Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy takes us to a universe far, far away, and focuses on a rag tag group of criminals made up of man-child Peter “Star Lord” Quill, who was abducted from Earth minutes after his mother died; Green-skinned and quick-witted Gamora, an assassin; A hulking walking thesaurus named Drax who wants to avenge the death of his family; A genetically engineered and super intelligent raccoon named Rocket; and Groot, a kind tree creature whose vocabulary only includes “I am Groot.”  Basically Marvel’s version of The Breakfast Club.

   The end-of-summer blockbuster opens with a young Peter Quill at a hospital with the headphones of his walkman blasting a song from “Awesome Mix tape #1,” a gift from his mother that will become a central point of the movie. He then watches his mother get taken by the hands of cancer and runs, in tears, out onto a field, where a light beam falls upon him and he’s drawn up into a spaceship. 

     Twenty-six years later we see Quill again, who has taken on the outlaw alias of “Star-Lord” and the occupation of a ravager with the job description being: finding, stealing, and selling cool stuff. He eventually gets his hands on an mysterious orb which catapults him into prison along with the other aforementioned misfits who he now has to work with. 

       The James Gunn-directed flick then takes audiences on a intergalactic trip that’s  action-packed but sprinkled with humor, a few emotional moments, and a throwback-to-the-70’s soundtrack that has reached the number one slot on  iTunes. 

        The movie is carried by the acting of Chris Pratt, whose most known for his gig on NBC’s Amy Poehler-driven Parks and Recreation. He has managed to slither that same energy into the role of Peter Quill. Zoe Saldana, who trades in her blue skin from Avatar for green, plays Gamora as not just a beauty and the love interest but the brains and brawn of the group. Bradley Cooper and Vin Diesel both lend their voices to Guardians as Rocket and Groot and easily steal the screen.

       Guardians of the Galaxy, adapted from a comic book franchise that lives in the shadows of Spider-Man, X-Men and The Avengers, is a wild ride crowded with literal out-of-this-world characters you easily become attached to. The movie is a stream of effortless chaos that  rivals, and could possibly out beat, Marvel’s more serious The Avengers.