Guardians of the Galaxy (2014) - Movie Review [SPOILER-FILLED]

Guardians of the Galaxy was initially a film I was dreading. Marvel Studios were investing their money into a tree man and a talking raccoon? That won't be a success in a million years...
Then last year's SDCC released a teaser poster, and my hopes rose for the movie. I thought: wow, this could be a creative step forward for Marvel - with the right script and director.
In February the teaser trailer was released, and automatically within 2 minutes I was sold. A talking raccoon did work!
While over the last few months I've been a little cautious, trying not to build my hopes to high after doing so with the Doctor Who 50th anniversary episode last year, I've been hyped for it. Really hyped. And now its been out for a weekend (and reportedly already got its money back), and having seen it twice (once in 3D, once in IMAX 3D), I can safely say that not only is Guardians of the Galaxy the best and most creative blockbuster of 2014 so far, but it is also my personal favourite Marvel movie and one of my favourite movies of all time!
The film opens with a flashback to 1988 where a young Peter Quill visits his mother, who is dying. I was a little confused at this point, as the tragic backstory hero / tragic backstory likeable pain in the back-side has been done to death over recent years. However, I quite like this opening. It has a subtle hint about Peter's father, and gives a good reason for him to not be desperate to go back to Earth (or Terra as they call it in this). He then gets captured by a ship and...the Marvel Studios logo comes up. I'm sure many for a second thought it was the title card, mainly down to the music.
Then its 26 years later on the planet Morag, and blimey does the 3D and IMAX look awesome already. It looked great in the opening, but we begin to see the full force - and its pretty darn awesome. We see Peter still has his Walkman, and as he goes to get the mysterious orb, we get all the credits along to 'Come and Get Your Love Now' on Quill's Walkman. I've got to admit, his dancing was pretty good, and I love the use of the Walkman and tapes for all the classic 70s pop songs in the movie. It just adds something to it.
But Peter is caught taking to Orb by some armed aliens, who try and reclaim it and thus leads to great little escape sequence, with Peter's 80s heritage solidifying with a "Ninja Turtle, watch where you point that thing".
Anyway, it appears everyone is after this Orb with Ronan the Accuser being asked by Thanos to send Nebula, who then gets replaced by Gamora, to reclaim it from Quill, as well as Quill's boss Yondu - and then we have Rocket Raccoon and Groot, who just want the bounty on Quill's head. This leads Quill, Gamora, Rocket and Groot locked up in the Kyln, where everyone doesn't seem to be very happy to see the adopted daughter of Thanos, one of them being a lovely old bitter maniac called Drax the Destroyer. Obviously he used to be an evil inventor.

The five assemble in order to break-out of prison and get the money from the Orb that Gamora was in fact getting it for in the first place, and thus another awesome action sequence, along with some brilliant comedy. Yeah, if you wanted a lovely dark Christopher Nolan tone for this film, you might be a tadd disappointed, with such great lines as: "I don't think anyone can really be 100% a d*ck, ma'm".
They try to sell it to the mysterious Collector, who explains that the Orb contains an Infinity Stone, similar to that of the Tesseract and the Aether from previous Marvel films.
Oh yeah, and we get a brilliant sequence where Ronan confronts Thanos. Nothing more needs to be said other than that Thanos is pretty awesome.
The Orb then almost destroys the Collector's museum and Drax brings Ronan there, who gets the Orb. This leaves Quill and Gamora captured by Yondu and the Ravagers, and Drax, Groot and Rocket left with little to do. However, Quill gets a deal with Yondu to stop Ronan from destroying Xandar (because of political reasons that no one, including Thanos, gives a damn about). Thus, we have another awesome action sequence, leading to the Dark Aster's destruction, which kills Groot. My God that was an upsetting scene. I never thought a walking, talking tree could stir up emotion in me. It did.
Finally, the Guardians unite to kill Ronan with the Orb in another awesome scene and the movie ends with the reveal that Peter's father is in fact an ancient alien who Yondu was meant to deliver him to, Nebula going off to get revenge (and I'm not saying no to a Karen Gillan return), Peter opening a new tape that his mum gave him before she died and the Guardians with clean records off to do something bad and something good. Thus, we have Guardians of the Galaxy - a movie with incredible visuals, acting, writing, humour, action, music and overall just plain brilliance. The villains may not have been the best, but the movie wasn't focused on them enough to really make an impact.
Overall: