Movies and TV Shows

I agree in that the stakes for 3 are incredibly low. It starts trying to save Rocket's life, but that's nowhere near the same level as playing keep away with an Infinity Stone, or stopping a mad god from destroying the universe.

Rocket dies, or he doesn't, it has an impact on a dozen or so characters.

Then, once Rocket's life is saved, it becomes keeping him away from the High Evolutionary, who wants to use Rockets DNA to fuel a new race of beings just as creative (and destructive?) as Rocket.

But this is, ultimately, Rocket's origin story. The flashbacks are heartbreaking, and, yeah, even though it's smaller in scale, it has more emotion behind it than 1 and 2. It's about the characters and each gets a chance to shine (even Cosmo!)

I had similar thoughts. It’s worth seeing it once if you’ve seen the others but not as good as the previous two. Some animal scenes were a tough, at least for me. It’s unlikely that I’ll rewatch this one.

Only thing I thought was a painful cliche in the movie was the "no, I won't kill the villain (after mowing down all of his minions like they were nothing) because I'm the good guy!" trope.

I liked it fine (I liked the first two a little better), but I thought the soundtrack was a bit of a mess. Ultimately I thought it was a perfectly adequate way to wrap up the trilogy.

As for having a sense of consequence, you have seen a Marvel movie before, right? It's always cotton candy, even though Rocket's flashback storyline was quite grim.

I watched it last month and it's telling that I can't quite remember what it was about. They're trying to save Rocket for a big part of it, and there's a lot of flashbacks to how Rocket came to be. But then that gets resolved and it becomes about... the High Evolutionary, who wants... something? He wants Rocket because he's smart, and he's gonna go do... something? And Adam Warlock is there, except he's a joke character?

I enjoyed it overall, but I have a much clearer recall of the overall dramatic arc of the Christmas Special.

It wasn't amazing but IMO the first 2 were also just ok, so I generally enjoyed the 3rd about the same.

The whole MCU has been going downhill since at least Endgame. Too interconnected to follow, too convoluted.