Fun, campy and wildly entertaining. One of the best Marvel films to date.

Rating: 9/10 (30 July 2014)

Guardians of the Galaxy plays out like Star Wars on crack, its fast, ferocious and a badass entertaining thrill ride throughout. Following a rag tag group of intergalactic criminals, Guardians has the plot line of a Star Wars film, the characters of a Dirty Harry film and the action of every Marvel movie combined. What makes this film stand out from the rest of the Marvel films is that it engages you knowing that you have absolutely no idea who or what the hell this is. It does a great job filling you in with information from the comic and it makes for an enjoyable watch. Unlike the fans of the comic, I had no knowledge of Guardians of the Galaxy and walking out of it, it really educates you on anything you may have missed out on all while giving proper character growth and development without heavily relying on the comic books as "common knowledge". Chris Pratt is awesome in this film, he reminds me a lot of Indiana Jones in space. He's a wise cracking, ass kicking criminal that can beat with his words or his fists (more times than not, its his fists). Dave Batista, Zoe Saldana, Michael Rooker, Vin Diesel, and Bradley Cooper along with Pratt gives Guardians of the Galaxy a better cast than Avengers. The film comes at you like a bullet train thats about to derail, you're always engaged with these characters despite most of them being an alien, a talking tree or a talking raccoon. The film is really amazing in that you look at these characters and the ridiculousness of the situation and still don't even question it. Now there are some plot holes that will more than likely be cleared up the Marvel way, meaning down the line something will happen to patch up a couple holes here and there. While that may prove to be lazy writing, I think Marvel films have now earned the right to do whatever the hell they want. Guardians of the Galaxy is a great comic book film and this is coming from someone who was so apprehensive about seeing this film that I almost didn't go. This is a surprising, entertaining, gut busting thrill ride that is impossible to disappoint especially to fans of the Marvel universe and franchises. But even if a superhero movie isn't your thing, I'm confident enough to say that you'll have a great time seeing this movie. It is that good.