Zoe Saladna as Gamora in the third "Guardians of the Galaxy" installment.

If you’re like me, you’ve been feeling burnt out when it comes to superhero movies of late. Good news: Writer/director James Gunn has brought a most welcome antidote to that fatigue with a heartfelt swan song for the universe’s unlikely group of heroes/a-holes in “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3.”

Gunn, who is coincidentally trading his Marvel hat for a DC one as he begins his tenure heading the DC Extended Universe, breaks the MCU habit of muddy and confusing action, haphazard CGI and vaguely compelling stories.

Where the previous franchise films worked to build up to the next big bad and tried to tie together every piece of future intellectual property they could, Gunn and company keep things contained to the world built just for the Guardians — and give audiences a much richer story for it.

It is oddly refreshing to have a trilogy within this franchise stand alone and manage to stay at the same relatively high quality.

We don’t see them trying to bring in unnecessary ties to upcoming films and the only thing that connects them to the wider universe is the fact that the Gamora (Zoe Saldana) in this one is the Gamora from the “Avengers: Endgame” and therefore a past version of the character who has not experienced the same growth as the one in the previous “Guardians” films.

Gunn deftly handles that thread without being too obvious or overhanded, focusing on the idea of a couple growing apart rather than falling immediately back in love with each other. Credit to Saldana and Chris Pratt, too, for solidly navigating those emotional beats.

While the film is not focused on their story. Very quickly, we see that the emphasis is on the group racing to save Rocket (voiced by Bradley Cooper). We get heavy flashbacks from the foul-mouthed raccoon as a kit “enhanced” by baddie The High Evolutionary (Chukwudi Iwuji). It is devastating to watch this journey, and while all the animals in this film are CGI (including Cosmo the telekinetic dog voiced by Maria Bakalova), there is a high amount of animal cruelty implied.

Again, they’re all computer generated, but the level of effects work makes them incredibly emotional to watch. If you are an animal lover, take caution. It can be incredibly difficult to watch.

The bulk of the scenes with Rocket are told through flashbacks. While impactful and well done, they slow the film down as we bounce back and forth between his heartbreaking origin and the action that takes place in the “present” with the remaining Guardians and Gamora (remember, she’s another Gamora and not a Guardian), tracking down the information needed to save their friend.

We are blessed with extremely well-executed action scenes, including one incredible hallway fight (the MCU loves a good hallway fight) that I can’t wait to see a behind the scenes of. And there are lovely moments between each of the Guardians — a rarity in ensemble action movies.

Which is why this is the longest of all “Guardians” films. At 2.5 hours, Gunn packs everything into it, but some of the pacing feels off, and a few of the iconic needle drops, while great choices, feel forced and sometimes unnecessary. There are also too many argument scenes, especially between Mantis (Pom Klementieff) and just about everyone. It makes sense character-wise, and most of these arguments feel like some disagreement you’d have with a sibling, which fits with the theme of this found-family of galactic superheroes. But it gets annoying.

However, those quibbles are easy to overlook because the overall story is so damn heartwarming (and wrenching), and it’s fantastic to see the Guardians as we know them get this kind of sendoff.

“Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3” certainly doesn’t eliminate franchise fatigue, and I’m sure by the next film it will be exhausting us again, but it does give fans a reason to go to the theater to see a superhero movie on the big screen and not just wait for it to drop on streaming.

“Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3”

150 minutes

Rated PG-13 for intense sequences of violence and action, strong language, suggestive/drug references and thematic elements

3 stars