"Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol 3"

Not sure why there is a hate-fest for this film.  I enjoyed it.  I do see some downsides.  After endangering, and saving, the universe on one or two occasions, it becomes difficult to top that with "something greater".  This film doesn't bother.  It simply goes in a different direction.  We have the back stories of every character.  Except for Rocket.  And this is, truly, Rocket's story.  It's sad and brutal to watch at times.  There are predictable losses (he's a pretty cantankerous character and now I get why).  It was so heavy that, yes, I reached for a tissue now and then.  And I know that's not what people want in a superhero film.  And so there are battles and fisticuffs and the like.  Enough to make this a regular old Marvel film.  But it's got a darker side.  Not a "Deadpool" darker side, but a touch-your-soul-just-a-bit dark side.  And maybe that's just too much feeling for your average action fan.  There is also the issue of the music.  The first film has, in my humble opinion, one of the best scores I've ever seen in a movie.  The second film has "good" music.  The music here ... with exception ... is "okay".  Yes, there is Heart and Florence + The Machine but overall, the music choices leave me with the belief that the tunes of my youth far outweigh contemporary music.  The 70s stuff ... it has stuck around for 50 years.  It is music which speaks to you.  Which can bring a memory in with force.  You can sing along with it.  Not so much the stuff that followed.  In the first film the music is like a character.  Take it away and the movie is lessened.  By the time we get to the third film, we are supposed to wax poetical about Beastie Boys?  I think not.  All that aside, the two and a half hour movie entertains and uses hordes (and hordes and hordes) of baddies to create real risk for our leads.  But it's just not as big.  Chukwudi Iwuji brings a Shakespearean gravitas to his role and there are real themes about true religion vs false prophets.  But it's not world-in-peril stuff (ironic, because there is a world in peril).  That becomes an almost secondary plot.  The bigger question is how our personal challenges, and loss, shape us.  Do we become bitter or rise above?  It's a lot of thinking for a Marvel film, but in this case, that was something I didn't dislike.  Critics be darned.  Give it a chance.