Guardians of the Galaxy: Vol 3 - 4 Stars

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The Guardians gang are back! Quill (Chris Pratt) is devastated by his loss of Gamora (Zoe Saldana), and the rest of the team are trying to hold it together.

When Adam Warlock (Will Poulter) throws Rocket (Bradley Cooper) into a coma, however, the team has to travel across the Galaxy to track down a piece of code to save the deadly racoon - in the process, discovering the horrors perpetrated on the animal, by the nefarious High Evolutionary (Chukwudi Iwuji).

The beauty of James Gunn’s work with Guardians of the Galaxy: Vol 3 (hereafter, GOTG3), is that he never shies away from the painful, tortuous and emotional.

Sure, the movie may be overstuffed. Sure, some of Rocket’s old friends will give you nightmares by virtue of their likeness to Toy Story characters that traumatized you as a kid. But ultimately, Gunn succeeds where so many directors of the past few MCU films have failed, by engaging honestly and authentically with the material.

There’s witty quips all around here, and Chris Pratt is mercifully back in the Star Lord box that he seems to have drifted from as a side character in recent adventures. But the star of the show is Rocket Racoon, and the character (and voice actor Bradley Cooper) do a fantastic job of grounding the film and tugging on the heart strings.

Visually, the film continues the trend