This was going to be it.  Marvel has been on a wondrous run but all good things must come to an end.  Eventually, the successful become prideful and think that anything they touch will be gold.  Their hubris becomes their downfall.  After all, how on earth could a movie with a talking raccoon be any good.  The idea just seems so over the top stupid.  Then, you add a rocket launcher to the raccoon and you wonder if the bosses at Marvel might have been picking up a drug habit.  Oh how wrong my assumptions were . . .

With all that being said, the cast of the film is pretty stellar.  The main stars are Chris Pratt and Zoe Saldana.  Additional folks like Dave Bautista, Michael Rooker, John C. Reilly, Glenn Close, and even Benecio del Toro all play parts.  Then on top of that, the earlier referenced talking raccoon is voiced by Bradley Cooper, even though there must be some post-processing done on his lines because it doesn’t really sound like him.  Even more of a head-scratcher is Vin Diesel’s role, which is a bit mind-boggling.  The film was directed by James Gunn.

The tone of the film is so different from anything else that’s been made and the cast fits it perfectly.  Guardians of the Galaxy is like this wiered mixture full of many different components that all seem kind of lame on their own, but . . . somehow they all combine into something magical.

The entire cast seems like they were born to play these characters.  The decades old soundtrack seems like the songs were all made for this film.  The story arc somehow stays light-hearted and funny while the galaxy is being threatened with destruction.

It’s pretty easy to see the main plot points which connect this film to the rest of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but how these characters will actually coexist on screen with the likes of Iron Man, Captain America, and Thor is a little bit hard to fathom.

Regardless, this is easily one of the most surprising films in recent memory.  Even more surprising is the fact that this isn’t just a good movie, Guardians of the Galaxy is a great movie.  I can’t wait to see what happens next.