‘Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3’ Disney Plus release is already succeeding where ‘Secret Invasion’ failed

Happy Disney Plus release day, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 fans! Coming one week after the Secret Invasion finale disappointed the entire MCU fandom, Marvel has supplied us with a much-needed pick-me-up with the streaming premiere of James Gunn’s recent cosmic threequel, which rounded out the epic arc of the galaxy’s defenders in style. While Guardians 3 opened to lukewarm reviews, leading it to be the lowest-rated of the trilogy on Rotten Tomatoes, its stature has only grown and grown since.

At this point, you’ll hardly find a fan speaking out against it online as Guardians 3 seems destined to go down as perhaps the most universally popular of any Multiverse Saga entry to date… and potentially ever, depending on how the next few years go. A glance at a Reddit discussion of the movie following its Disney Plus date shows how much love there is for the film out there, which comes in sharp contrast to the reception Secret Invasion‘s sixth episode received from the same community just days ago.

New viewers are finding themselves just as blown away by those who caught it on the big screen.

The weakest of the trilogy? It’s the best!

Actually, screw that, it may just be the best MCU movie, period.

The movie hits just as hard on Disney Plus for those who’ve already seen it too.

Clearly, the fact Gunn was allowed full creative control on this one is a real plus. Whereas Secret Invasion director Ali Selim has admitted he was given specific instructions about the finale by Kevin Feige.

Now Gunn’s hopped over to DC, do we have to wait until Black Panther 3 for another film of this caliber?

Oh, and fair warning, folks, if you cried the first time around, you will cry again.

While it would obviously have been unfair to have expected Secret Invasion to hit the same kind of dramatic heights as the closer to a trilogy we’d been following for almost a decade, just how much this movie engaged fans on an emotional level speaks volumes about the recent show’s total failure in drumming up a strong investment from the audience.

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3‘s continued success presents a couple of lessons for Marvel to learn from: don’t hamper your creatives with MCU world-building requirements and always put emotive storytelling first. Whether it takes these tips on board, though, remains to be seen.