As I suspected, that raccoon makes it all worthwhile

Rating: 8/10 (17 September 2014)

As most comic book movies and blockbusters in general, this film is a classic fantasy with some modern mambo-jumbo thrown in instead of magic. But at the same time it is much more a character driven story than most sci-fi action movies I've seen in a while. That's a good thing!
Now, I have no idea what the comics were like, I went to see the film because it was 3D and it has a rad raccoon in it! Yeah, I am that shallow. But even if some of the characters were cardboard, like the unfortunate case of Karen Gillan's, most of them had depth and humor. One thing you should NOT do, and that is buy into the antihero hype. Every time Hollywood tries to sell you anti-heroes they just mean regular heroes that are not spotless boyscouts to begin with.
As expected, the raccoon was really nice, but not in a cartoonish way, but in an angry frustrated creature that had attachment to only his trusted friend Groot. Vin Diesel played Groot, but there was no reason to do that. The character was completely animated and had no real dialogue. Why hire a known actor for that? One of the other interesting characters was Bautista's. He is the classic "Barbarian", but has a lot of emotional depth.
Bottom line: unexpectedly good, even for a mainstream genre movie. Don't expect miracles, but it is worth seeing.