"Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3" (Rated T)

Cast: Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana, Karen Gillan, Dave Battista, Chukwudi Iwuji

Genre: Adventure/ Sci-fi

Where to watch: In Theaters

Dwight's Rating:

Fast food companies seem to fall into mainly two camps when it comes to preparing food. They are either 1) consistently the same every single time you order your favorite go-to dish on the menu, or 2) widely disparate in terms of quality and consistency, any and every time you visit.

While the former usually allows for very few unpleasant surprises, it can mean few pleasing gastronomic treats, especially if the company is primarily known for basic culinary fare.

On the other hand, with the latter, even amongst the unevenness and disappointing lows, there are occasionally spectacularly good days when everything is piping hot and fresh.

Comic book-based superhero movies have evolved into a weird creature that straddles these two formulas - cranking out the same old product with a few shuffles in the ingredients, and yet still hit-or-miss in terms of the quality.

If this were the restaurant business, one would suspect they'd not be long for this world.

One film series in this genre that hitherto seemed immune to this scourge affecting many Marvel and DC properties now appears to have become contaminated.

The first two "Guardians of the Galaxy" flicks both received a "Reel to Real" 3.5-star (out of 4) rating. It's incredibly rare for a sequel to be considered as good as an original. As such, expectations had been riding high for "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3", which we've been told would be the final chapter in this franchise.

Alas, instead of handcrafted with love by a master chef, "Vol. 3" must have been mass produced on some sort of food conveyor belt or assembly line, despite having the same director (James Gunn), and largely the same cast as the previous two editions.

Even the standard synopsis for the picture is uninspiring:

Still reeling from the loss of Gamora (Zoe Saldana), Peter Quill (Chris Pratt) must rally his team to defend the universe and protect one of their own. If the mission is not completely successful, it could possibly lead to the end of the Guardians as we know them.

Yes, it features great action sequences and effects and CGI, but don't they all? This is largely lackluster and familiar, eerily like other recent superhero movies. The parallels to Marvel's "Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania" are surprising - and that definitely is not a good thing.

While "Vol. 3" is not terrible, unlike February's "Quantumania" - a long, tiresome, soulless, unseasoned mess of a movie - the similar villain and the reliance on exploring backstory make me feel like I just ordered the same sandwich from two different franchises of the same restaurant brand across town from each other (one of those inconsistent chains). The folks at the ''Vol. 3" store (blessedly) like to put extra sauce on the stuff they crank out.

Thankfully, the backstory storyline involving the Rocket Raccoon character (Bradley Cooper) is the most interesting part of the whole film; touching, sweet and refreshing (but oh-so-close to being over-the-top). And the villain here (Nigerian-British actor Chukwudi Iwuji as High Evolutionary) is slightly less clownish than what we were served in "Quantumania".

But again, the problem with "Vol. 3" is that it begs comparison with other recent releases. There used to be few things to which we could compare to "Guardians of the Galaxy".

As such, this is just a bunch of the same old-same old. It's not as humorous, not as witty, not as creative! It's not horrible! But it just can't meet the lofty heights set by its forebears.

If you've never watched the two previous films in this franchise, it's quite possible you'll think "Vol. 3" is quite entertaining. And if you've never seen any comic-book based superhero movie, you might even think this is brilliant. If that's the case, well good for you, and welcome to Earth.

For the rest of you, and the "Guardians of the Galaxy" fans, you'll enjoy "Vol. 3" about as much as you do the thing you always get from your favorite fast-food joint. It gets the job done, and once you've had one, you likely won't be craving another one for at least a little while.

• Dwight Strachan is the host/producer of "Morning Blend" on Guardian Radio and station manager. He is a television producer and writer, and an avid TV history and film buff. Email dwight@nasguard.com and follow him on twitter @morningblend969.

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