Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3
Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures | Release Date: May 5, 2023 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
64
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 63 Critic Reviews
Positive:
37
Mixed:
24
Negative:
2
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
60
The Irish TimesDonald ClarkeMay 3, 2023
For all the extravagant special effects and efforts to tug at our heartstrings, what we get is more of an epic variety show than coherent space opera. Read full review
60
Little White LiesHannah StrongMay 1, 2023
For all his puerile instincts, Gunn is able to create stakes in this film that feel real and meaningful – perhaps because of the care that has gone into fleshing out this group of characters over the course of three films (and all their supplementary appearances). Read full review
60
Time OutMichael JulianoApr 28, 2023
For a bright and breezy franchise with a talking tree and wise-cracking racoon, it gets unexpectedly bleak. Read full review
60
NMEOlly RichardsApr 28, 2023
It’s sometimes funny and emotionally effective when it counts, but also very, very dark, with some of the grimmest scenes of any Marvel movie. Read full review
60
BBCNicholas BarberApr 28, 2023
This one may be the most unruly and excessive of the trilogy, but it is as sweetly touching as any film with so many slimy, tentacled monsters in it could be. Read full review
60
The GuardianPeter BradshawApr 28, 2023
Now Guardians of the Galaxy has reached the threequel stage: overlong, yes, and finally reaching for an importance and emotional closure (perhaps inspired by Gunn’s own emotional corporate redemption) that it doesn’t quite encompass, while leaving the GOTG brand open for a next-gen reboot. But it’s still spectacular, spirited and often funny. Read full review
58
The PlaylistRodrigo PerezApr 28, 2023
Sentimentality, earnestness, and the ability to tap into naked vulnerability—normally [Gunn's] great qualities—get the best of him, turning ‘Vol 3’ into a largely maudlin, overwrought, overstuffed, and melodramatic mess that only works in fits and starts. Read full review
50
Boston GlobeOdie HendersonMay 5, 2023
Unlike the first two installments, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 ultimately feels tethered to the MCU in ways that mute the uniqueness of the series. Unlike its predecessors, its familiar beats feel like a bridge back to the MCU rather than a divergence off the beaten path. Read full review
50
ObserverOliver JonesMay 2, 2023
To its credit, the latest and seemingly last Guardians installment— which at times can feel like a Spotify playlist in search of a movie— mostly manages to drown out the corporate exhaustion of its parent company with copious and often inspired needle drops, even more hit-or-miss one-liners, and a visual playfulness that recalls actual comic books. Read full review
50
Washington PostMichael O'SullivanMay 1, 2023
It’s a sweet and savory morsel of storytelling, drowning in a puddle of special-effects sauce. Read full review
50
Vanity FairRichard LawsonApr 28, 2023
It’s an odd, lumbering patchwork of a film, occasionally fascinating but otherwise bloated and aimless. Read full review
50
New York PostJohnny OleksinskiApr 28, 2023
The utopia-via-laboratory aspects of “Vol. 3” resemble “Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan” — only it’s the Wrath of Gunn. This chilling paperweight clocks in at 2 hours and 30 minutes, making it the fourth longest Marvel film so far. And it’s wildly self-indulgent. Read full review
50
The Seattle TimesSoren AndersenApr 28, 2023
You know, there was a time when “Guardians of the Galaxy” was fun. That time was 2014, when the first picture came out... Now here’s “Vol. III.” And it’s no fun at all. Read full review
50
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzApr 28, 2023
It’s not a disaster, and it doesn’t lack for ambition. But it’s wildly uneven and kind of blah, if that can be said of a movie with nonstop, often incoherent action, self-aware needle drops and not nearly enough smart-aleck quips from a cast we’ve seen deliver plenty of them in the past. Read full review
50
SlashfilmChris EvangelistaApr 28, 2023
And that, perhaps, is the real fatal flaw of "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3." Gunn's first two movies felt different. They stood out from the pack and had their own unique personality. But "Vol. 3" feels like more of the same. I'm not suggesting Gunn and company are phoning it in this time around, but it certainly feels like the magic has faded. Whatever alchemy the filmmaker worked to make the first two "Guardians" movies memorable has evaporated into the ether. Read full review
50
Movie NationRoger MooreApr 28, 2023
These pictures have grown less cute, less charming and less fun with each passing installment, and this one just drags as it meanders towards its over-hyped lump-in-throat finale. Read full review
50
Slant MagazineGregory NussenApr 28, 2023
The film undermines its initial sense of intimacy and momentum with a stop-and-start story structure that by and large exists to make as much room as possible for its characters’ banter. Read full review
42
The Film StageConor O'DonnellMay 4, 2023
It’s a Marvel entry surprisingly free of any ties to broader property outside of the first two volumes, but mired in the same bag of tricks with a bit more slime on it. Read full review
40
The Film VerdictAlonso DuraldeJun 20, 2023
One of the film’s best features is that it does a minimum of seeding the ground for the next five MCU sequels; one of its worst is that it generates little enthusiasm for ever seeing these characters again. Read full review
40
The New YorkerRichard BrodyMay 10, 2023
The movie is grandiose but not impressive, elaborate but not eye-catching; its most poignant simulation is the effort to make it feel like a movie for adults, with grownup concerns, which remain dramatically undeveloped but are delivered with a thudding earnestness. Read full review
40
Wall Street JournalKyle SmithMay 4, 2023
GOTG 3 is a blahbuster that, like other recent Marvel disappointments (“Thor: Love and Thunder,” “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania”), jogs along from one visually extravagant, strenuously jokey set piece to another without offering much in the way of either dramatic engagement or actually funny ideas. Read full review
40
The New York TimesMaya PhillipsMay 4, 2023
Though this “Guardians” is certainly less fun than the others, there are still glints of joy in the more mundane and ancillary quibbles among the found family of misfits. Read full review
40
The TelegraphRobbie CollinApr 28, 2023
Writer-director James Gunn finds moments of inspiration in this sequel, but the plot is a mess, the film irritable and frazzled. Read full review
40
Rolling StoneDavid FearApr 28, 2023
What was once an anything-goes sensibility now feels like it’s stuck in a nothing’s-sticking gear. Dark, wearisome and bombastic, along with an ensemble cast clearly radiating that they’d rather be someplace else, is not what we come to a Marvel movie for. We already have the DCEU for that. Read full review
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