Guardians of the Galaxy is the highest grossing movie of 2014 and likely will be when the year is over, too. Does the movie live up to it’s success?

Yes.

(spoilers ahead, like in everything I do)

I really didn’t know what to expect in this movie, especially since Batista was in it. But probably an hour into it and I decided that this was one of the best movies I have seen in recent memory.

The soundtrack, to start out with, is incredibly nice. It is an eclectic pick of classic tunes, most from the 80s or late 70s. The songs work nicely into the movie, giving it a light-hearted feel. Sometimes, it does feel a little like they went out of their way to include the music but it works out well enough. I started dancing in the theater at one point! Just kidding – I hate dancing.

The special effects are second to none. There is a LOT of CG in this movie, but since we can’t exactly travel into space to shoot movies (yet), what else are movie-makers to do? I really enjoyed the beautiful settings in the stars with different planets, nebulae and of course, the space-ships themselves. At the end, when all of the good-guy ships link up to form the big energy wall, it reminded me of what Star Trek The Next Generation’s Encounter at Farpoint’s effects would have looked like, when Q makes a big wall in space…had it been done today, on the silver screen. They should really remake that as a movie, too.

Ronan’s ship was massive and pretty cool too. It looked like one of those spiral wind-things you have hanging on a back porch, laid sideways.

Thanos made me mark-out when I saw him. He’s such a wicked bad guy and he’s about as bad as they come, in terms of villains. I would say Thanos, Galactus and Apocalypse are the three baddest villains in comic-book lore, with Doomsday coming in close too…but he’s often poorly-portrayed (like in Smallville, man that show was bad). On the opposite end of the super-awesome bad guy scale? Egg Fu.

A lot is left for future movies to solve and resolve, including Star Lord’s father and the Thanos stuff. I’ve actually never seen a movie tease so much to a sequel. I also felt like the battle at the end with Ronan was a little underwhelming (not the entire sequence but just his demise at the hands of the Guardians). It was still great, though. This movie is a 9/10 movie for me and one of the best comic adaptations ever. It definitely deserves movie of the year honors.

Oh. One last thing.

I AM GROOT.