But it’s also a grounded exploration of trauma and grief, and is fundamentally about reconnecting with the world around and rediscovering the will to live. Suzume is a fantastical adventure, featuring a giant earthquake-causing worm, portals to the afterlife, and a hot guy turned into a chair. SuzumeĬast: Nanoka Hara, Hokuto Matsumura (Japanese) Nichole Sakura, Josh Keaton (English) In spite of the film’s darker elements, this one is all candy, and it’s appropriately sweet. But it’s still much the same in spirit as the previous two movies, with a lot of ridiculous straight-faced banter, some manic action, some heartfelt personal connection, and a whole bunch of small personal payoffs.Įven though most of the characters here aren’t human, this movie has a lot more human emotion than most Marvel movies manage, and it pulls together a ton of micro storylines into something resembling both a satisfying goodbye and a hello for a potential new team of Guardians. Guardians 3 goes darker than the previous two movies, with a graphic storyline about Rocket Raccoon (Bradley Cooper) and his harrowing past as a lab experiment, and with nominal team leader Peter Quill (Chris Pratt) descending into alcoholism as he mourns his relationship with Gamora (Zoe Saldaña), who died, then emerged from a different timeline where she never got to know him. (When Dave Bautista as Drax the Destroyer snarls that dancing is for idiots, so he doesn’t ever dance, you know full well what he’s going to be dancing by the end of the movie.) But it’s an effective ploy, frankly, at least for people who already have any affection for the Guardians movies and their messy team of badly broken people who just need a win, no matter how small and specific.

James Gunn’s presumably final outing with his Marvel team of spacefaring aliens and misfits is calculated to a fault, full of little “gotcha” setups designed specifically to make viewers want something out of a given character so it’ll be fun when it pays off later. Cast: Chris Pratt, Dave Bautista, Bradley Cooper

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