Why Guardians Of The Galaxy 3 Is The Best Marvel Movie Ever Made
Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 3 is the best Marvel movie ever made.
And I’ll prove it to you.
So far there’s been 32 Marvel movies, and Guardians 3 really only needs to compete with 11 of them.
Those 11 are
Iron Man
The Avengers
Captain America: Winter Soldier
Guardians of the Galaxy
Avengers: Age of Ultron
Captain America: Civil War
Thor: Ragnarok
Black Panther
Avengers: Infinity War
Avengers: Endgame
Spider-Man: No Way Home
Everything else Marvel’s made has ranged from awful to acceptable. These 11 films are the standouts for me, and the competition for Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 3.
I’m going to systematically explain why Guardians 3 beats each and every one of them, but first let’s discuss why this movie is so damn good.
I’ll make it really simple for you.
It profoundly moved me.
Past the action, the humor, and the style, this movie does what all truly great movies do: It moved me.
And it’s something an MCU movie has never done for me in the past.
And this is coming from a guy who cried watching Tony Stark die in Avengers: Endgame.
If you want to watch the video version of this article, here it is :)
Why GOTG3 Was So Good
Given the state of the MCU, I came into this movie with the lowest of standards. After a shaky sequel, James Gunn’s firing + rehiring, and much of the cast publicly declaring they’re not coming back to the MCU after this, the Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 3 didn’t exactly look like it’d be anything special.
Oh boy was I wrong.
SPOILERS.
This movie is really simple. It’s a quest to save Rocket, who’s on the brink of death. The Guardians have 48 hours to save him, and during his coma Rocket has flashbacks to his time as a science experiment, which are absolutely gut-wrenching.
It culminates in a tear-jerking scene where Rocket’s heart finally gives out, and he’s able to see the friends he made from his science-experiment days in heaven again.
I saw this film in a packed theatre and absolutely all the jokes were hitting.
My wife audibly cried when Rocket died.
Somehow, after all the MCU sludge of the last few years, we got a perfect movie from James Gunn that ceremoniously closes the door on these great characters.
A few years ago Martin Scorcese said that Marvel movies aren’t “cinema.” To a certain extent, I agree with this statement. These are films about super heroes after all. There needs to be action, action, and more action with world-ending stakes every time.
How much time can you really spend reinventing the formula, humanizing the characters, and getting the audience to relate to them?
In terms of sheer action, it’s true that Guardians 3 can’t compete with the likes of Avengers: Endgame or Avengers: Infinity War.
In terms of scale, Guardians 3 can’t get anywhere near the “wipe-out-half-the-universe” scope of Thanos’ master plan.
But that’s not the yard stick I’m using to judge the best MCU movie of all time with.
Guardians 3 does something that no MCU movie has been able to do so far.
It scared me. It terrified me to think about losing Rocket as much as it would a pet or a family member. I didn’t want to see this little raccoon die. It put the fear of God in me.
In short, I cared deeply about these characters.
Imagine this was Guardians of the Galaxy 1. Would I feel the same? Probably not. I’d probably be sad, sure, but the history I’ve had with these characters wouldn’t have dated back to almost 10 years ago — a whole third of my lifetime.
We’ve seen these characters in a total of seven movies now. For comparison, Tony Stark is prominently seen in 9 MCU movies.
We’ve had a ton of time to flesh out the complicated relationship between Rocket and Peter Quill, not to mention the relationship everyone in the Guardians has with one another.
It’s important to Rocket to feel validated and “seen” by Peter, even though he tries to hide it. And Peter, despite what he lets on, respects and loves Rocket and doesn’t want to lose him like he has the rest of his family.
The thought that Peter wouldn’t be able to tell Rocket that and give him that validation he’s always craved was heartbreaking for me.
I didn’t want this little animal to die without knowing how great he is.
Give the cute, tortured animal the VALIDATION please.
Working parallel to this plot point is the knowledge that this is a farewell tour for the Guardians. We know that we’re never going to see all of these friends together just like this again.
