‘Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3’ Excels at Cinema and at Spreading a Deeper Message

The final film in the Marvel Cinematic Universes (MCU) “Guardians of the Galaxy”(GOTG") trilogy released on May 5th to solid success. The film grossed $114 million in its opening weekend from Friday Monday. The film wrapped up the story of a cast of characters who first came together on the big screen back in July of 2014. Nearly a decade in the making, MCU fans grew to love the cast of characters and build meaningful relationships with each one of them over the span of three movies.

In our last episode of The Student Media Podcast, we spoke with Isaac Hinson of the student newspaper, The Observer. Hinson has written multiple articles in the past about movies and even one more recently about GOTG Vol.3. Isaac talked to us about his love for these films and how he felt the third wrapped everything up perfectly.

“It was the perfect conclusion to end the characters I have been growing up with,” Hinson said on the podcast.

With this being the said conclusion to the trilogy, the story of “Vol. 3,” takes viewers on an emotional rollercoaster from the opening scene all the way to the end. The film focuses on the character Rocket Raccoon, a raccoon who was genetically modified from a young age against his will by a character from the film and comics named the High Evolutionary. The film centers around multiple flashbacks that tell the story of Rocket’s creation that had been very vague to this point in the trilogy. Much of what is seen in these flashback scenes can be considered difficult to watch as it shows some graphic details of animal testing and animal cruelty.

A lot of the film focuses on testing on animals as the character the High Evolutionary’s goal is to create the perfect race by modifying and performing tests on animals. Cages full of animals and creatures with cybernetic appendages and other uneasy looking prosthetics are shown through out the film. As hard as these scenes may be for people to take in, it opens eyes to an issue that society currently faces today.

Animals are subjected to testing and conditions not too far from the sci-fi fantasy world of cinema that we see in this film. People For The Ethical Treatment Of Animals praised the film for it’s message on animal cruelty and testing. In my opinion, that is something this film does really well. It makes people feel love and compassion for characters like Rocket by showing what he and the others had to endure. The film makes people understand that these things do happen in our world to some extent. The idea of trying to create a perfect society by destroying and harming others is something that happens everyday with animals.

Will this film be the change that these issues need? No one can say for sure. However what it can do is continue to spread awareness and open eyes to it by telling the story of characters we have come to love and that are much closer to us than we realize.