Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3

You can hardly go wrong telling a story with great characters. The strength of this series has always been its stable of astonishingly vibrant and memorable characters, from the original core set to the additions to the team in the second and now third installments--they have all been outsized, wildly entertaining and profoundly likable. That even applies to the computer generated personages, who really shine in this sequel. Rocket and his enhanced animal friends, in flashbacks to the past, bring such emotional depth and honesty to the story’s key points that their example opens up whole new vistas of consideration about how movie audiences can connect to characters, ideas and other facets of the movie-watching experience. Maybe even the dreaded AIs have something to offer the medium, something that those who grew up strictly on human-centric cinema would never have expected to be possible. Then again, maybe it’s all just a standard comic-book movie hoot and a half, with laughs and fun stuff and “did that look cool” sprinkled throughout a well-formed big-screen joy ride. You can just take it as the latter and leave all the deep thought stuff to others, if you like. This outing certainly serves up plenty of laugh-out-loud moments and a host of trademark flourishes that the franchise fans will expect to see. Yes, there is a certain amount of absurdity to the main storyline; if you think about it (not recommended), the whole thing doesn't make a lot of sense. But such concerns have quibbling written all over them. This is just plain movie fun, and if you don't get regular helpings of that, you're doing it wrong.

Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 2

Most of the time, the heavy use of nostalgic music--in this case 1970s and '80s stuff--is just a marketing tool used to rope in a specific, ticket-buying cohort. Not so here; the music actually plays a pivotal role in the story. It's a thread that ties things together in an interesting way, more so than the tunes in the first installment. Expanding out from that, this film wears its Eighties heritage more flamboyantly than any other flick movie of recent vintage (as does its predecessor); it's no wonder then that folks like myself are eating this stuff up. All that wry, ironic, and even a little bit cruel humor goes a long way to creating the likeability, even if a lot of this story is obvious both in terms of plot and visually. There are a lot of ways of earning an audience's good graces, and these folks pull out all those stops, enough to make an enjoyable sequel. Enough for a third go round? We probably don't have a choice, but, sure, I'll go along.

Guardians of the Galaxy

This movie gets a huge leg up in generating goodwill from its audience through its amazing soundtrack. The music nails it for appealing to viewers of a certain age, who most likely already have these songs on their preferred listening device--people like yours truly. Then again, it probably does some damage if those viewers recognize the soundtrack as a cynical ploy to appeal to said demographic, and thus boost ticket and home viewing sales. Call all that a wash, and thus we're stuck with trying to judge this film on its own merits--and that is a hit and miss proposition. For every space opera element that is derivative, predictable, and stale, there's also a piece of cleverness, good humor, and just sheer entertainment that offsets the problems. If we do the math, I think the whole thing winds up in the plus column; not by much, but enough that this one gets a passing grade, something just high enough to keep that goodwill going for the inevitable sequel.

Boiler Room

So, what's with the heavy-handed use of the hip-hop soundtrack? A statement, perhaps, that the young white males who dominate this movie are not so different from the 'niggas' in the hood? Yeah, we get it: expensive suits and gold chains don't live so far apart after all. That's not exactly an epic statement. And even if it were particularly insightful, the over the top presentation we get here is a turn off. This may be secret knowledge to the filmmakers, but it's something that some of us out here already know. That problem drags down this film, despite a some good moments, and makes it less than it might have been.