And the history we have with them elevates that sadness even more. They’re not just friends on screen. They’re our friends too. These characters defined our childhood, inspired us, made us laugh, and taught us valuable lessons.
This is a story about death, letting go, and the incredible power of friendship. And we know that we have to let go of these characters when the end credits role. That’s tough, because we love them.
We’ve all lost someone we loved. We know the powerlessness of watching someone we love pass away. This movie taps into that on a level I’ve never experienced before in the MCU — even compared to the Thanos snap.
I didn’t care about Spider-Man dying. I didn’t care about Doctor Strange dying. I didn’t care about Bucky Barnes disappearing.
I cared about Rocket dying, though. And that’s the magic of this movie.
So let’s start the heavyweight matchup between Guardians 3 and the MCU’s 11 best films.
Let’s immediately and quickly disavow a few of these, shall we?
Iron Man
Captain America: Winter Soldier
The Avengers
Guardians of the Galaxy
Avengers: Age of Ultron
Thor: Ragnarok
Black Panther
I’m disavowing these immediately because these films never hit the same emotional notes as Guardians of the Galaxy: Volume 3, and they each — more or less — have the same amount of action.
We can debate it in the comments if you want. But I think it’s pretty obvious I’m right if you saw Guardians 3.
The movies we have left are:
Captain America: Civil War
Avengers: Infinity War
Avengers: Endgame
Spider-Man: No Way Home
These films truly are the creme-de-la-creme of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Guardians 3 vs. Captain America: Civil War.
Captain America 3, like Guardians Volume 3, is a story about friendship. The friendship between Bucky Barnes and Steve Rogers, as well as Steve Rogers and Tony Stark.
The final scene, when Tony finds out Bucky killed his parents, is powerful and gut-wrenching. Steve Rogers, America’s golden boy, has to choose between defending his best friend or allowing Tony Stark his revenge.
It’s an impossible decision that makes for an unforgettable finale.
The emotional stakes are high here, but I think Guardians 3 is ultimately more impactful because of the sheer time we spend with Rocket’s memories and the rest of the Guardians trying to save him.
Captain America: Civil War focuses on a LOT of different characters, introducing a few new ones, so it’s hard to flesh out super impactful stories for each one. I ultimately think the love we feel between the Guardians trumps the animosity we feel between team Stark and Rogers.
Guardians 3 vs. Spider-Man: No Way Home
Spider-Man: No Way Home was the emotional rollercoaster all great Spider-Man movies need to be. Aunt May dies, which was a huge shock, and when all three spider-men convene for the first time and talk about who they’ve lost, it’s gut-wrenching. Not to mention all of Peter’s closest friends forgetting who he is.
Add to that the sheer joy of seeing Toby Maguire and Andrew Garfield as Spider-Man again, and you have yourself one of the best superhero movies ever made.
Spider-Man’s story is interesting because of how hard it is. He endures so much personal suffering without gratitude because he believes in his mission. And we, the audience, feel for him because we know the pain of not getting what we want.
That’s a deep pain, for sure. Peter suffers the loss of Aunt May, MJ, and his best friend by the end of the film. That’s difficult.
However I think Tom Holland’s Spider-Man movies missed a big opportunity with it’s first two entries. Those movies are very whimsical and feel like comedies with no real stakes.
I think with the Guardians of the Galaxy, every entry had emotional weight, and even in Avengers: Infinity War we got to see a heartbreaking new side to Peter Quill and Gamora.
I think that Spider-Man: No Way Home could’ve hit harder if the first two movies didn’t OD on light-heartedness. I know the Guardians are light-hearted, too, but James Gunn knows how to balance that with emotion. When Yondu dies in Guardians of the Galaxy 2, I don’t think any moment in any of the new Spider-Man movies, including No Way Home, can touch it.
Guardians 3 vs. The Infinity Saga
This is truly a heavyweight battle. It might even look like a boxing match between Rocket Raccoon and Thanos. Who has the upper hand here?
The answer is Rocket Raccoon.
Avengers: Infinity War and Endgame deal with a fractured Avengers squad who loses half of their ranks. The anger we feel at the end of Infinity War after the snap is almost incalculable.
