Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3

Production on James Gunn’s 2023 film was split by the director being dropped in July 2018 and rehired in March 2019, with shooting only reaching the queue in February 2021. Cameras rolled at an Atlanta stage that November, and the virtual production wall was ruled out because the sets were too large. The story runs on two tracks, a present day rescue and Rocket’s past inside a laboratory. The animal experimentation sits in those flashbacks and arrives without warning, straight after a comic scene. That is what to know before watching with a child. The corridor fight near the end is engineered to look unbroken: eighteen separate plates joined at seventeen points into one two and a half minute shot, the aim being that you could not spot a cut even if you looked. What you watch is the camera handing the fight from one character to the next. Jokes per minute fall off sharply and the register is closer to a farewell. Chukwudi Iwuji plays the scientist behind the laboratory. It cost 250 million dollars and took 845.6 million worldwide. A good fit if you want to follow that corridor take without hunting for seams and can accept a goodbye instead of comedy. Not for you if the laboratory material involving Rocket would be hard to sit with.