Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3

James Gunn is back as writer and director of The Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3. Gunn has helmed every Guardians film, and now comes the final chapter in the series - well, if you can say that as in the Marvel universe nothing is ever truly over. The first film, from 2014, introduced us to a group of unusual anti-heroes that were a fresh change of pace from the proper heroes like Captain America and Iron Man. But now, after three films, familiarity with the Guardians has led to a drop in quality. While Vol. 3 has its strengths, the first Guardians film from 2014 remains the best in the series.

The film follows the Guardians as they embark on a final mission to rescue Rocket Raccoon. He has been seriously injured and it's up to the group to find a rare chip that can save the raccoon's life.

Rocket Raccoon is the film's dramatic centrepiece. A series of flashback sequences show us Rocket's traumatic past as an experimental animal. He is the victim of a perverse experiment led by the film's villain, The High Evolutionary (Chukwudi Iwuji) - a mad scientist obsessed with creating the perfect creature. He does this by torturing numerous animals via genetic modification that deforms them both physically and mentally - including Rocket Raccoon. These flashback scenes are one of the highlights of the film, and are actually extremely uncomfortable to watch. It's the first time the Marvel universe has tackled animal abuse as a means of villainous motivation, resulting in some pretty horrific scenes for a PG 13 film. Rocket's trauma gives him depth as a character, which is an interesting change in focus for the Guardians films.

The second highlight of the film is in a classic heist sequence where the group must infiltrate a space station that is itself a living organism. One might think that this sequence was guest-directed by body horror legend David Cronenberg, when looking at the corporeal and the mechanical combination of the space station. The setting is strong and distinctive in these scenes, where the walls look like sinewy muscles, and the guards' suits look like perverse muscle suits.

But the film's bright spots more or less stop there. You can't escape the tame and distinctive Marvel humour. It's become a staple of the film series, delivering goofy punchlines every two minutes that are neither humorously written nor well delivered. However, the film is not entirely humourless. Some of the scenes are funny, mainly those featuring the film's new character Adam Warlock, played well by the versatile Will Poulter. Some fans seem to resent Poulter's portrayal of the superhero, who is a bit of a cult favourite among comic book nerds, but he manages to be funny, charming and dramatic as the somewhat jaded character.

Funny, charming and dramatic are not words that can be so easily applied to the rest of the Guardians team. The scenes between Quill (Chris Pratt) and Gamora (Zoë Saldaña) aren't quite as dramatic as the film would like them to be. It's not a bad thing, but it's as if the scenes lack the dramatic weight to allow the viewer to buy into the melodrama. This results in long and annoying scenes where you're mostly waiting to get back to Rocket Raccoon's story.

Okay, so neither the humour nor the melodrama hits the mark - what about the action scenes? Well, there are tons of them, and they're enormously long. After the strong sequence on the organic space station, the action scenes don't quite reach the same level. It's reduced to noisy filler, which is especially noticeable in the 2.5 hour running time.

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 has a mediocre ending. The film has excellent moments as we follow Rocket Raccoon and also has some strong scenes, especially the heist sequence, but in between these good scenes, there is too much indifferent melodrama and too many inconsequential action scenes that lose the viewer over the overly long running time.