Guardians of the Galaxy is a fun, affable summer movie. It will not change the world, but it will give you two hours of solid action, humor and character development. Unlike The Avengers which had a movie devoted to each character before they assembled, Guardians of the Galaxy successfully immerses its audience into a completely unfamiliar world with little known characters that you can immediately empathize with. It succeeds where Chronicles of Riddick failed: it starts with numerous alien species already dealing with a world of uneasy peace and galactic sized threats that were only alluded to in the prior Marvel movies. For me, the most heart-rending scene in a comic book summer movie is the beginning of Bryan Singer’s X-Men when Magneto discovers his powers. The closest that we get to a moment like that is when Groot does something incredibly heroic, sweet and unselfish. It is clear that if animals ever begin to talk, it will not matter what they say or even if they are friendly because I’ll just coo, “So cute,” but Rocket is the most tortured and haunted character of the group, and I’m including Drax. Rocket honestly asks why he has to be better than how he was treated, and he isn’t wrong. I love that Zoe Saldana is the sci-fi veteran of the group and provides the majority of women kicking butt vitamins. Chris Pratt, the lovable doofus in Parks & Recreation, brings what he brought to Her- a balance between openness to and acceptance of any experience with an irreverent yet innocent inappropriateness to every situation. Glenn Close, John C. Reilly, Djimon Hounsou and Benicio Del Toro will be able to pay their mortgages and kids’ tuition. It was nice to see Michael Rooker and Sean Gunn simultaneously play to and against type. Guardians of the Galaxy leaves enough room for obvious sequels. Who knew that Lee Pace could have been cast as Xerxes in 300? The more you know. Only one flaw: I nominate it for a runner up status in the Bane Rewatch Award for Needing Subtitles to Understand What Is Being Said. A must see if you’ve decided to be enslaved to Marvel movies for the rest of your life, which I have, or if you like summer action movies.