Guardians of the Galaxy: Vol. 3 is a 2023 sci-fi superhero film directed and written by James Gunn, the third in the Guardians trilogy and the 32nd film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

My goal isn’t to write a whole movie review here. If that’s what you’re looking for, you’re going to be disappointed.

Oftentimes when I wrote movie reviews I zone in on one area of the movie that speaks to larger issues within movies.

I think Guardians 3 needed, like, 2 or 3 more drafts. There are a lot of good ideas here, but I think they needed to be expanded on and tightened up for two reasons.

First, the second act of this movie is very empty.

Second, the main theme would be super easy to use the characters to expand on, but they didn’t. I’ll suggest how James Gunn could’ve easily written the main theme of the “perfect society versus reality” into the main story of the Guardians.

The Second Act

I won’t spoil the end of the movie if you haven’t seen it.

This movie is built on a four-act structure. The second act follows the Guardians attempting to break in to strange space station in order to find a special code. Gamora, who died in Avengers: Infinity War but was brought back from an alternate timeline in Avengers: Endgame, rejoins the team to help with the break-in. Star-Lord is grieving the loss of the Gamora he loved while trying to reconnect with this “old” Gamora.

Toward the end of the movie, Mantis, Drax, and Nebula all have their own arcs that bring many of the characters to a satisfying “conclusion” (if they ever could be concluded). However, those arcs only start kicking into gear after this second act.

The majority of this “space-station break in” doesn’t tie in to any of those future arcs at all. Gamora, Nebula, and Star-Lord bicker – in fact, the whole group bickers a lot in this break-in – but we don’t learn anything new about any of the characters. Star-Lord humorously recounts Infinity War and his relationship with Gamora, but that’s about all that’s accomplished. While the “bad guys” have strange suit designs that seem like they’d give them more defenses, they get batted around just like any other goon. If you’re not going to advance character, at least give the heroes some interesting, challenging enemies that make them use their powers. Star-Lord gets to show off his powers of persuasion, which is nice, but none of the other characters “show off.” And even with that, it turns out that code isn’t even in this space station. They got to go somewhere else to find the code anyways.

It’s a common problem in movies and books. In stories in general. It’s easy for the 2nd act or the middle of a story to drag, to just present a series of events that doesn’t connect with the previous events or the future in a meaningful way. It’s pretty elementary, really: finding ways to get that middle portion to tie in. It’s often one of the first things budding story writers learn.

And yet what did this forty-five minute sequence accomplish? We didn’t learn anything new about Gamora, none of the other character arcs are started, we get our 4th epic “walking” sequence of the movie while chaos goes on in the background. We didn’t get the code we need. This 45 minutes was a waste of time. Which is especially sad because…

The Theme Would Have Been So Easy To Work In!

The villain of this movie, The High Evolutionary, is attempting to create the “perfect society.” He is struggling to create people without flaws. In the third act of the four acts of this movie, we visit one of his “societies” and see how it is still imperfect. In, well, a fairly shallow way: we’re just shown them taking drugs, beating people up, and unable to solve original problems rather than rote memorization.

All of this stuff about a “perfect, flawless society” is interesting.

But do you know what would’ve been super easy to do to make this theme even stronger?

You’ve got the Guardians, an imperfect group made all the stronger because of their flaws, RIGHT THERE!

While the Guardians have always bickered, they yell in this movie a lot more than the previous two and in Avengers: Endgame. It would have been an amazing opportunity to counter the “perfect” society with the “imperfect” guardians, showing how their flaws and weaknesses bring them closer together. Show how they’re there for each other. Show how they bring each other up, doing things that are irrational to save each other.

Gamora would be the perfect eyes for this. She is somewhat, as she spends a part of the movie re-learning who the Guardians are and why they are the way they are. She is skeptical at first but later grows to care for the Guardians again. However, this could so much more strongly tie into this “imperfect society” arc.

In addition, the “imperfect people” could sacrifice for each other. One of the most moving moments of the whole MCU is when Groot sacrifices himself for the Guardians. While of course he didn’t actually die, his “death” had long term consequences for his character in the MCU. He had to “regrow” from sprout and child, to teenager, to adult again in this film. This is a minor spoiler, but there is no comparable sacrifice in this movie. There are several annoying fakeouts where you’re really sure characters are going to die and then they just magically don’t. It would be the perfect chance to draw out how an “imperfect society” doesn’t just die for their boss, as many do for the High Evolutionary, but for each other. They care for each other.

There are so many chances to make this theme stronger and by so doing make the movie stronger. A movie doesn’t need a theme, but when you have a good idea that can tie into all of the events, creating an interwoven tapestry, the interlocking sequence of events that is the story of the movie only gets stronger. And it’s clear there are good ideas. Yet applications are right there, untaken, unused. And the movie is much weaker for it, making it “ok.”

James Gunn never explicitly draws out this comparison. I think the idea was there, but he never takes it as high as he could have. As it is, two great movies are followed up by one “ok” movie at best. I think you could pick this apart even more and find more problems than that. But these stood out to me right away.

What do you think of Guardians 3 and the MCU so far? Do you have any movies you think could’ve had stronger themes, or stronger middle sections that related more to that theme? Comment below!