Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 3 Is A Reminder We Still Need R-Rated James Gunn Movies

gamespot.com:

The way I see it, James Gunn has two main thematic modes: gleeful nihilist, and sappy idealist. It might seem like an odd pairing to some, but these two facets go together so well that they frequently blur into each other--like peanut butter and jelly. For the full James Gunn experience, you need them both.

But while the Guardians of the Galaxy movies have all the sappiness, their darker side isn't really all that dark. Vol. 3 definitely moved the needle in the right direction on that imbalance with Rocket's newly revealed backstory and some of the High Evolutionary's other atrocities.

But outside of Rocket's flashbacks, it avoids dwelling on the really bad stuff that's happening here. As soon as Counter-Earth was destroyed, for example, the film just kinda forgets it happened. It often teases something upsetting, but then it cuts away before you can really process whatever heinous thing Gunn tried slipping past the Disney censors.

Let's contrast that with The Suicide Squad, a movie that Gunn somehow eventually parlayed into running DC Studios.

In the middle of Gunn's DC flick, there's a scene in which our heroes--tasked with rescuing Rick Flagg--very gruesomely make their way through a military camp, slaughtering everyone they encounter in increasingly horrifying and disgusting ways. And at the end of the scene, they enter the tent Flagg is in--and it turns out that he wasn't being held captive, because this was a resistance camp full of good guys.

If that wasn't messed-up enough, the real punchline (gutpunchline?) comes a moment later when the resistance leader, played by Alice Braga, surveys the carnage with this look of, ah, extremely pained astonishment. The camera stays on her in a close-up for a while--it's tough