THE SPIRIT OF FIREFLY LIVES ON!! *Spoilers for Guardians of the Galaxy*

See that image up there? That shocked face was what I sported when I left the cinema yesterday afternoon. (After the end credits of course).

Guardians of the Galaxy is CRIMINALLY GOOD. 

But before I gush about what was soGoddamngood about it, I shall present the few niggles I had.

• The story- based around the destructive properties of some Infinity stone, was a bit weak. It was a McGuffin, the ever increasing presence of unobtanium that seems to fill movies. That's not a bad thing per se, there are after all only a few stories that can be told )and it IS the way they're told that is all important). But that doesn't mean that the main plot didn't feel like it kicked in until the end of the second act.
• More Gamora next time please. Of course we saw her kicking ass and taking names (well, teeth at least), but all the time we were really only told how dangerous she can be, and it'd be nice to see a little more of it.
• Nebula. The second adopted daughter(or daughter. It's a little hard to figure from the dialogue at times) of Thanos the Big Bad. Another trained assassin that gets little or no screen time. She comes across as psychotic, where Gamora is conflicted and repentant. I'm not a fanatical feminist, but you'd have to have been living under a rock to tell there are so few female characters in the Marvel universe that stand on their own (and not a love interest- which I'll come to next..), that these two feel a little squandered.
• The love story sub-plot. I mean.. just why? Well maybe not why, Chris Pratt and Zoe Saldana have great chemistry- actually their characters do too. So my question isn't necessarily why so much as why now. They could have left the love story for the sequel, and just had the flirty banter in this film like Natasha Romanova and Captain America seem to partake in.

But that's enough of my nitpicking. On to the good stuff!

• The look of the film! It truly is beautiful, the space scenes (particularly when they reach Nowhere) is just stunning, and the movie balances splashes of bright, comic-style colours with dark and gritty cities wonderfully. There seems to be a recurring theme with DC movies to Nolanize everything, and make it unrelentingly dark and "real". Marvel has never really tried to do that- and when they do there is usually a splash of colour somewhere on screen (like Tony Stark's imprisonment in the Afghan caves. It's dark and a seriously bad position for his character to be in, but the fires of his forge, and his brand new arc reactor shine out).
• The ships, the Milano in particular I desire. The look isn't unique, unique (I got the distinct impression of Babylon 5) but I still haven't seen too many ships with that much colour on them. I'd imagine this ship, this movie looks amazing in IMAX.
• The humour. The introduction of Peter Quill as Star Lord HAS to be one of the best, the funniest of the current Marvel batch. You just don't expect such a bad-ass looking bast*rd to start doing a Gene Kelly in the middle of a dead and decaying civilisation. And it is glorious. The rest of the cast do a phenomenal job with these characters. Groot and Rocket are the scene stealers for much of the movie (and you really have to keep an eye on what's happening in the background with them in a lot of scenes, because that's where the good stuff tends to be). Drax is such a deadpan snarker he'll be used as the trope namer after this movie. Plus the showdown with Ronan is not entirely what you might expect from and action movie- and yet it still works because it is so in keeping with the Peter Quill we've been introduced to!
• The fact that it doesn't tie-in with the rest of the Marvel Cinematic Universe to neatly releases it from the trapping of the larger mythology. It's nice to see The Collector, and Thanos and know what they've done without shoe-horning the Avengers in to the mix. The delayed gratification will make it all the sweeter when the Avengers and Guardians eventually meet up *rubs hands in glee at the thought*.
• It's just so nice to see a space opera style movie again! Yes I know we've had Star Trek, and we've got Star Wars coming up soon.. But this film follows in the footsteps of Wars and Trek at their best- with a dash of Indiana Jones thrown in!
• Howard the Duck. And not the 80's abomination. 
• Firefly lives on! Okay we all know that, but this movie captures that same humorous, irreverent tone and couples it with the bright lights of the MCU. It also helps that the big damn hero's mind-set of the characters is alive and well in these Guardians.

I'm not saying there aren't issues with the film, but there aren't a lot of films that are 100% free of niggles. But this movie is such fun, and both takes itself seriously and doesn't that I can't see any fan of the current crop of Marvel movies finding it wanting. My boss asked me what I thought of it and wanted a ranking out of ten. I gave it a nine. And I don't give that high a rating on just any old flick!