I tried not to get my hopes too high, afraid this film probably wouldn’t live up to my expectations. Thankfully, Guardians of the Galaxy was everything I could’ve hoped it would be. As big a Spider-man fan as I am, I still have to admit this is the best movie of the summer (so far; fingers crossed for Ninja Turtles). Not only is this the best film of the year so far, this is Marvels best film to date in my opinion.

It has plenty of heart, laughs, and action. Come to think of it, this film has made me laugh more than any other comedy this year, yet is still perfectly balanced; unfortunately, there were many lines missed due to crowd laughter.

The acting is great, also I wouldn’t have been able to tell Bradley Cooper voiced Rocket Raccoon if I hadn’t already known. The visuals are great, and the variety of colors really pop in this movie, much like the film’s posters.

Although still connected to the Marvel cinematic universe, it is one of the most standalone films from the Marvel movies, making it very refreshing. This film is so good I had to see it again the following day. It’s that good.

As for the negatives, only thing I can point out is like almost every Marvel film, the villain is underdeveloped, and just serves as plot background to everything else that makes the movie great. With so much they had to cram into the movie, you can’t really blame them though. Hopefully in sequels, now that the goup is already together, they will have the time to create very memorable villains, unlike Thor: The Dark World.

So far, Guardians of the Galaxy has been doing amazing at the box office (an estimated $94 million opening weekend), performing on par with Captain America 2, and Thor 2 despite not having been an already established franchise. And with all the great reviews and word of mouth, it should continue to perform very well, with only next week’s Ninja Turtles being arguably their only real box office competition. This is great to see as it tells Marvel/Disney, and every other studio, that it can be very profitable to take chances like this as long as you make a great movie.

As always, stick around after the credits for a very interesting throwback.

I give Guardians of the Galaxy a 9 out of 10.