I Wish I Was Special — 'Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3'
With nurturing love, a Hitler-esque villain, and touching vulnerability, James Gunn crafted a memorable farewell to his precious misfits.
Adolf Hitler’s ideology of the perfect human being came down to race. He believed that certain groups and peoples were predetermined to have the same qualities, attitudes, and abilities based on how they looked and what race they belonged to. Furthermore, he thought that all ethnic groups inherited not only their physical traits but their way of thinking that they can’t develop, improve, or overcome even through hundreds of generations. Basically, he thought anyone who didn't fit his idea of the perfect human was less than scum.
Now, I don't want to get more highbrow than I already have here while talking about one of the year's biggest and most entertaining blockbusters. But as I watched James Gunn’s Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3’s villain, High Evolutionary (played by a terrifying Chukwudi Iwuji), I instantly thought of the evil Führer (and that’s a compliment). Although the High Evolutionary (or Sire as his underlings call him) experiments on animals rather than humans to create the “perfect society,” some of his beliefs are frighteningly similar to the infamous dictator. He uses the animals — which are nothing but expendable lives to him he aims to incinerate once he gets to his goal — to refine them into a perfected species through a technology capable of applying millions of years of programmed evolution. His “specimens” have no names, only prisoner numbers. They were never meant to leave the lab and their cages because they’re simply disposable “subjects.”
Through this central theme, Gunn has found the most fitting and relatable narrative that encapsulates who the Guardians really are (and always were, ever since we first met them on the silver screen). Outliers, weirdos, creeps, unwanted outcasts that society turned away from. This isn't new or ground-breaking (the X-men films have done it two decades earlier), but Gunn has found a striking way to make us feel like it is. Vol. 3 is a culmination of what he’s built since 2014: the least roaring yet most endearing installment that doesn't rely on any gimmick to get its message through loud and clear. This movie has a heart, and it wants you to feel it. It wants you to synchronize with its beats until you fine-tune your own ticker to its calming and liberating rhythm. See, among these eccentric misfits, you can freely be who you are, even if you haven’t figured out yet who that person is.
Vol. 3 is undoubtedly Rocket’s (Bradley Cooper) movie, front and center, as he relives his past trauma while fighting for his life after he’s nearly killed by Adam Warlock (Will Poulter). He’s also the perfect vehicle for Gunn to project as much of his own feelings and struggles onto a character as possible. Rocket knows he needs to come to terms with his own existence — how he came to be as a smart, shit-talking gun-nut — before he can find his place in whatever universe he choose to settle in (the opening scene with Radiohead’s Creep couldn’t have been more accurate about how much he grapples with his own identity). To do that, he has to confront his past and the man who made him.
Although not as dreadful as a Nazi concentration camp, the place where he was in captivity (alongside other animals) growing up makes us feel instantly soulful. Though the cuteness of his fellow prisoners evidently helps, it's their uplifting connection and quickly blossoming friendship in a place of suffering that makes us empathetic towards them. Gunn masterfully uses these flashbacks to emphasize where Rocket's pain, social exclusion, and self-hatred stem from while also hinting at the overwhelming survivor's guilt that clearly weighs on his heart. It’s a beautiful, subtle, and intimate analogy that gives the film a poignant vibe, exquisitely aligning with its bittersweet finality. After all, this is a goodbye from a franchise (and its characters) as we know it.
Through Rocket's arc, which serves as a catalyst — and is the most dominant throughout — the rest of the Guardians will also begin to reckon with their uncertain future. They have become a loving, trusting, and loyal family over the years, but they aren’t oblivious to their own feelings and insecurities. Although Quill is grieving the loss of his relationship with Gamora, he knows that he's been running from the past ever since her mother died when he was eight. So, in the end, he returns to Earth to reunite with his remaining family. Mantis decides to leave, too, in order to find who she is as an individual outside of a group. Gamora returns to her Ravager family, Drax stays behind with Nebula even though it breaks his heart, and Rocket eventually becomes the leader of a newly assembled crew. The circle is full, good things end, and something new is born.
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 is unique because Gunn not only bids farewell to our beloved rejects but helps them find self-acceptance. Their inner journey is a wonderful allegory to every kid and adult out there who's been struggling to find their place. It gives us hope that no matter how damaged, traumatized, and ostracized we are by society, we can still be loved, be a part of a caring family, and find our path regardless of how much time and effort it takes. The Guardians always symbolized an unlikely and warm allegiance that grew from understanding, loyalty, and embrace. Vol. 3 encapsulates this and proves that if you’re lucky enough to find the right people, who will care about you as much as you care about them, support and nurture them with love and honesty, you’ll feel like the most special person in the galaxy. Even if you're not. And when the time comes to say goodbye to them, you'll whisper with genuine tears in your eyes that "We had a good run."
At the beginning of the week, I reviewed Apple TV+’s Hijack for Den of Geek, which is captivating, fun, and good television you won’t regret investing your time in. Next week, I’ll be reviewing Max’s upcoming crime miniseries, Full Circle, for Paste Magazine.
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