Movie reviews: In ‘Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3,’ Gunn brings something other superhero movies don’t have

GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY VOL. 3: 3 ½ STARS

“Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3,” the new sci-fi action-comedy from director James Gunn, brings the hip needle drops, off-kilter humor and mismatched, misfit superheroes you expect, but adds in unexpectedly heart tugging sentiments about family, second chances and personal growth.

The action begins on a downbeat note. Rocket (Bradley Cooper), the smart-mouthed genetically-engineered racoon, is feeling down, wallowing in the maudlin sounds of Radiohead’s “Creep.”

Star-Lord, a.k.a. Peter Quill (Chris Pratt) is using booze to grapple with the change in his girlfriend Gamora (Zoe Saldaña). She was killed by Thanos, but, courtesy of an alternate timeline, a version of her returned, but different, with no memory of her adventures with the Guardians or her love affair with Quill. “I’ll tell you something,” he says. “I’m Star-Lord. I formed the Guardians. Met a girl, fell in love, and that girl died. But then she came back. Came back a total d**k.”

Their world is given a shake and bake by caped supervillain Adam Warlock (Will Poulter). He is a powerful cosmic entity, with a third eye jewel embedded in his forehead, working with the man responsible for creating Rocket’s unique genetic makeup, a Dr. Moreau type known as the High Evolutionary (Chukwudi Iwuji). The ultimate plan is to kidnap and study Rocket to use the chatty racoon as the basis to sidestep the evolutionary process and create more hybrid species.

“My sacred mission is to create the perfect society,” he says.

During the invasion, Rocket is severely injured, revealing to his co-Guardians—Star-Lord, Nebula (Karen Gillen), Mantis (Pom Klementieff) Drax (Dave Bautista), Groot (the voice of Vin Diesel) and Gamora—the extent of his genetic modifications.

As the racoon wavers between life and death, the film cleaves into two parts, Rocket’s origin story and the rescue mission to save his life.

“Are you ready for one last ride?” asks Peter.

“Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3” succumbs to the usual superhero movie pitfalls. By the time the end credits roll, it has become a loud, slightly over-long orgy of CGI, but James Gunn brings something most other superhero movies don’t have.

Within the wham-bam action overload is a genuine sweetness that overrides the bombastic action. Under his watch the movies provide the expected wild ride while grounding the otherworldly action with poignant relationship drama. These movies are about logical, not necessarily biological, families, and that connection, above all else, is what makes these movies so effective.

If Gunn (and Dave Bautista) can make a character named Drax the Destroyer loveable, then anything is possible.

ACIDMAN: 3 ½ STARS

“Acidman,” a new family drama starring Thomas Haden Church and Dianna Agron and now playing in theatres, is a quiet, and sometimes disquieting, essay on a broken father and daughter relationship.

Maggie (Dianna Agron), a thirtysomething engineer on the verge of divorce, hasn’t had much contact with her father Lloyd (Church) a.k.a. Acidman, for decades, ever since he abandoned his career and family when she was a teen.

A recluse, he lives rough, in a rundown trailer in the Pacific Northwest.

“It’s a good place to be left alone,” he says.

When he isn’t writing and recording discordant industrial music using the junk that fills his place as instruments, he is attempting to make first contact with UFOs.

“Technically,” he says, “they are IFOs because we’ve identified them.”

Maggie travels thousands of miles by plane, train and automobile to reconnect with her father, to check in on him—”When is the last time you went to the doctor?”—and to gain some understanding of his reasons for leaving her behind. In understanding his abandonment, she also hopes to gain some clarity on her dissolving marriage.

“How long are you planning on staying,” Lloyd asks. “I guess I could have picked up a little, if I had known you were making the trip.”

As they get reacquainted on UFO sighting trips with Lloyd’s dog Migo, Maggie comes to realize the depth of her father’s alienation, but finds cracks in his hardened veneer that reveal the man she once knew.

“Acidman” is the study of a relationship in progress. Lloyd and Maggie are strangers, tied by biology and faded memories.

Their tentative attempts at making a true connection are poignantly played by Argon and Church. There isn’t an ounce of sentimentality on display, just two broken people searching for a path forward. This isn’t a story where the characters emerge at the end of the movie radically changed. Instead, the way they grapple with the past, pushes them into the future.

Director Alex Lehmann keeps things simple. The melodrama is on the downlow, which allows the chemistry between the two lost souls in the leads develop slowly and naturally until their fractured relationship finds its comfort zone. It’s an intimate two-hander that takes patience from the viewer, but pays off with a feeling of gentle authenticity.

CARMEN: 3 STARS

“Carmen” borrows its name and main themes from 19th century works by romantic novelist Prosper Mérimée and composer Georges Bizet, but is set very firmly in modern day. A loose and often surreal adaptation of the novel and the opera of the same name, this movie begins with a tragic event that shapes the rest of the story.

When a bullet from a drug cartel member kills defiant flamenco dancer Zilah (Marina Tamayo) in the Mexican desert, her daughter Carmen (Melissa Barrera) is left alone and vulnerable. Fleeing to safety with the help of a smuggler, she heads for the U.S. border and Masilda (Rossy de Palma), her mother’s best friend.

On the American side in Texas, Aidan (recent Oscar nominee Paul Mescal), a discharged Marine suffering from PTSD, reluctantly takes a job patrolling the border.

The journeys intersect when Carmen and other immigrants attempt an illegal crawl under the fence dividing the two countries. Spotted by Mike (Benedict Hardie), a racist guard with a quick trigger finger, they are met with a hail of gunfire. Carmen escapes with Aidan in tow. On the run, the pair begin a passionate affair as they plot their next steps.

“Carmen” is a musical odyssey but it isn’t exactly a musical. It is a gritty and timely story told with magic realism, where contemporary dance and music are part of the story’s language. Directed by French dancer Benjamin Millepied, who choreographed the 2010 movie “Black Swan” and the “sandwalk” in “Dune,” goes for a dream-like feel that stands at stark contrast to the gritty reality of Carmen and Aidan’s situation.

This approach does make for some jarring transitions from scene to scene, as the movie shifts from pragmatism to avant-garde fever dreams, and it can be confusing, but the sheer beauty of the dance sequences and the music goes a long way in keeping the experience compelling. Millepied’s dance sequences are, unsurprisingly, visually stunning, and often worth the price of admission alone.

Barrera and Mescal’s smoldering chemistry is “Carmen’s” touchstone to reality, but this isn’t about realism, it is about pure emotion. Often more beautiful than cohesive, it’s geared to make you think and feel, and on that level it succeeds.