Thanos better get his.
But is the snap REALLY all that emotional?
It’s more shocking than emotional. When I saw Black Panther disappear I knew that they’d be coming back. I mean, come on, they’re not going to kill Spider-Man after his first movie.
What’s sad is the Avengers reaction to who they’ve lost. Remember when Spider-Man evaporates in Tony Stark’s arms? That’s sad not because we lost Peter — a character we barely know — but because Tony loves him and feels a sense of responsibility for his well-being.
That’s the saddest part of “the snap.”
In Guardians 3, the moment when the crew loses Rocket is more impactful, though. Why? Because these characters had more time together. Not just two movies in the case of Tony Stark and Peter Parker, but six. Their relationships were fleshed out more — not to mention we cared about Rocket way more than we cared about Peter Parker. At least I did.
Infinity War and Endgame also focus on a lot of characters at once. In reality, it might be said that the most emotional part of this movie actually involves Gamora and Thanos, when he throws her off the cliff.
Also, what about the moment when Peter Quill decides to shoot the love of his life, Gamora? Or when he finds out Gamora died?
Why do arguably the most emotional parts of this movie involve the Guardians of the Galaxy?
It’s because James Gunn did a masterful job making us care about these characters in the first two movies.
And look — Avengers: Infinity War has great world-ending action, but I don’t know that I felt the same excitement watching the end battle than I did watching the Guardians tear shit up in a crowded corridor while No Sleep Till Brooklyn blasted over the speakers in Guardians 3.
Let’s tackle Endgame.
Without the Tony Stark sacrifice, Endgame would’ve mostly been an emotional wet fart. We get fat Thor, blubbering Ant-Man, and Korg. I guess we see Black Widow sacrifice herself, which was meaningful, but ultimately that can’t hold a candle to anything in Guardians 3.
But that doesn’t mean there weren’t impactful scenes.
When all the heroes come back through their portals, I must admit that was freaking awesome. Seeing T’Challa again was wonderful. Seeing Captain America wield Mjölnir was orgasm-inducing.
This movie rocked because finally we get to watch the Avengers get the upper-hand. And it’s all capped off with Tony Stark’s sacrifice and a goodbye to Captain America.
So here we come to the heavyweight showdown.
My thesis is that Guardians 3 is the best Marvel movie because it’s more impactful than anything that came before it. You might have different criteria, which I’ll accept. Maybe you think that a certain mix of action, humor, stakes, and sheer starpower in the same movie makes for the best MCU movie. That’s fine. My criteria is impact.
So. Tony Stark’s sacrifice vs. saying goodbye to the Guardians of the Galaxy.
Why is one more impactful than the other?
Look. We had our suspicions, but the writing wasn’t blatantly on the wall for Tony Stark’s Iron Man. His death came as somewhat of a shock to us with extra emphasis on the somewhat.
And that was by design, right?
What makes his sacrifice so impactful is we didn’t see it coming AND he took out the biggest bad guy in the universe at once.
I think what made Guardians 3 more impactful, though, was the fact that Rocket was in bad shape the entire movie. The specter of death hung over every moment, and to stick the knife in even more, James Gunn sprinkled flashback sequences to a young Rocket making friends with other science experiment animals throughout the film.
I mean, shit.
What’s worse — hearing that someone you loved died unexpectedly or knowing for weeks and months that someone you love is going to die?
The long, drawn-out knowledge that death is coming is a torture I don’t wish on anybody. I’d choose a quick and relatively painless death over a long and painful death any day.
Guardians of the Galaxy: Volume 3 draws that out over its entire runtime, and knowing, before we walked into the theatre, that this is the last Guardians movie, made what we watched even more impactful.
For all of these reasons, I think Guardians 3 is the best Marvel movie ever made. It’s sad, exhilarating, hilarious, and infinitely touching. This is what the perfect Marvel movie looks like. Action, stakes, brotherhood, sadness, humor, and a great villain. This is it. It’s fitting that James Gunn would give the MCU it’s best film ever before going on to do great things at DC.