Great breath of fresh air from the main Marvel narrative

Rating: 8/10 (25 May 2017)

So when this movie was announced, I had no idea who or what the Guardians of the Galaxy were. I had never read the comics so the whole thing was a mystery. Also, I wasn't fully caught up on the Marvel Cinematic Universe either so any references would've gone over my head.
So it was an incredible feeling watching this film, having every character introduced to you efficiently and effectively, and relating to them fairly well. The story is fairly standard. Gang of misfits join together to take on a space terrorist. All the story beats are there. But while the story seems kinda basic, the soundtrack is incredible, the characters are likable as hell and the CGI is phenomenal. This film will literally bring you to tears over a raccoon and a tree.
The makeup is impressive as well. The amount of man hours it must have taken to paint several main and supporting actors different colours to make them aliens is incredible and the effort really shines through here.
This is up on my top 5 list of the Marvel films.