Nobody can deny that the Marvel Cinematic Universe hasn’t been firing on all cylinders since Avengers: Endgame wrapped up the Infinity Saga in spectacular style, but the release of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 has seen the franchise’s goldfish bowl rear its head again.
While James Gunn has undoubtedly delivered a stellar conclusion to his sprawling intergalactic saga, let’s not forget that it’s still the worst-reviewed of the trilogy. Not only that, but it also holds lower Rotten Tomatoes scores than both Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings and Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, the latter of which netted $859 million at the box office and won an Academy Award.
Sure, there have been missteps along the way – with Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania the most notable by far – but it’s been pointed out already that Vol. 3 scoring a huge opening weekend and sending audiences home happy hasn’t exactly seen it ride to the rescue as the savior of Phase Five.
That shortness of memory is even more alarming when you consider that it’s only been half a year since Wakanda Forever was released, and Ryan Coogler’s sequel was also heavily praised at the time for being the film to get the MCU back on the right track after a shaky start to the Multiverse Saga.
Of course, we can all remember a time where great superhero blockbusters were the norm from Marvel Studios and not the exception to the rule, which is something we’d all love to see happen again with increasing regularity.