 2: 2010, 3: 2013), Captain America (FIRST AVENGER: 2011, WINTER SOLDIER: 2014, CIVIL WAR: 2016), Spider-Man (HOMECOMING: 2017, FAR FROM HOME: 2019, NO WAY HOME: 2021) and ANT-MAN (ANT-MAN: 2015, AND THE WASP: 2018, QUANTUMANIA: 2023). The Avengers and Thor now have four of a kind with the Avengers tetralogy AVENGERS: 2012, AGE OF ULTRON: 2015, INFINITY WAR: 2018, ENDGAME: 2019) and the Thor tetralogy (Thor: 2011, The Dark World: 2013, Ragnorok: 2017, Love and Thunder: 2022)). Notably, the Avengers tetralogy is the only other ensemble like the Guardians trilogy in the MCU 3+ club.

For anyone who hasn’t been following the MCU, this sounds like a mess. And it is. If a complete nooB began watching MCU using GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY VOL. 3 as a starting point, it’ll would be absurdly incomprehensible. But for those who have followed the Guardians saga, VOL 3 is the payout. It resolves the tales of each Guardian in a poignantly satisfying and humorous way, exactly the kind of rollicking yet heartrending sentimentality that fans have come to expect from the Guardians gang. There’s a fan-driven rule that every MCU threequel involves a major pivot in the overarching storyline and GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY VOL. 3 is no exception. It changes everything.

When GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY first premiered, it was the tenth MCU film and the most inclusively diverse, paving the way for other superheroes who weren’t white men such as BLACK PANTHER (2018), CAPTAIN MARVEL, BLACK WIDOW (2021), SHANG-CHI (2021), and THE ETERNALS (2021).

Throughout it all, the MCU has managed to maintain the Guardians ensemble cast of misfits across all three films, as well as select appearances in the second two Avenger installments, a major appearance in the last Thor, and an absolutely hysterical Holiday Special. Apart from I AM GROOT, a rogue series of short cartoons, the Guardians have stuck together. Chris Pratt (Star-Lord), Zoe Saldana (Gamora), Dave Bautista (Drax), Vin Diesel (Groot’s voice), Bradley Cooper (Rocket’s voice), and Karen Gillan (Nebula), plus Pom Klementieff (Mantis) who came in on VOL. 2, have mastered a squad chemistry that has been both heartfelt and hilarious. Where all the other MCU trilogy and tetralogy films focus on a leading white male hero, the Guardians are a team. Sure Star-Lord (the white male) aspires to be the leader, but his crew constantly put him back in his place. It’s an inclusive cast regarding race and gender, so much so that the P.O.C. list includes characters that are green, blue, and grey.

Ironically, the link that almost broke in the Guardians gang was the director and producer. James Gunn, who claims he cut his teeth on grindhouse horror, stepped into that cancel culture bear trap. To counter some of Gunn’s criticisms of Trump, right-wingers dug up some controversial jokes about pedophilia and the holocaust that he tweeted between 2008 and 2012. That was too much for the Mouse, so Disney fired him. However, this attempt to purge the House of Mouse backfired, with a hoard of critics and celebrities in support of Gunn. Pratt, Saldana, Bautista, Diesel, Cooper, Gillan, and Klementieff took to social media in a joint statement supporting Gunn too. Eventually, the mouseketeer management saw the error of their hasty reaction, and rehired Gunn for VOL. 3. Thank the stars that they did because VOL. 3 is the culmination of the Guardians saga. All the previous tales in the Guardians saga come together for a glorious finish that sticks the landing such panache, something only Gunn could’ve directed.

GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY VOL. 3 stands among the best threequels that the MCU has delivered so far. Gunn redeems MCU threequels after the last one, the tepid QUANTUMANIA. Where QUANTUMANIA tried to dazzle with bombastic CGI effects, VOL. 3 boldly charts new visual quadrants of the galaxy, making full use of the spectacular capabilities of IMAX. Gunn also succeeds with a superhero film in 2023 when so superhero films have flopped. Beyond QUANTUMANIA, BLACK ADAM and SHAZAM 2: FURY OF THE GODS failed to deliver the expected box office results, so much so that several critics wondered if audiences had finally reached superhero saturation.

Granted, BLACK ADAM and SHAZAM 2 are DC, the rival publisher to Marvel, but Gunn might bring redemption there too. In the interim period where Marvel/Disney had fired Gunn, he went over to DC to write and direct SUICIDE SQUAD and the HBO: Max spinoff series PEACEMAKER. Gunn also accepted a position as a co-chairperson and CEO of DC Studios. His next superhero project is DC’s SUPERMAN: LEGACY due in 2025, which will follow his next project COYOTE VS. ACME which is already in post-production and due out this year. Like VOL.3, it’s a live-action and CGI film, however it's not MCU. It’s based on Looney Tunes titular villain Wile E. Coyote.

Fast Forward to the Fight Scenes

Fight choreography in superhero movies is usually a mixed bag. Most of the action is driven by CGI and wirework, and while that is a challenge unto itself, it’s not conventionally what is considered to be an expression of martial arts skill. Two leading martial artists oversaw the fight choreography and coordination for GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY VOL. 3: Micah Karns and Loyd Bateman. Karns is a decorated Sport Karate champion, a three-time winner of NASKA’s Forms & Weapons Overall World Champion title and considered to be one of the top trickers in the world. Bateman is a Capoeira master, a pupil of the esteemed Marcos "Barrão" DaSilva. For the most part, the fight scenes in GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY VOL. 3 are fairly standard fare for superhero movies. There’s a lot of characters getting thrown large distances into walls and such – typical one strike, one shot choreography and cinematography that is so pervasive in the genre.

Then there’s the No Sleep Till Brooklyn fight. Towards the end of GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY VOL. 3, this fight scene totally delivers. It’s a true masterpiece of fight choreography, one of the best live-action combined with CGI one-er scenes to date. The MCU has tackled one-ers before. BLACK PANTHER delivered an exemplary one-er in the casino fight. And GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY VOL. 2 showcases a solid one-er in the opening credits. As baby Groot danced to ELO’s Mr. Blue Sky, the Guardians battled the tentacled interdimensional Abilisk monster in a wonderfully subtle one-er battle. VOL. 3 tops that with an insanely complex corridor fight one-er, set to the pounding Beastie Boys anthem about touring with the band. It’s a breathtaking scene, one that connoisseurs of cinematic combat will want to watch over and over again to dissect its technical mastery. It raises a high bar on what can be done when live-action integrates with CGI, one that will be hard to top (although with Gunn at the helm, perhaps COYOTE VS. ACME will be a contender).

VOL. 3 is the best installment of the Guardians saga yet. Everything Gunn has set up with the franchise comes together in a brilliant comic tragic epic. It’s laugh out loud funny, with plenty of heart-wrenching feels, and eye-popping visuals. Shot in IMAX, it’s worth the extra fees to see it in IMAX if possible. And stay to the very end because true to form, the MCU leaves with a sweet end credit scene.