The adventures of the “Guardians of the Galaxy”, directed by James Gunn, is back on the big screen this month for the final installment of the trilogy. 

Marvel’s latest project “Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 3” has been a massive success. According to Forbes, a global media company, the movie made $290 million during its worldwide opening weekend. In comparison, “Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 2” made $146 million.

The previous two Guardians movies were received extremely well by fans. On Rotten Tomatoes, the leading online aggregator of movie and TV show reviews from critics, the audience’s score for “Guardians of the Galaxy” was 92%, and “Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 2” was 87%. The third movie, at the time of publication, is the highest of the three sitting at 95%.

The movie focuses on the tragic backstory of Rocket Raccoon and his relationship with the best-written Marvel villain since Thanos, named ‘High Evolutionary’. A heavy plot point is how the guardians have become a new family for Rocket, and how that goes for the entire team of misfits. 

The High Evolutionary is an infinitely more interesting villain than the previous two movies’ villains, Ronan and Ego. This is because his motivations take a big turn from the former villains’. Where Ego and Ronan are both searching for more power, High Evolutionary’s reasons lie in the very human concept of change and perfection. 

“I like how his motives are just straight evil, it’s different,” senior Mason Ramirez said. “Although his morals were skewed, Ego just wanted to make a better world for himself.”

In terms of humor, the style is very similar to the previous movies. It stems from the fantastic character dynamics. The relationship between key characters like Drax and Mantis, or Rocket and Peter always serves for some of Marvel’s best jokes. However, the movie doesn’t place as much emphasis on humor as the last two. 

“The comedy was toned down a little bit to make room for the emotional scenes,” Ramirez said. 

Any discussion about the Guardians movies has to bring up the iconic soundtracks. Where the previous movies limited themselves to songs from the 70s and 80s, this movie expands to feature songs from the 90s and 2000s. The amazing soundtrack, consisting of classics like “Creep” by Radiohead and “No Sleep Till Brooklyn” by the Beastie Boys, ends on a melancholic tone with “Dogs Days are Over” by Florence + The Machine.

“I think ‘Creep’ set the tone for the rest of the movie,” senior Damian Pellum said. “It really fit the themes of loss and isolation.”

The biggest issue with the movie is the number of characters it has to juggle between. The main cast had good resolution, but it introduced a lot of new or poorly fleshed-out characters because it needed to set up future Marvel endeavors that included the guardians. 

The movie was a solid mix of comedy and tragedy, culminating into a film that deserves a score of 9 out of 10.