Guardians of the Galaxy is another winner for Marvel

Rating: 9/10 (7 August 2014)

Well, people can't say Marvel doesn't take chances, as they merit credit for pushing the envelope past the boundaries of safe footing of using A-List characters like Cap, Thor, Hulk and Iron man, and instead taking a leap of fate with a bunch of unknown loser characters who happen to be criminals to top that off. That's risk taking. The result? One of the most fun 2 hours you can have at the movies.
I will leave the usual recap of the plot to others, let's look instead into why this movie is going to be seen as fundamentally genre changer in the future.
As with most successful summer movies, they ensured there's good entertainment via a serviceable story, provided lots of action and laughs, got the right actors together and gambled it all by hiring James Gunn, a director that's graduated out of the TROMA school of filmmaking (as in Toxic Avenger people!). I guess if you look hard enough you could find holes in the story and sometimes origins are told instead of seen but that can't be helped when you have 5 heroes and 3 villains to deal with and no previous movies to explain them all!) but so what? This movie has the most important ingredient, it's big-time fun, it knows it's a comic book movie and runs with it and there is entertainment for the entire family... Though be warned that there is quite a bit mature language in the movie (but nothing that's a big deal IMHO)
I think GotG has earned a few specific compliments that separates it from the usual summer fare, such as:

best integration of pop music into a movie, ever. Naturally to appreciate it, one probably needs to be fan of said pop music but the director really merits credit for having found a unique and compelling way to integrate all of these tracks into the movie. I was born in the 60's so I am sure that goes some way to reinforcing my appreciation of the music used, but that doesn't negate the fact the music is a core part of the story and this is an original concept as far as I know.

Wow, finally someone gets it into their heads that superhero movies aren't all about using a grey pallet or ensuring the movie is dark and foreboding. Don't get me wrong there's a time and place for tanks but the use of colours in this movie knock it out of the park, bringing some appreciated pizazz to the typical "space fantasy" genre while somehow still having many scenes look gritty. I hope we see more of this in the future.

Best use of humour I have seen in a while... Saying more would fall into spoiler territory me thinks

Before the release of GotG, numerous questions were brought up by the fan base such as "can Chris Pratt work in a leading role?", "Can the 2 main cgi characters that are based on a walking tree and a talking raccoon work on the screen or will it turn out as ridiculous as it sounds?" And my favourite "they hired Batista???". After the release, it's almost a unanimous response from everyone: the casting choices were perfect with the end result each of the 5 main IS a character and not just there to read lines.

many reviews have praised the main cast but I think additional kudos is deserved towards Gunn's use of lower tiered characters, where even a few of them have a "moment" that although may be seconds in length had me smiling after the movie thinking about them. Oh how I am jealous of these awesome actors!

part of what they did with the ending showed great intestinal fortitude galore and when you think about it, was fitting of the character and was an awesome continuation of a theme used throughout the movie.

hands down the most "heart" I have seen in a Marvel movie.

The movie isn't perfect villains are 2 dimensional but it didn't hurt the movie as one would think. I believe this is because the movie had tremendous focus on the 5 main characters which could be seen by having all of them have key "moments" in the movie
Remember when you see the movie to stick through the credits for the eventual post-credit scene. It worked for me, didn't work for about 1/3 of the theatre according to the groans I heard lol
I have now seen the movie 3 times, I think I need help!
Who would have thought the "You're welcome" tag used on posters was going to be so well earned?
Loaf