Guardians of the Galaxy: The Avengers Youth Team.

Guardians of the Galaxy gets bonus points for following The Avengers formula without depending on five origin films to set up all the character development necessary to facilitate the coming together of its main characters.  That being said, the film immediately thrusts its wise-cracking protagonists into an intergalactic religious war; pausing only momentarily to produce thin explanations for the necessary plot devices.  The complexities of why–or honestly even who–the Guardians are fighting, don't seem to matter to the filmmakers.  Thankfully, it doesn't really matter to the audience either.

Guardians opens on our primary protagonist, Chris Pratt, as a little boy rocking out to the hits of the eighties while his mom dies of cancer.  Shortly after, he gets kidnapped by space hoodlums and the film moves 25 years into the future to show off Chris Pratt's hot dance moves and thievery skills.  Unfortunately, Pratt stole a cool orb that the the Hitler of space wants.  Thanos is also involved solely so that Marvel nerds can squeal in enjoyment.

Anyway, Space Hitler sends Gamora (the green one) to obtain the orb from Pratt, and they end up in prison with Rocket the Raccoon, Groot the tree, and Drax, the ripped blue guy.  The minimal character backstory we get mostly comes through conversation in the prison: Rocket was made from some experiment, Space Hitler killed Drax's family, Gamora is supposedly Thanos' adopted daughter and has a sister or something...and no one knows what Groot is.

But from the prison on, the spectacle is all that matters.  The film carries itself through the rest of its running time riding on wisecracks from Chris Pratt and the gang (except for Gamora, no one likes her).  There's a certain enjoyment derived from the knowledge that Vin Diesel was hired to say, "I am Groot," over and over again; Rocket is as clever as a talking Raccoon should be; and Drax, in a surprising turn of expectations, is probably the funniest.

I don't know what else to say.  The plot doesn't matter, I don't want to tell you all of the jokes, and I don't really have any complaints.  It's just like The Avengers, about as good as it could have been.

7/10 (Don't argue, it's still just a superhero movie)
3/4
3/5
B