While Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 landed the second-biggest box office debut of 2023, it still fell short of projections. Just a few years ago, Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) films dominated the box office and shaped moviegoers’ priorities — without question. Now, the pattern of lukewarm audience receptions is undeniable. Earlier this year, Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania kicked off the MCU’s Phase 5, boasting more messiness than luster.
Even Phase 4, the first proper block of films to follow the climatic Avengers: Endgame (2019), was uneven, featuring some of the MCU’s best offerings — Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings (2021) and Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021) — but also some of its worst, like the seemingly forgotten Eternals (2021) and the disappointing, overstuffed Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (2022). So, why aren’t things gelling for the MCU? Guardians of the Galaxy 3 illustrates some of the most glaring weaknesses in Marvel’s approach to its once-unstoppable cinematic universe.
How Is Gamora Alive? What The Guardians Of The Galaxy Trilogy Doesn’t Cover
Even fans who’ve seen every Marvel movie might have wondered, “Wait, how is Gamora alive in Guardians of the Galaxy 3?” And that’s a fair question. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (2017) debuted six years ago. Since then, the members of the eponymous team — Peter Quill/Star-Lord (Chris Pratt), Drax (Dave Bautista), Mantis (Pom Klementieff), Nebula (Karen Gillan), Groot (voice of Vin Diesel), Rocket Raccoon (voice of Bradley Cooper), and, yes, Gamora (Zoe Saldaña) — have appeared in Avengers: Infinity War (2018) and Avengers: Endgame (2019).
And while it’s hard to imagine someone watching Guardians of the Galaxy as a standalone trilogy, it does beg the question: should fans feel like they have to watch every MCU film to understand what’s going on? Missing out on small things, like cameos and Easter eggs, doesn’t raise any flags, but Guardians of the Galaxy 3 is an instance of a lot of plot playing out in non-trilogy films. If a viewer only watched James Gunn’s trilogy, they wouldn’t see Gamora’s full arc play out on screen. In Infinity War, Gamora dies so that her estranged father, the titan Thanos (Josh Brolin), can collect the Soul Stone — one of the Infinity Stones he needs to power the Infinity Gauntlet and Snap away half of all life in the universe.
In the follow-up film, Endgame, the MCU makes it clear that any sacrifice made to get the Soul Stone — be it Gamora’s or Black Widow’s (Scarlett Johansson) — can’t be undone, not even with the power of the Infinity Stones and Gauntlet. To best Thanos, the Avengers pull off a “time heist” — they venture to points in history where the Infinity Stones cropped up, intending to collect them before Thanos does and, thus, thwart the Snap rapture (Snapture) that closed out Infinity War.
The only problem? When Nebula, another of Thanos’ “adopted” daughters, travels back to retrieve the Power Stone, the Variant Nebula interferes. Being part-machine has a distinct disadvantage; Variant Nebula intercepts a transmission meant for Avengers Nebula, and tells Variant Thanos of the Avengers’ grand plan. Variant Thanos invades Earth-616, accompanied by his army as well as his daughters, Variant Nebula and Variant Gamora. However, Thanos and all who join him get stuck in the original timeline. That’s why the Gamora who’s in Guardians of the Galaxy 3 has no memory of her misadventures or her relationship with Peter.
It undermines parts of the Guardians’ trilogy to have such a central character’s arc play out so significantly in other films. And while that’s the most egregious omission, it isn’t the only one. The Guardians of the Galaxy play a key role in the opening of Thor: Love and Thunder (2022), and, despite very brief cameos in the first two Guardians films, Cosmo the Spacedog is given her biggest introduction in The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special (2022), which shows off her psionic powers and allegiance to the titular team. In fact, the holiday special also does the most legwork in setting up that the rebuilt Knowhere is the Guardians’ new base of operations.
Does The MCU’s Insistence On Interconnectedness Do More Harm Than Good?
Marvel’s once-impressive narrative web seems more and more tangled the deeper the MCU dives into the Multiverse. While the Disney Plus series Loki and Spider-Man: No Way Home told effective, clear multiverse tales, subsequent movies, which feel the need to cram in all of this overarching exposition, are clearly cracking under the pressure of trying to build up a Thanos-level threat. But the near-constant attempts to shoehorn in connections — and winks and cameos and plot setups — undermine the movie in which those attempts are happening.
The very idea of the Avengers — billed over a decade ago as the “greatest crossover of all time” — was that the team-ups got bigger and better with every movie, culminating in an MCU-wide team-up against Thanos. The Multiverse is the MCU’s present attempt to build on that momentum, to generate more excitement for something that’s somehow bigger and better. But the majority of Phase 4 and 5 films have done little to rouse fans. Not only does the interconnectedness of all MCU films push viewers to watch everything (perhaps unnecessarily), but it also takes away from each film’s signature feel.
In the early days of the MCU, films felt a bit more distinct from franchise to franchise. Gunn’s Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 1 was irreverent and ridiculous and about as raunchy as a Disney-backed film could get, while Taika Waititi’s Thor: Ragnarok (2017) reinvented the titular character for the better, infusing charm and humor. Both directors undoubtedly influenced the MCU films that came after; that kind of humor, for example, bled into the Avengers films.
Now, it all just kind of feels like part of the Marvel brand. As a result, Gunn and Waititi’s sequels couldn’t sustain that inventive, unique feel that made their original MCU films such hits. The broader effect is a kind of flattening of the MCU films; directors are siloed not only into telling very specific stories with very specific beats, but they’re less able to inject their signature style into an MCU film. (Just look at the squandering of Chloé Zhao’s talent in Eternals.) Ultimately, the sameness of the MCU films means there isn’t that same spark that first ignited fans’ love of these movies.
Can an Approach To The MCU Take Cues From Comic Books?
Clearly, Marvel is already taking some structural cues from its comic books when it comes to setting up the MCU. For starters, big-name characters helm their own trilogies of films, and then team up in the Avengers movies, or show up in each other’s films when a plot point calls for it. This can be done well — the MCU has proven it. Lately, though, it feels impossible to see past Kevin Feige’s scaffolding, and that’s where the problem lies.
Comic book runs can be fairly self-contained. Sure, a reader might seek out other stories about the title character, or find themselves intrigued by a side character or plot mention that unfolds elsewhere, but it’s generally not a necessity. And maybe that’s the best way to approach the MCU films, too. Viewers can watch what interests them, and accept that they might be a little out of the loop, or unaware of a cameo’s implications. Instead of feeling pressured to watch every MCU series and film, maybe viewers can reframe their approach.
Watching it all should deepen one’s understanding of Marvel’s movies, but missing out on a few entries shouldn’t take away from one’s enjoyment of the MCU. And while Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 highlights some of the MCU’s weaknesses, it also proves that Marvel can still wrap up a standalone trilogy in a satisfying way.